I just received word that my very good friend Derry Brownfield has passed away. I’m kind of in shock and will update this post when I get more information. I’ve known Derry almost all of my professional career in agricultural communications and am finding it hard to imagine a world without him. This is a photo from a couple years …
Coufal-Prater Equipment Shows Green
Spending a day at a farm implement dealership is not only fun when you can drive brand new equipment but also an education. It’s also a way to get to meet new farm friends too! That’s what I did earlier this week at Coufal-Prater Equipment’s John Deere Day which was held at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, TX. Pictured …
BIVI Offers A Triple Threat for Pig Disease Control
I learned a lot during Boehringer Ingelheim’s (BIVI) 2011 Swine Health Seminar, but maybe my biggest take away was that there are three diseases that seem to be a problem for the swine industry: mycoplasma, flu and PRRS. I also learned some other valuable information: BIVI has a triple threat for swine disease control called 3FLEX. This I learned more …
Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities
A very engaging session during the 2011 Swine Health Seminar hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim was the practitioner panel focusing on Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities. It came as no surprise that PRRS, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, was a hot topic among the attendees. The three panel experts include veterinarians Mike Eisenmenger with Swine Vet Center, Tom Gillespie with Rensselaer …
Media Partnering With AgHaven
Let’s learn more about this new thing called AgHaven in this week’s program. In the photo below you can see AgHaven President, Srik Soogoor, discussing the agricultural search engine and social networking community that’s a whole lot more, during Commodity Classic. One of the board members of AgHaven is Tom Taylor, High Plains Journal. I sat down with Tom during …
What To Do If Your Pig Has the Flu
Did you know that just like humans, pigs can get the flu too? To learn more about how to treat and prevent the flu in pigs, I spoke with Tom Gillespie, DVM, with Rensselaer Swine Services. Gillespie, a veterinarian who lives in northwest Indiana, participated in the Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities Panel as part of Boehringer Ingelheim’s 2011 Swine Health …
Emerging Mycoplasma Diagnostics
Mycoplasma is found in pigs all over the world and whether or not they cause disease is really multi-factorial. To learn more about mycoplasma, treatments and swine management strategies, Boehringer Ingelheim brought in Erin Strait, DVM, the section leader for molecular and viral diagnostics at Iowa State University, to speak during their 2011 Swine Health Seminar. One of Strait’s area …
BASF-ASA Scholarship Winner
A high school senior from Iowa now has $5000 toward his college education in an agriculture field, thanks to the American Soybean Association and BASF Crop Protection. This is the fourth year that the ASA Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Scholarship, sponsored by BASF, has been presented to an outstanding high school senior planning to pursue agriculture as a degree area …
New Holland Shows Off
During Commodity Classic I visited once again with Mike Harvey, New Holland. We didn’t talk equipment as much as farm show exhibiting. I see Mike at various shows throughout the year so just to be different we talked about what it takes for New Holland to put together all the exhibits at all the shows they do during a year. …
BRIC – Emerging Markets for Pork
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) decided to mix it up a bit this year during their 2011 Swine Health Seminar held in Phoenix, Arizona this past week and one of the focal points was emerging markets for pork producers. The BI team brought Nick Giordano, Vice President and Council, International Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) to give the nearly …