Advocating seems to be the all buzz here is agriculture, but the key to advocating is education. Recently, during the 2013 Cattle Industry Summer Conference, the National Beef Educator of the Year Award was given to a woman who has gone above and beyond to talk beef wherever she travels. Michelle Bartholomay, from southeastern North Dakota, operates a farm and …
Pork Production and Profitability
Economist Dennis DiPietre shared his insights on the cost of production and profitability in the U.S. pork industry during the Boehringer Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar last week. Dennis is a frequent guest speaker at this event because he always entertaining and enlightening. His main point this time was “all the world is a distribution” which he used to illustrate …
The Business Value of Social Media
Each year the National Agri-Marketing Association brings you NAMA Boot Camp. A conference on marketing and agriculture basics, for those just entering the agri-marketing industry and veterans just wanting a refresher. Today anyone with Internet capabilities is considered media. Thus, the ability for anyone to serve as your marketing and PR team. The ability for instantaneous information has lead businesses …
Why Share Your Beef Story
During the 2013 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver cattlemen and women gathered to discuss current issues, work on programs and initiatives to better the beef community. Committees met and workshops were attended too. Chuck covered the event and spoke with former beef ambassador and current intern for the American National CattleWomen, Malorie Bankhead. Malorie hails from California and is …
Pork Summer Advertising Success
The National Pork Board has just recently concluded a summer domestic marketing advertising campaign and the results seem to be very successful when looking at supplies and demand. The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that June 2013 frozen pork supplies are down 14 percent from the previous month, and down nearly 5 percent on a year-over-year basis, reflecting …
Marketing to Producers of All Generations
The 2013 NAMA Boot Camp kicked off last week in Kansas City with the popular producer panel. The coveted voice of Max Armstrong, Penton/Farm Progress, moderated the panelist of Missouri and Kansas farmers. Communicating with producers effectively is a key element when it comes to staying profitable in this industry. Jarrod Bowser, Kansas; Brad Bray, Missouri and Calvin Pearson, Kansas, …
Risk Factors for Salmonella in Swine Production
Food safety is one of the major factors driving consumer food demand which makes salmonella a food safety priority for the pork industry. Dr. Marcos Rostagno with USDA-ARS at Purdue University told producers at the Boehringer Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar that awareness of the on-farm risk factors for salmonella contamination is the first line of defense. “Particularly paying attention …
Minimize Exposure and Maximize Immunity
A systematic whole herd approach to controlling all types of swine respiratory diseases hinges on the two-pronged effort of minimizing exposure and maximizing immunity. Dr. Eduardo Fano, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica‘s technical manager for the Americas, explained the approach during the North Carolina Health Seminar for producers on Friday. “You can do it through the whole production/infection chain,” said Dr. Fano. …
PEDv Update for Swine Producers
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus became a brand new problem for the U.S. swine industry to deal with this past spring, and Dr. Darin Madson with Iowa State University gave an update on the situation to producers at the Boehringer-Ingelheim North Carolina Health Seminar on Friday. “Basically what we determined is that this virus, previously not known to be here, …
New Guy With BIVI
Meet Del Birkhofer, the brand new executive director of the swine business for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc (BIVI). Del has 26 years of experience in the animal health industry, working with Merck and Merial, and he is happy to make this move to BIVI at this point in his career. “I was looking at my future and BI is one …