Our opening speaker at the 2012 IFAJ Congress immediately dove into the deep end on the theme of “Solutions for a Green Future.” He is Johan Rockstrom, Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center. As he opened his remarks he pointed to what he calls the most significant news of our age which was announced yesterday. He was referring to …
Preview of 2012 IFAJ Congress
The 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists is about to kick off in Sweden. We’re somewhere to the west of Stockholm at the moment with farm tours coming up later this week. To get my coverage started I spoke with soon to be past IFAJ President Mike Wilson, Farm Futures, during the IFAJ leadership dinner this evening. Mike has been …
Managing Enteric Disease
Dealing with a tough subject at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar was Dr. Michael Appley, Kansas State University. He talked about antimicrobials and the control of enteric disease and the future of using them including the issue of resistance. He says producers need to know how and why they use them. But he also says that a lot …
TopCon’s New System 350
What’s new at TopCon Precision Agriculture is their System 350 which features their X30 console. TopCon was one of the exhibitors at the Ag Media Summit. The console features: Mini-view windows with drag-and-drop positioning Interaction keypads with “expandable menus” Dashboard readouts provide constant, convenient basic data Integrated LED lightbar for manual guidance Full-screen views available for more detailed information Advanced …
Time For Hog Producers To Check Protocols
Working as a herd health and production veterinarian for Standard Nutrition Services is Keith Kinsley, one of the presenters at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar. Keith’s topic was “A Review of Nursery Scouring.” I asked Keith what he wanted the attendees to take away from his talk and he says that it’s not always scours that is the …
Monsanto Working on Drought Tolerant Cotton
Doug Jost is a Technology Development Representative for Monsanto and was visiting with us at the Ag Media Summit. Doug says what they do for the company is “test our new technologies usually in an experimental form and not commercialized yet . . . from cotton varieties to roundup formulations to drought tolerant cotton, things like that.” When it comes …
Farming Rock Star of YouTube
One of the YouTube Farming Rock Stars attended the Ag Media Summit. He’s Greg Peterson, one of the Peterson Brothers who made the hit, Farming and I Grow It. Greg really does sing and showed his talent at AMS. Here’s Greg on stage singing the National Anthem during one of our lunches. Great voice and a great job. I sat …
Pork Export Market Opportunities
“Trade Policy for a Dynamic Pork Industry” was the topic for one of the first presentations at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar. Our presenter was Laurie Hueneke, National Pork Producers Council. During her presentation Laurie provided an overview of what the trade situation is for the industry in various regions and countries around the world. I spoke with …
Administration Supports Ethanol
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demonstrated the Obama administration’s strong commitment to ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) by spending over an hour at the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) conference on Friday morning. “This is an industry that is worth supporting,” he told the crowd of about 250 ethanol industry leaders. “Which is why the president is supporting the …
NCGA CEO Addresses Ethanol Producers
National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) CEO Rick Tolman shared the farmer’s perspective to the American Coalition for Ethanol’s conference while addressing the group on the 2012 corn crop, the drought and NCGA’s support for ethanol and all markets for U.S. corn. “It could all change tomorrow,” was the theme of Tolman’s talk, just hours after the USDA released a new …