The gavel has been passed and on January 1 Paul Redhage, FMC Agricultural Products, will be the new President of the National Agri-Marketing Association. During the NAMA Fall Conference I got to visit with Paul. Paul is looking forward to having fun in 2013 and says that the whole networking aspect of NAMA will mean we’ll all learn a lot …
Get 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference on Your Calendar
Here’s a heads up for the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference. It will be held once again in Kansas City, MO. We’re going to be “Forging New Frontiers” from April 17 to April 19 at the Sheraton Crown Center. To get a little bit of a preview of what the committee is doing I visited with Scott McClure, Brighton Agency, during the …
What Future Agriculture Leaders Need
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. …