How will the wet fall impact this year’s prices? How can I use social media to promote my farm? What are our competitors in Brazil doing right now? These are all questions you’ll find answered on the United Soybean Board’s Expert Advice Column. It’s part of the newly designed website and we’ve been featuring interviews with the experts who are …
Farmland Investment With Chicago Farmers
With winter fast approaching it’s time to make your farm meeting plans. Make one of them the Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair, February 6, 2010. I’ll be one of their seminar presenters with the topic of social media. To learn more about Chicago Farmers and their annual program I spoke with the Chairman of the upcoming event, Jeff Martin, an …
Ag Council Ag Day Essay Contest
It’s time once again for the Agriculture Council of America’s Ag Day essay contest. The contest is open to seventh- to 12th-grade students who are asked to submit an original, 450-word essay about the importance of agriculture. This year’s theme is “American Agriculture: Abundant, Affordable, Amazing,” and the deadline is Feb. 12. Teachers and parents are asked to encourage their …
Concluding Corn Mission Thoughts
The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team is home safe and sound. It was a very interesting 2 weeks of visits with American grain customers and others in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. You might expect these countries to be “all the same.” However, each country has a very distinct culture and that includes everything from food to how they drive. …
Iraq Will Be Good Grains Market Upon Stabilization
The political and safety situation in Iraq today is making it very difficult to conduct business within the country, especially for companies and farmers that would like to export U.S. feed grains into the market. However, that’s going to change in the next couple years according to some Iraqi businessmen that the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team met with. …
Producer Thoughts On Egypt
The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission Team has concluded visiting Egypt. Tomorrow it’s on to Jordan. Before finishing today we sat down for our debrief which includes documenting our observations and making recommendations based on what we saw. Those will be provided to USGC in the form of a final report. I have updated the Eqypt photo album from our …
Dr. Soliman Is Face of USGC In Egypt
The face and voice of the U.S. Grains Council in Egypt is Dr. Hussein Soliman pictured in the center of our Corn Mission group while visiting our last stop in the country. He has been working on behalf of U.S. grain producers for almost 20 years and has not only seen Egypt become one of our top importers but can …
Ag Outlook 2010
This week, I’m planning to attend Ag Outlook 2010 in Sioux Falls, S.D. at the Ramkota Exhibit Hall. The theme for this year’s conference and trade show is, “Meeting the demands of the future,” and I’m excited to listen to the great lineup of speakers that the conference has to offer. Speakers include: Matt Utterback, an ag commodity market analyst; …
FISA Is Poultry In Morocco
The Morocco Poultry Association is FISA and its Executive Director is Chaouki Jerrari (pictured second from left). FISA hosted the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team this morning and to lunch. We had a great discussion with Chaouki and other members that included concerns over the recent quality of U.S. corn they received and how American farmers and the USGC …
Growing The Poultry Industry In Morocco
The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team visited a nearly new poultry operation today. The owner is pictured on the right. With the assistance of Morocco’s Green Plan for agricultural development Ahmed Addioui has built several of these poultry farms to raise chickens for the market. Each building houses approximately 15,000 birds. I spoke with him via USGC Consultant Abdellah …