What makes Coca-Cola different from milk? Elizabeth Bagby, Alltech’s Corporate Marketing Manager, answered that question with branding. She addressed the essence of a brand and why beef and dairy producers need brands at the 2012 Global 500. But most importantly she shared what brands we all can learn from. The concept of branding, interestingly enough, comes from cattle branding. The …
Connecting Beef Producers to Data
Alltech’s Global 500 brought beef producers from across the globe together to network and gather information to take home. During the beef breakout session Bob Sand, founder and CEO of The Beef Connection, shared his vision for being a service organization that enables both beef cattle producers and industry suppliers to prosper and become more sustainable. The Beef Connection focuses …
Telling the Animal Ag Story
The Animal Agriculture Alliance participated in this year’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. Here’s Kay Johnson Smith, President/CEO, being interviewed by one of the broadcasters. Kay says that all of the animal ag industries have animal care guidelines that have been developed over years of work and are based on scientific research. She encourages farmers to be transparent and …
MS Technologies Collaborates to Innovate
One company that was generating some buzz at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2012 and Seed Expo was MS Technologies, which made a name for itself a few years ago by collaborating Bayer CropScience on LibertyLink soybeans. At ASTA, MS Technologies was talking about two new projects – Enlist E3™ with Dow AgroSciences and another Bayer collaboration currently …
The Gene Chip
The gene chip my sound somewhat futuristic, but it is actually something we have capabilities of using today. Alltech is on the cutting edge of research on the gene chip. Kate Jacques is Alltech’s director of nutrition and serves as part of the research group for the gene chip. The science behind the gene chip is state-of-the-art and it was …
Asgrow 4P System and agSeedSelect
During the 2012 NAFB Convention I spoke with Dan Kurdys, Asgrow Brand Manager. In a challenging year he says they had great harvest results with a greater than four bushel advantage over their competition. He attributes that to their “diverse germplasm pool, Genuity Roundup Ready trait and defensive and agronomic traits that are available to purchase.” Dan says they’ve developed …
BASF Builds on Becker Underwood History
In 1982, two friends named Roger Underwood and Jeff Becker started a little company that bore their names with a single product. Several acquisitions and 30 years later, Becker Underwood is a global leader in the development and commercialization of seed-applied biological products and is now part of the BASF Crop Protection family. “It’s been quite a ride particularly over …
Get Your MBA and Promote Beef Today
The Missouri Cattlemen’s Convention kicked off the morning with the popular Cattlemen’s College. NCBA’s Executive Director of Communications, Daren Williams, presented to the group on defending animal agriculture. We seem to always be fighting an up hill battle in the agriculture industry, so defending our passion and livelihood is vitally important. Beef has recently been under the spotlight and it …
Merck Says Lookout for BRD in Cattle
Now that winter is upon us it’s time for cattle producers to take note of BRD (Bovine Respiratory Disease). At the recent NAFB convention I spoke with Dr. Eric Moore, Merck Animal Health, about this subject. He says this disease has plagued the industry since the beginning. “It’s one of the most costly conditions we have within our industry.” There …
A Worldly Discussion on Beef
A highlight for my first trip to Alltech’s Global 500 was the discussion dinners. Being a beef producer myself, I was excited to attend one on the beef industry. How often do you get the chance to discuss and share ideas about farming with people from around the world. After an intimate steak dinner with about 40 Global 500 attendees …