One of the most interesting sessions at the recent PIC Farm Manager Boot Camp in Danville, Indiana was the one entitled “Environmental Requirements for Optimum Wean Finish Performance.” Ron Rush, who works in health and technical services for PIC, talked to the group of hog farm managers about the importance of the environment … the buildings… that they’ll be raising …
PIC Helps Managers Figure Out What Went Wrong
As anybody who has ever raised hogs knows, sometimes you lose some pigs. It’s a fact of life in the business, and while sometimes the reason for losses are obvious, many times you just don’t know and just write it off to things happen. But what if you could find out more about why you lost that pig so you …
PIC Provides Farm Manager Boot Camp
OK, so it’s not exactly how I remember boot camp from my days in the Air Force, but our good friends at PIC give out a lot of excellent information in their one-day seminars to help hog farm managers (without anyone making you drop and give them 20 push-ups!). I recently attended the session they put on in Danville, Indiana, …
Largest Dairy Producer In Jordan
The largest integrated dairy producer in Jordan is Hamoudeh Group and the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team visited their largest facility northeast of Amman which houses about 4,000 cows. Before getting a tour we heard a presentation from Marwan Hawari, pictured center showing some grain test results to team members, at their feed mill. I’ll have a video clip …
Jordan’s National Poultry Company
The National Poultry Company in Jordan is managed by Mousa Wakileh who met with the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team. Mousa would like to see more education of traders and producers in order to increase imports of corn from the U.S. He’s also predicting a 50 percent increase in poultry consumption per capita in Jordan over the next five …
More Grain Storage Needed In Jordan
The USDA Ag Specialist on the ground in Jordan is Mohamed N. Khraishy. He took time to meet with our Corn Mission team after we arrived this afternoon. He says that he acts mainly as a facilitator on our behalf or as he puts it, “See me as the grease between the wheels.” I recorded part of our discussion with …
Marketing Grain To The Middle East
The Regional Director for the U.S. Grains Council coordinating our Corn Mission visit to Jordan is Joe O’Brien. Joe covers the Middle East and part of India. He says that Jordan is “one of the bright spots of the Middle East.” There are biotech issues in the region though, especially toward Turkey and India. He says it’s a very competitive …
Get Away From Winter to AG Connect
January in Orlando is looking pretty good right now to most of us here in the frigid Midwest. So if you have not made plans to attend AG Connect Expo 2010 in Orlando on January 13-15, take this snow day to get on line and make your reservations. Besides offering the opportunity to get away to a warmer climate, Expo …
Corn Grower Says “Show Me” The Market
Fellow Show Me State resident and corn grower from the southeast part of Missouri, Jim Stuever, took a few moments to provide his thoughts on how the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team is doing after arriving in Amman, Jordan. In the photo, Jim (pictured left), is listening to a presentation we’re having from Mohamed Kraishy, USDA Ag Specialist in …
Producer Thoughts On Egypt
The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission Team has concluded visiting Egypt. Tomorrow it’s on to Jordan. Before finishing today we sat down for our debrief which includes documenting our observations and making recommendations based on what we saw. Those will be provided to USGC in the form of a final report. I have updated the Eqypt photo album from our …