GROWMARK CEO Jeff Solberg had great news for the system’s stakeholders at the Annual Meeting in Chicago Friday. “Our sales this year are $8.5 billion, which is a record level of sales for us,” Jeff said. “A lot of that is price inflation, we’re a commodity based business, but we also have a lot of volume growth there – higher …
BIVI’s New State of the Art Research Facility
It may not look like much on the outside, but the new Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) livestock vaccine research facility in Sioux Center, Iowa is everything a pig could want on the inside. “It’s a state of the art facility,” said Dr. Phil Hayes, BIVI Executive Director for Biologicals Development. “To demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of new vaccines, we …
GROWMARK Annual Meeting is Value Driven
The theme of the 2011 GROWMARK Annual Meeting is Value Driven and there are over 1,000 stakeholders attending the meeting in Chicago this week. I spent a few minutes with Dan Kelley, Chairman of the Board and President of GROWMARK, prior to the opening reception Thursday night about what value-driven means to GROWMARK. “The GROWMARK system has historically been recognized …
BIVI Research Facility Meets VTI Vision
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica’s (BIVI) new livestock vaccine research facility in Sioux Center, Iowa meets the company’s vision of Value Through Innovation, or VTI, according to Dr. Edward Robb, vice president of research and development for BIVI. “The facility really allows us to test novel vaccine concepts to really see if these ideas can have an impact on the welfare of …
Boehringer Ingelheim Dedicates New Research Facility
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds both attended the dedication of a new Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) livestock vaccine research facility in Sioux Center, Iowa on Wednesday. They are both pictured here with Dr. Phil Hayes of BIVI and Sioux Center Mayor Dennis Walstra at the symbolic ribbon cutting. “The state is very proud to partner with …
Iowa Teams Defend Corn Growers
The Iowa Cy-Hawk trophy trash-talking got to be too much for the two college teams to take when people were dissing the corn growers. At a press conference on Tuesday announcing that the controversial corn-themed trophy will get a do-over, representatives from both the University of Iowa and Iowa State spoke up in defense of the Iowa Corn Growers, who …
Iowa Corn Trophy Reaps Publicity
P.T. Barnum has been quoted as saying “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” but those in the agriculture industry might disagree with that at times. The vicious backlash over the Iowa Cy-Hawk series football trophy, sponsored by Iowa’s corn growers, might be one of those times – or it might not. The trophy shows an Iowa family together after …
New Ideas for Promoting Soybean Exports
The final session of the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting in Seattle this past weekend focused on a discussion of new ideas to promote soybean exports in the future. As chairman of the United Soybean Board International Marketing Committee, Jim Call of Minnesota split his time between the animal utilization and the human utilization meetings. “I think …
Novus International Shares Vision with US Soybean Growers
The vision of Novus International is “To help feed the world affordable, wholesome food and achieve a higher quality of life.” That is a vision this global animal nutrition company shares with the U.S. soybean industry, with exports around the world accounting for more than half of annual production. “A lot of commonality in that and a lot of opportunity …
What Soybean Stakeholders are Learning at USSEC Meeting
The weather is fabulous in Seattle this weekend, but directors of the United Soybean Board (USB) are inside and hard at work learning more about opportunities for exports at the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting. As far as stakeholders are concerned, USB is one of the major ones represented here, since soybean checkoff dollars are used to …