At the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) convention last week I had the opportunity to chat with Chris Wharam, a BASF tech services rep with in North Dakota, about how they help farmers and custom applicators in his state. Chris was already pretty familiar with the crop protection business before he took the job with BASF, since his family owns …
A FAPRI Farm Market Outlook
Patrick Westhoff is the Director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri–Columbia and a professor in the MU department of agricultural and applied economics. He was also our St. Louis Agribusiness Club speaker yesterday. I spoke with him beforehand since I had to leave early. He says his job was to talk about …
PRRS Seminar Wrapup
The Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica staff veterinarian with a focus on PRRS, the swine disease that so many are trying to eliminate, is Dr. Reid Philips. Reid was on hand for this year’s PRRS ARC&E Seminar. I asked Reid to provide a wrapup viewpoint about how this year’s seminar went. He says this year’s program came together really well. The seminar …
GROWMARK Perspective on 2012 Farm Bill
2012 is likely to be a very interesting year for agricultural policy as we face the writing of a new Farm Bill during a presidential election year with a huge federal deficit. Since the GROWMARK cooperative system represents the interests of farmers on the federal level, I talked with GROWMARK government affairs director Chuck Spencer to get his perspective on …
PRRS Surveillance
Dr. Jim Branstad, Keota Veterinary Clinic, spoke about PRRS Surveillance in area regional control projects during the Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS Seminar. He should know all about pig surveillance since as he says, “I spend about 90 percent of my time with pigs.” The message he had included the need to talk individually with producers in the project area. That one …
Sled Driver Inspires Ag Aviators
Last week I attended the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) convention in Las Vegas. It was the third time we have had the opportunity to find out more about these “unsung heroes of agriculture,” thanks to our friends with BASF. Among the many ways BASF supports NAAA is by sponsoring the convention kick off breakfast, which always features a speaker …
Small PRRS Projects Seeing Success
Dr. Jim Lowe is an independent veterinarian and one of the attendees at the Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS ARC&E Seminar. He’s the guy on the Mac. I asked him why he attends this seminar. Jim says that he spends a lot of time dealing with PRRS and this program allows him time to visit with colleagues and share information. He’s involved …
BASF Updates Ag Aviators on New Labels
During the National Agricultural Aviation Association NAAA convention this week, Dr. Gary Fellows had the opportunity to educate aerial applicators on what’s new from BASF. Gary participated in a session with a few other crop protection product companies to provide an update on BASF herbicides and fungicides. First of all, Gary talked about the anticipated registration next year of Priaxor …
Financial Impact Of Eliminating PRRS
There is a serious financial impact from the PRRS disease in pigs and at the Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS Seminar we learned how much. Dr. Derold Holtkamp, Iowa State University, made a presentation titled, “Bio-economics: The Impact of PRRS & PRRS Control. He had recently completed a Pork Board cost of PRRS study and says they were able to use that …
South-East Iowa PRRS Project Update
Providing a report on the progress of the South-East Iowa PRRS ARC&E Project during the BIVI PRRS Seminar was Dr. Tim Loula, Swine Vet Center. He says these projects to try to eliminate Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome are similar to ones conducted some time ago for Pseudorabies. He says the Iowa program was started in a very pig dense …