I had to wonder while watching the live press conference of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s apology for firing an employee over apparently unfounded accusations of racism – how many of those mainstream media journalists had ever been inside the USDA? Were they just bored because the oil stopped gushing in the Gulf and Lindsay Lohan is in jail? …
Farm American Chevrolet on Track
The Farm American Chevrolet will be on track at the Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup race in Indianapolis on Sunday. You may recall the unveiling of this concept car by Furniture Row Racing last year at the American Farm Bureau Federation public relations conference. It was also on display at the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City. On Sunday, Regan …
NAFB Member Lyle Romine Passes Away
Some sad news to pass along from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Long-time Farm Broadcaster Lyle Romine of Fargo died this morning of cancer. He was 59 years old. Lyle was Farm Director of the Fargo based American Ag Network, a regional network serving forty radio stations in North Dakota South Dakota and Montana. Lyle was born and raised …
Soybean Producers Get to See for Themselves
Ten soybean farmers from around the country will have the opportunity this month to see for themselves what their soybean checkoff investment is funding. The United Soybean Board’s third annual “See for Yourself” program begins on July 26 in St. Louis and ends on July 31 in Mexico, the number one importer of U.S. soybean meal. Along the way, participants …
Farm Bureau Honors Agriscience Innovation
Eight agriscience innovators are getting some monetary recognition for their efforts, courtesy of American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). AFBF, in partership with the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, presented the awards and research funding to scientists, teachers and high-school students for exemplary innovation in the field of agricultural science. “The winning candidates from each category have demonstrated a hunger for forward-thinking …
New Research Shows BASF Headline Yield Advantage
A new research summary shows that BASF Headline® fungicide effectively controls a broad spectrum of corn and soybean diseases, provides Plant Health benefits, and maximizes crop yields. The Headline Fungicide Yield Research Summary demonstrates that the BASF fungicide provides corn growers approximately a 3 bu/A yield advantage over other available fungicides. “Growers are constantly weighing the practices and inputs they …
Atrazine Ban Would Cost Jobs
A University of Chicago economist says banning the herbicide Atrazine would add to the current unemployment level in the United States. According to University of Chicago economist Don L. Coursey, a ban on the herbicide atrazine would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone. His findings were presented today at a National Press Club briefing sponsored …
Farm Workers Wanted
Unemployment is at 9.5 percent – which means in human terms that about 14.6 million Americans are looking for work right now. That’s a lot of people collecting unemployment. A couple of weeks ago, United Farm Workers (UFW) launched a campaign called “Take Our Jobs”, urging Americans to sign up for farm labor jobs that are normally done by migrant …
Fallout from Ohio HSUS Deal
Two days after it was announced, the consensus in the animal agriculture world seems to be that Ohio farm groups made a “deal with the devil” in the agreement with the Humane Society of the United States to drop its animal rights ballot initiative in the state. Initially, the HSUS watchdog website HumaneWatch was jubilant about the agreement and called …
HSUS Drops Ballot Initiative in Ohio
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reached an agreement with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and state agricultural leaders to drop a proposed animal rights ballot initiative. At a hastily called press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Governor Stickland stood with Ohio Farm Bureau executive vice president Jack Fisher and HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle to make the announcement, which …