Canadian Ag Minister Talks COOL During AG CONNECT

Joanna Schroeder

Canadian Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, was the featured speaker today during the State Agriculture and Rural Leaders’ Annual Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit Luncheon during the AG CONNECT Expo. While Ritz focused on ag initiatives in Canada and the agricultural and trade relationships and programs between Canada and the U.S., the issue that got many fired up in the audience …

International

Fifth US-Mongolia Business Forum at AG CONNECT a Success

Joanna Schroeder

The Fifth U.S.-Mongolia Business Forum took place simultaneously with the AG CONNECT Expo yesterday with several dozen delegates from Mongolia meeting with delegates from the United States to discuss how the two countries can better work together. A goal as delivered by the various speakers, is to see more U.S. companies investing in Mongolia. The Mongolian delegation is one of …

Agribusiness, International

Outlook For Ag Equipment Industry

Chuck Zimmerman

Agrievolution 2010 is a very international event. We’ve got participants and presentations from countries like Russia, Brazil, Venuzuela and China. I met one of our delegates, Massimo Goldoni, President, UNACOMA, the Italian equipment manufacturers association, who attended the first Agrievolution in Rome in 2008. Massimo says that back in 2008 they thought it would be helpful to pull together the …

Audio, International

An Agrievolution Taking Place in Orlando

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the co-located events taking place with AG CONNECT EXPO is Agrievolution. Opening up the program this morning is Doug DeVries, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing Services – Agriculture and Turf Division, John Deere. I spoke with him just prior to the start of the program. Doug is pictured on the right with Rusty Fowler, Krone NA and Martin …

Audio, Equipment, International, John Deere, Technology

Olympic Cranberries

Chuck Zimmerman

Now this is going to be impressive. Thirteen million cranberries will be used to make a “colossal depiction of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s logo” and it will be floated in the Fraser River running in front of the Richmond Olympic Oval throughout the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The tribute celebrates Richmond’s top agricultural crop and honors the Winter Games. The …

International

Concluding Corn Mission Thoughts

Chuck Zimmerman

The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team is home safe and sound. It was a very interesting 2 weeks of visits with American grain customers and others in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. You might expect these countries to be “all the same.” However, each country has a very distinct culture and that includes everything from food to how they drive. …

Ag Groups, Audio, Grains, International, USGC

Iraq Will Be Good Grains Market Upon Stabilization

Chuck Zimmerman

The political and safety situation in Iraq today is making it very difficult to conduct business within the country, especially for companies and farmers that would like to export U.S. feed grains into the market. However, that’s going to change in the next couple years according to some Iraqi businessmen that the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team met with. …

Ag Groups, Audio, International, Poultry, USGC

Infrared Grain Testing

Chuck Zimmerman

When the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team visited a feed mill this morning owned by the Hamoudeh Group they saw some state of the art grain testing. The company has infrared grain testing equipment which quickly analyzes a sample and provides a printout of a number of the qualities most important to them. You can see a sample being …

Corn, Grains, International, USGC, Video