Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has appeared at every Commodity Classic since he was confirmed, making this year the seventh time he has addressed corn, soybean, sorghum and wheat farmers. “Farmers are the linchpin of this country. They are the heart and soul,” said Vilsack, who concentrated much of his remarks on the importance of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) for …
Scholarships Presented at #Classic16
A brand new crop of young people received scholarships at the 2016 Commodity Classic from three organizations and BASF. The American Soybean Association (ASA), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), and the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) all joined in the presentation of scholarships to assist promising individuals with their future agriculture academic endeavors. For the 10th year in a row, BASF …
BASF Kicks Off #Classic16 with #LivingAcres
Agricultural media heard from BASF Crop Protection executives Wednesday at the 10th annual Science Behind event, held prior to the start of the 2016 Commodity Classic in New Orleans. The event was held appropriately for the topic at the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insecterium which helped showcase findings from a BASF biodiversity research initiative called Living Acres. “Living Acres is …
PRRS Update at #AASV2016
Dr. Reid Philips is in an expert on Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) who shared his knowledge in a presentation during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians conference in New Orleans. Phillips is a swine veterinarian in the Swine Health Division of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) who serves as the Technical Manager for the PRRS virus. One of BIVI’s …
Bayer All About the #AgVocate
The name of the traditional pre-Commodity Classic Bayer event is different this year – it’s called the AgVocacy Forum and that’s the big focus – advocating for agriculture. “We don’t have a choice and we’ve got to activate our voice and we’ve got to do it now,” said David Hollinrake, Bayer VP Marketing and Portfolio Management, starting off the main …
Bayer Bee #AgVocates in NOLA
Bayer Bee Care teamed up with the Orleans Parish 4-H chapter Tuesday to break ground on a pollinator patch in the teaching garden at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, planting pollinator-friendly plants to increase forage and educate the next generation of bee advocates about the importance of pollinators. “We’re thrilled to work with Bayer to inspire a new generation of bee …
BIVI Awards at #AASV2016
At the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Reid Phillips, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, presented several awards. The Respiratory Disease Research Board, with support from BIVI, selected three research proposals to fund as part of its 2016 Awards for Advancing Research in Respiratory Disease program. These research proposals are funded at $35,000 each. The Research Award recipients are selected from a board …
Senate Ag Approves GMO Labeling Bill
The Senate Agriculture Committee today held a business meeting where the Chairman’s Mark on Biotechnology Labeling Solutions was favorably reported with a bipartisan vote of 14-6. The legislation, which creates a voluntary national labeling law for genetically modified products, now heads to the full Senate for consideration. “This is really a conversation about a few states dictating to every state …
Supreme Court Declines Chesapeake Bay Review
There will be no Supreme Court review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s total maximum daily load (TMDL) restrictions in the Chesapeake Bay region, referred to as EPA’s “blueprint” for restoring the bay. The American Farm Bureau Federation and a coalition of agricultural and builder groups asked the Supreme Court last November to review a lower court ruling that “allows the …
Swine Vets Learn from Other Animal Ag Vets
Prior to the start of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) in New Orleans, a group of swine vets heard from their counterparts in cattle, poultry and aquaculture during a Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) seminar. Dr. Nels Lindberg of Kansas belongs to a team of veterinarians known as Production Animal Consultation. For him, the most important controllable factor for …