This morning at World Dairy Expo a producer-led coalition of dairy groups and companies announced the National Dairy Animal Well-Being Initiative. They’re proposing dairy animal well-being guidelines and principles. The effort held a press conference with several speakers. One of the groups participating in the effort is the National Milk Producers Federation. I spoke with their Senior Vice President of …
EPIC Represents Product of the Year
In a near unanimous decision, ethanol has been chosen as the 2007 AgriMarketing Product of the Year by AgriMarketing Magazine. According to the magazine, the entry was submitted by long time ZimmComm client, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). In just the past year, ethanol production has increased over 50%, given several segments of the ag economy a much …
Early Numbers Show Successful 2007 Rice Harvest
U.S. rice harvesting is just about a quarter from being complete in six of the major rice-producing states. Early data shows the harvest is well ahead of last year. The U.S. rice harvest is progressing ahead of last year’s harvest in California and Missouri, at 50 percent vs. 41 percent harvested in California and 80 percent vs. 67 percent harvested …
Ceres, Texas A&M Partnering in High-Biomass Sorghum Production
Biofuel development and marketing is getting a boost. Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station of The Texas A&M University System are collaborating in high biomass sorghum production for biofuels, through an exclusive, multi-year joint research and commercialization agreement. These plants are not designed to produce grain, but rather vast amounts of biomass — the raw …
American Hereford Beef Is What’s For The Media
Inviting the media in to learn more about your business or organization is becoming more popular these days. This past week I had the opportunity to attend a media day at the American Hereford Association. Thanks to Dave Mehlhaff, Director of Communications a number of agricultural journalists got their first look at the Association’s headquarters in Kansas City. In this …
Agritechnica Hands Out Innovation Awards
Agritechnica organizer Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft – German Agri-cultural Society has awarded 7 Gold Medals and 33 Silver Medals for leading innovation in agriculture. Agricultural companies worldwide submitted a total of 331 innovations to DLG, making this year’s submissions the highest number of submissions in twelve years. “This can be assessed as a clear indication that agricultural machinery manufacturers are starting an …
Blog Training at NCGA
Can you tell that this is the National Corn Growers Association mailbox? I spent some time there today doing a training session on Corn Commentary. If you haven’t checked it out then you’re missing a great application of blogging by an ag group. Of course I’m biased since we built and help manage content for the site. In our session …
CropLife America Elects Board Members
Leaders from top crop science companies monitor pesticide management regulation as newly elected and re-elected board members of CropLife America. CropLife has elected its new Board of Directors. Eric Wintemute, president and chief executive officer of American Vanguard Corporation, was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of CropLife America, the nation’s largest trade association for pesticide manufacturers, formulators, developers …
CropLife Rewards Pesticide Excellence
The nation’s largest trade organization for agriculture pest management, CropLife, has named the recipients of its annual awards for excellence in pesticide development. The CropLife awards are meant to recognize responsible and effective use of pesticides to provide a safe, affordable and abundant food supply. Fourteen recipients of 2007 CropLife America industry awards were honored in six categories for excellence …
A Magical Hereford Experience
The American Hereford Association worked a little magic with the media this evening. Actually, Todd Lamanske did the work. Todd is a great comedic magician. I hope I have that right. I not only enjoyed his show for us here at the Hotel President Hilton but the Certified Hereford steak we ate for supper. It was excellent and I’m sure …