Welcome to race day at Iowa Speedway for the 4th Iowa Corn Indy 250. The Agriblogger is on location after a great media breakfast with the Iowa Corn Growers. They fed us well so we have the strength to make it through the day. We’re hoping for a break in the weather and I just heard that pre-race activities have …
Getting Pumped For Indy Racing in Iowa
It was great getting to see Ryan Hunter-Reay yesterday while promoting American made ethanol in Des Moines. Thanks to Claire Masker, Iowa Corn Growers Association, for taking the photo. Ryan is very happy to be driving for ethanol again. He did so for a couple years back when it was known as Team Ethanol and now as Ethanol USA Team …
Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey Takes Ride in Indy Car
A good friend of mine likes to say you need to get “whomped up” for an event. They’re getting whomped up in Iowa in advance of this week’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 and so am I, especially after hearing that Team Ethanol will be running again. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey found a fast track through morning rush hour …
Iowa Corn Indy 250 Only Race On U.S. Corn Ethanol
AgWired fans know that I’ve had an opportunity to cover quite a bit of Indy, as in Indy Racing League. In fact, it was the move by the IRL to ethanol as a fuel in their cars that got us started covering what was happening in the renewable fuels industry. This week I get back in action at the Iowa …
Social Media On The Road
It’s time to hit the agriblogging highway once again. I’m going to Minneapolis today and will be conducting a presentation tomorrow for the Cooperative Communicator’s Association titled, “Very Social Media.” You might think I’ll only be talking about Twitter but you would be wrong. I will start with blogs. That’s right. A blog is one of the first forms of …
American Agriculture’s Strategic National Asset
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference concluded today with a final general session on water usage. Opening the session was Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. I met with Rick before heading back to the agriblogging highway and we talked about his message of agvocating. That of course is advocating for agriculture. Rick says we have such a great …
China Perspective On CUTC
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference has international participants. We have quite a few from China. I had an opportunity to speak with Li Bin, CEO, Xin Jiang Tianda Biotechnology Co., Ltd., pictured here with Linyi Li, Novozymes China, my interpreter. Thank you Linyi! I asked him what stimulated his interest in participating. He says that corn utilization in China …
CUTC Encouraging New Uses For Corn
It looks like we have nearly 300 people attending the 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I sat down with NCGA President and South Dakota corn farmer, Darrin Ihnen, this morning and we talked about the need for this kind of conference. Darrin says CUTC brings out ideas that are still in the development stage while helping the industry come …
Ag Research Key To New Green Revolution
I previewed the keynote address to open the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference earlier today. Now here’s the full comments from Dr. Gale Buchanan, former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics. Dr. Buchanan was introduced by NCGA President, Darrin Ihnen, and I’m also posting his welcome message. During the next couple days I’ll be doing …
Corn Crib Baseball Makes Frontier League Commish Happy
The Commissioner of the Frontier League, Independent Professional Baseball, is Bill Lee. Here’s Bill making some opening remarks prior to the first home game of the Normal CornBelters in the Corn Crib. I spoke to him about this new franchise and what he thinks about the support of Illinois Corn Growers. Bill says it’s a wonderful thing because it’s a …