The hog industry is hurting, but optimism still exists here at the World Pork Expo 2009. Despite a year of plunging profits and flu fears, attendance is still expected to be pretty strong at the expo this year, according to general manager John Wrigley, who stopped by the Novus International tent for an interview. “We’re probably going to be down …
Welcome to WPX 09
World Pork Expo 2009 is underway here in sunny Des Moines. Agwired is set up in the Novus International tent on the main drag of the Iowa State Fairgrounds. We do have wireless internet access this year at the tent – yeah! – but are waiting for a power strip so I can plug in. Got the Flickr photo album …
Off to World Pork Expo
I am packing my bags and getting ready to head off to Des Moines for World Pork Expo 2009. Once again this year, Novus International will be our primary sponsor for coverage of WPX on Agwired. We are also pleased to have the support of Boehringer-Ingelheim for part of our coverage as well. We sincerely appreciate our sponsors and hope …
Great Pork BBQLossal
The winners of the 21st Great Pork BarbeQLossal have been officially announced – and the Grand Champions are Mike and Beth Wozniak of Brimfield, Illinois. They are the second two-time champions in a row for the event. They previously won in 2004. I spent some time at the BBQlossal before heading home on Saturday and got to speak with the …
Helping the Media at WPX
A well-run media center can make all the difference in the world when it comes to covering an event – and the World Pork Expo media center was exceptional. The main reason for that is Leah Schomburg of TriLix Marketing Group, who has been handling this event for seven years now. She was attentive to the needs of the media, …
Hog Stampede at WPX
About 100 Harley Davidson motorcycles cruised down the main drag at World Pork Expo Saturday morning – the annual “Cruisin’ with the Hogs” event. Gotta appreciate the tie-in there. Harley Davidson has actually been quite prominent around the expo this week I noticed. I wondered why the NAMA Bombers and Leah Guffey weren’t here – it was certainly an event …
Putting the Pork in World Pork Expo
What would World Pork Expo be without Pork? I guess just World Expo – right?? There is an abundance of pork at WPX, actually. Every hospitality tent offers pork for breakfast, lunch, dinner and/or appetizers. Kinda goes with the territory, doncha know? Here we see our National Pork Producer president Bryan Black cutting up some pork outside the NPPC tent, …
Novus Nutrition Innovation
The slogan for Novus International is “Performance Through Innovation” and that is why they employ more than 50 Ph.D. Animal Nutritionists and Doctors of Veterinary Medicine who work continuously to create new products and programs for animal health and nutrition. One of those is Dr. Brad Lawrence, a swine nutritionist who is manager of technical services for the Novus pork …
Flying Pigs
Who says pigs don’t fly? They do at World Pork Expo. The flag is a perfect image of the weather we had today in Des Moines – windy and sunny. Just a beautiful day. It’s fun to walk around the expo and see just how clever people are with the whole pig theme. You can see more shots of pig …
Glorious Day at WPX
For the second night in a row last night we had a major storm pass through the Des Moines area, and for the second day in a row the weather has been gorgeous. Today was even better than yesterday, which did get a bit muggy at times, even though we had some high winds. It was sunny and very pleasant. …