The participants at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar heard a positive economic report from Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics. Steve also modeled a new BIVI cap for us. He starts out saying the best news this year has been hog prices which recovered very nicely in the spring. Supplies have been reduced as a consequence of increased input costs …
Don’t Forget Swine Diseases Other Than PRRS
When it comes to hog production your veterinarian is one of the first sources of information and often considered a “team member.” At the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar Mike Elsenmenger, DVM, Swine Vet Center, talked to us about production. Mike wanted attendees to know that to have successful grow-finish pigs it starts at the sow farm and that …
Encouraging Area/Regional PRRS Control
The first presentation of the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar focused on the control of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome which is better know as the PRRS virus. Dr. Laura Batista, DVM, Boehringer Ingelheim, provided a look at various projects to create area or regional control of the disease. She was also encouraging attendees to get involved or start …
BIVI Swine Health Seminar Overview
The emcee for the North Carolina Swine Health Seminar is David Gocken, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica North America National Sales Manager for the Swine Group. I spoke with him before we got started to get an overview of the program here. David says this is the 10th annual seminar that BIVI has conducted and although it has been in different places, …
No-till Cotton Provides Conservation Opportunity
During the Conservation in Action Tour one of our farm stops was the Carter Farm where we met Jon Black (pictured left). He gave us a presentation on no-till cotton which he is standing in. I caught up to him on the phone afterward since we didn’t have time for an interview there. Jon says continuous no-till farming is the …
There Is Truth In Food
When it comes to food we all need a little bit of truth. Well, maybe a lot of truth. So TruthInFood.com sounds like a good idea. To learn more about this intriguing project I spoke with Mike Smith, Food Chain Communications. Mike and I had a great conversation about understanding why people from both production agriculture and the urban consuming …
Novus in the Beef Market
While there is no big trade show at the Cattle Industry summer conference, the major animal health partners in the beef and dairy industry still have a presence, and one of the newer players there was Novus International. Novus introduced itself to the beef industry during the Cattle Industry Conference in January, with the help of a mechanical steer named …
Wyffels Brings Producers, Developers Together with Corn Strategies
Hello from Texas, where the family and I have been spending the last few days trying to get roots set down. Just getting caught up after the last couple of weeks of packing up the moving truck and searching for a home in this region. It’s been quite a process (picture the Clampetts, loaded down vehicles, but using a 26′ …
Conservation In Action Tour Wrap-up
Conservation Technology Information Center Chairman Tim Healey, AGROTAIN, gave us a preview of the Conservation in Action Tour. Now you get to hear his wrap-up following the CTIC board meeting. Tim says the tour was a real success and I echo that. We learned a lot about what farmers are doing in this Chesapeake Bay area and especially in the …
Corn Farming While Protecting The Environment
Not all the farmers I met during the Conservation in Action Tour were making presentations. One of them was Wayne Kirby, Virginia corn farmer and Chairman of the Virginia Corn Board. Wayne says a lot of people are interested in agriculture in their area and especially what’s happening with the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. Wayne says he’s glad to be …