This was SUPER cool! John Deere did a Virtual Reality introduction of its new 8R tractor for the media here in Columbus, Ohio and it was pretty much the coolest live special effects I’ve ever seen. The screen was a tractor and the video was projected on and around it to give the 3D effect. It was awesome. That is …
Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Brett Stuart
New on Agri-Pulse this week: Brett Stuart is President of Global AgriTrends. He was formerly with the U.S. Meat Export Federation before becoming an independent consultant in the meat trade. Stuart’s view is that China and Russia do not want “cheap” imports of meat and grain because it reduces their ability to be self sufficient in food production. He examines …
Pork Production and Profitability
Economist Dennis DiPietre shared his insights on the cost of production and profitability in the U.S. pork industry during the Boehringer Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar last week. Dennis is a frequent guest speaker at this event because he always entertaining and enlightening. His main point this time was “all the world is a distribution” which he used to illustrate …
Risk Factors for Salmonella in Swine Production
Food safety is one of the major factors driving consumer food demand which makes salmonella a food safety priority for the pork industry. Dr. Marcos Rostagno with USDA-ARS at Purdue University told producers at the Boehringer Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar that awareness of the on-farm risk factors for salmonella contamination is the first line of defense. “Particularly paying attention …
Minimize Exposure and Maximize Immunity
A systematic whole herd approach to controlling all types of swine respiratory diseases hinges on the two-pronged effort of minimizing exposure and maximizing immunity. Dr. Eduardo Fano, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica‘s technical manager for the Americas, explained the approach during the North Carolina Health Seminar for producers on Friday. “You can do it through the whole production/infection chain,” said Dr. Fano. …
PEDv Update for Swine Producers
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus became a brand new problem for the U.S. swine industry to deal with this past spring, and Dr. Darin Madson with Iowa State University gave an update on the situation to producers at the Boehringer-Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar on Friday. “Basically what we determined is that this virus, previously not known to be here, …
New Guy With BIVI
Meet Del Birkhofer, the brand new executive director of the swine business for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc (BIVI). Del has 26 years of experience in the animal health industry, working with Merck and Merial, and he is happy to make this move to BIVI at this point in his career. “I was looking at my future and BI is one …
Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Bill Wykes
New on Agri-Pulse this week: Bill Wykes is a soybean farmer and the past chair of the Illinois Soybean Association. He is a strong advocate of biotechnology and utilization of science and innovation in agriculture. Wykes is concerned about regulatory and trade issues facing biotechnology and has encouraged the ISA to host a symposium on the dynamics of international biotechnology./em> …
BASF DPM is a Gator
Dr. Brianne Reeves with BASF Crop Protection has a DPM from the University of Florida – that would be a plant doctor, not a foot doctor. We interviewed the lovely and talented Dr. Reeves a couple of times this year but I never knew she was a fellow Gator until last week when she talked to the Southern Media Symposium …
GROWMARK Report on China Demand
Is demand from China really driving commodity prices? That was the question that GROWMARK economic and market research manager Kel Kelly set out to answer in a recent research report. “Overall the report concludes that China does not have the dominant impact on commodity prices that everyone thinks they do,” said Kelly in an AgWired interview. “The primary reason for …