Breakfast in China, afternoon presentation in Minneapolis at the NAMA Fall Conference. That was the schedule on Wednesday for Alltech’s Aidan Connolly! Aidan was the closing keynote speaker for the conference with a presentation called, “Through the Lens of a Leader.” His task was to look at what agriculture is facing today and what lies ahead. You get a clue …
USDA Lowers Grain Stocks
USDA’s Quarterly Grain Stocks report out this morning shows declines in stocks of corn, soybeans and wheat compared to this time last year. The report shows corn stocks down 12% from September 2011, soybean stocks down 21% and all wheat stocks down 2%. Old crop corn stocks in all positions on September 1, 2012 totaled 988 million bushels, soybeans totaled …
“Fuels America” Campaign Launched
In the face of increasing calls to waive the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard, biofuel industry stakeholders today announced a major new communications campaign to educate consumers and policy makers about the benefits of renewable fuel to America’s economy, energy security and environment. The new coalition – Fuels America – includes several agricultural organizations in addition to ethanol companies and groups …
2012 NAMA Professional Development Awards
The National Agri-Marketing Association presented its 2012 Professional Development Awards of Excellence today. These awards honor NAMA members with hands-on responsibility in marketing and communications, public relations, product/species management and sales. Here are our recipients. First up is Troy Schroeder, Broadhead, pictured with NAMA President Beth Burgy and Don Tourte, Farm Progress Companies. Troy received the NAMA award for Marketing …
New NAMA Fall Conference Big Success
The new National Agri-Marketing Association Fall Conference is a big success. Almost 200 people registered and attended! That’s a big increase over the Trends in Agriculture conference. So congratulations to the committee who put this program together. Speaking of that committee, it was chaired by Amber Harrison, United Suppliers, Inc. I visited with Amber to get a preview of the …
Never Give Up
The founder of the Rainforest Cafe, Steven Schussler, Schussler Creative, opened the new NAMA Fall Conference as keynote speaker. He was here to talk on “It’s a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring.” His is a great story. Steven is also the author of the bestselling book, “It’s a Jungle in There.” Steven …
2012 NAMA Passing of the Gavel
The NAMA Fall Conference is all about celebrating leadership. We got a dose of that this afternoon when we had the passing of the gavel from 2012 NAMA President, Beth Burgy, Broadhead, when she passed the gavel to 2013 NAMA President, Paul Redhage, FMC. Paul will actually take the reins in January but this new conference offered a great opportunity …
More on AFBF Candidate Questionnaire
Labor and estate tax are two areas where the two presidential candidates hold differing views in issues important to agriculture, according to results of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) questionnaire released yesterday. “If there’s an area where they diverge in their approach, it would be helping to solve agriculture’s labor shortage,” said Linda Johnson, AFBF Director of Policy Research. …
New School Lunch Getting Failing Grades
The bell had barely begun to ring in the new school year when complaints starting coming in about USDA’s “healthier” school lunch menu guidelines and the chorus is getting louder. The new guidelines feature lots more healthy fresh fruits and veggies, which is great, but they also cut the portion sizes and the amount of protein served to students, which …
New Products from Monsanto
During the recent Farm Progress Show Monsanto’s Crop Protection Marketing Lead, Steve Knodle (left), sat down with me to talk about what is new with Monsanto. Steve says there are a number of new announcements from Monsanto this fall. One of them is Warrant Herbicide for pre-emerge use in soybeans and cotton for residual weed control. He says that it …