New CBB Chairman Tom Jones

Chuck Zimmerman

The last business conducted during the Board of Directors meeting of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board was the electing of new officers. The nominating committee announced their slate and a vote passed their nominations. New officers include Chairman, Tom Jones, Arkansas (pictured), Vice-Chair, Wesley Grau, New Mexico and Secretary/Treasurer, Weldon Wynn, Arkansas. I joined with Ron Hayes, Radio Oklahoma Network and …

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Dan Diershcke Looks Back on Year As Beef Board Chair

Chuck Zimmerman

The now, just past, Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board is Dan Dierschke, Texas, pictured being interviewed in the media room at the Cattle Industry Convention. One of the officer duties is to be available to the media during the summer meeting and annual convention. Hopefully, it’s a mostly enjoyable task! I was one of Dan’s interviewers and got him …

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Management Report From Beef Board

Chuck Zimmerman

During the CBB Update Session at the Cattle Industry Convention Tom Ramey, CEO, gave his management report. He started out by saying that as a new year begins with new members coming onto the board, he can’t imagine any that will work any harder than those he’s had the honor to serve this past year. Tom says that some CEO’s …

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

New Beef Ambassadors

Chuck Zimmerman

Members of the new team of National Beef Ambassadors showed up at the Cattle Industry Convention. Pictured are (l-r) Kelli Fulkerson, Michigan, Jessica Sweet, California, Kristen Stufft, Pennsylvania and Austin Joyce, Texas. Not with us is Maddy Ruble, South Dakota. I interviewed them all together. I first asked them why they chose to pursue becoming a beef ambassador and you’ll …

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference

First Look At Beef Industry Long-Range Plan

Chuck Zimmerman

A draft version of the Beef Industry Long-Range Plan 2011-2013 has been presented here at the Cattle Industry Convention. It will be discussed and refined I’m sure. The hope is that it will be adopted in a final version by the end of this meeting so work can get started on the 3 year plan. To get an idea of …

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, NCBA

iFeeder Helping Communicate Safe Food Messages

Chuck Zimmerman

The American Feed Industry Association recently created iFeeder, the Institute for Feed Education and Research. To learn more about it I spoke with AFIA President/CEO, Joel Newman. He says the mission of the foundation is “To sustain the future of food and feed production through education and research.” He describes the challenge faced by the feed industry which is summed …

Ag Groups, Audio, Education, Feed, Poultry Expo

Helping Soybean Growers Understand Their Top Customer

Chuck Zimmerman

This morning Dave Russell, Brownfield Network (right), moderated a United Soybean Board teleconference at the International Poultry Expo. Participating was Dwain Ford (center), USB Director and a soybean farmer from Kinmundy, IL and Mousa Wakileh, General Manager, National Poultry Co., Jordan. On a side note, I met Mousa on a U.S. Grains Council trip to his country a little over …

Ag Groups, International, Soybean, USB

Preview of International Poultry/Feed Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

Welcome to the 2011 International Poultry and Feed Expos. They take place in the Georgia World Congress Center. The trade show portion of the shows gets started on Wednesday. Today there are various meetings going on in the convention center including a board meeting for the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. I caught up with President John Starkey before the …

Ag Groups, Audio, Poultry, Poultry Expo

USFRA Update

Chuck Zimmerman

At the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Meeting I got an update on how things are going with the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance from General Manager Hugh Whaley. He’s seen here in their booth out on the trade show floor. Hugh says they now have 23 national and regional organizations that have joined in the alliance with an eleven …

AFBF, Ag Groups, USFRA

German Agriculture Society DLG

Chuck Zimmerman

AG CONNECT Expo is modeling itself after the highly successful AgriTechnica which is held biennially in Germany. That show is run by DLG, the German Agriculture Society with 22,000 members. The managing director is Dr. Jochen Kockler, seen here being interviewed after a press conference. I joined Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weisman in an interview about DLG. Randall asked good questions …

Ag Groups, Audio, International