Understanding Agriburbia

Chuck Zimmerman

CFWF Agriburbia PanelHave you heard of the term agriburbia? If not then this panel discussion that took place during the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation Conference will be helpful. The panel was titled, “Fraser Valley: is there room for big agriculture in a small setting?” This tied in with the theme of the conference. Our panelists were Dr. Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair for Food Security and the Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley (on left) and Kim Sutherland, Regional Agrologist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture. You can find information about Dr. Newman’s research at the Agriburban Research Centre.

Dr. Newman gave a broad overview of the concept and Kim had a lot of detailed information. Dr. Newman made a prediction, “One of the strong future branches of agriculture is going to be suburban.” She’s not suggesting that urban farming can feed the world but that suburban areas like so many that surround large urban centers are where the action will be.

You can listen to the presentation here: Understanding Ariburbia

2013 Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation Photo Album

Audio, International, Media

Genscape’s New Corn Forecast: 13.3B Bushels

Joanna Schroeder

Using NASA satellite data, Genscape has released an updated October corn yield forecast of 13.3 billion bushels. The company has noted that other analysts, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), have wide gaps in their predictions ranging from 13.2 billion bushels of corn produced during the 2013 growing season, to 14.2 billion bushels of corn.

Genscape Landviewer Oct 2013 corn forecast Genscape said a unique combination of spring floods and flash droughts, coupled with an unusually long growing season, have conspired to make this year’s annual corn forecast the most difficult on record. However, the company said through its Landviewer technology, is able to simplify the complexity of predicting forecasts.

“Given the unusual circumstances around this year’s growing season, we feel our NASA satellite and big data initiatives are even more important,” said Dr. Steffen Mueller, director of spatial grain analytics at Genscape. “We are back to our original prediction of 13.3 billion bushels, and we have the hard data to back it up.”

Genscape said its LandViewer model offers next generation data acquisition techniques, integrates NASA satellite imagery, and the industry’s most unified ground-based crop yield verification – called “ground truthing – with extensive analysis by experienced soil/agricultural scientists.

Normally at this time of year, the USDA incorporates Farm Service Agency (FSA) lost acreage data; however, this year that analysis has not available to market participants because of the temporary government shutdown. Genscape said because it is able to incorporate NASA satellite imagery with best-in-the-industry ground truthing data, their latest forecast is the only known model to currently account for this market intelligence.

Biofuels, Corn, Precision Agriculture

Two Glasses of Milk Can #Feedthe9

Cindy Zimmerman

wfp13-simmonsLast year at the World Food Prize symposium, Elanco president Jeff Simmons talked about eggs. This year, it was milk.

Simmons, who received the 2013 Borlaug CAST Communication Award last week, says milk is “one of the greatest food gaps we currently have” since there is currently 14% less milk per person globally than there was in 1961, despite the fact that dairy productivity has doubled. “What we have globally per person is (one glass) eight ounces,” he said. “What is recommended is two glasses.”

Watch his presentation in the video where he explains the need for two glasses per person and how we can get there to #Feedthe9. Find out more at SensibleTable.com.


2013 World Food Prize photos

Dairy, Elanco, Video, World Food Prize

Meet Some of the TATT Global Farmers

Leah Guffey

DSC_1707It was a fascinating experience for me to spend three days watching and listening to the 16 Truth About Trade and Technologies (TATT) Global Farmer Roundtable farmers as they shared with each other and became friends. They were from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ghana, India, Kenya, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Ukraine, Uruguay, Zimbabwe and the US – yet they were one. Similarities and differences kept them talking into the wee hours of the night and back at it first thing in the morning. They may have been jet lagged at times, but always willing to share about themselves and where they are from.

I had a chance to ask several of the participants to comment on their experience in Des Moines last week and what they will bring back home with them: TATT Global Farmers comments

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

Audio, Farming, World Food Prize

Humorous Words of Wisdom at O.H. Kruse

Chuck Zimmerman

Damian MasonKeynote speaker and comedian, Damian Mason, graced attendees of O.H. Kruse Grand Opportunity event with his quick humor and motivational words.

Chuck has had the chance to speak with Damian before, but wanted to capture the take home message for those not able to hear his inspiring and comical words of wisdom.

“For these people at O.H. Kruse they obviously sell feed who sell it to retail customers. So, what I thought about my whole flight here was what would I want to know, what would I want an outsider to tell me if I was in the business as an independent feed dealer. I want to tell a few stories here today that are about customer service with an ag theme and it’s going to be funny. I’m going to talk about me as a small business person because what I do is sell presentations to corporate events where I can get up, make people laugh and make people think.”

Damian stated that these dealers don’t sell bags of feed, but they sell solutions. They sell piece of mind and many other things that aren’t simply bags of feed.

Being funny is easy for Damian, but being funny isn’t the true purpose of his words. He focuses on how his words can become relevant to each and every audience member. Just because his audience is often those involved in the agriculture community doesn’t mean they all need to hear the same thing.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Damian here: Interview with Damian Mason

2013 O.H. Kruse Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Feed, O.H. Kruse

Red Wine & Good Laughs at O.H. Kruse Reception

Chuck Zimmerman

Nicholas and Cody FloresO.H. Kruse Grand Opportunities event finished up with a festive reception and dinner. Nicholas and Cody Flores of Las Flores Winery were honored to provide their vineyards wine for the event. There wine can be ordered online, but their Cabernet is only offered in their tasting rooms.

Not passing up the opportunity to taste wine and grab an interview, Chuck chatted with the husband and wife team while he tried the prized Cabernet. The couple met while attending San Diego State and their passion of drinking wine led into a hobby of making wine and soon a business.

“It’s such a fun business. We really enjoy meeting all the people, socializing and sharing great wine and great laughs. Everyone that drinks wine is pretty much happy. We just love the people. We are growing. We are increasing our volume we produce every year, but we are also expanding into doing a lot of events, anniversaries, weddings. We have done a lot with landscaping our winery and vineyard. Starting this year we are also making a state wine.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Nicholas and Cody here: Interview with Nicholas & Cody Flores

2013 O.H. Kruse Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Feed, O.H. Kruse

World Food Prize President Thrilled with 2013 Event

Cindy Zimmerman

wfp13-quinnWorld Food Prize Foundation president Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn says this year’s event was bigger and better than ever.

“We had more people registered this year for the symposium,” he said. “After we got beyond 1200 I almost stopped counting because I wasn’t sure where we were going to put folks!”

In addition, there were 350 students and teachers at the event and over 700 attended the Iowa Hunger Summit earlier in the week, a new record. Quinn says the World Food Prize has grown so much from what Dr. Norman Borlaug began in 1987. “We’ve been able to get to where people now say it’s the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture, and some people say it’s the premier conference in the world on global agriculture and one of the most unique programs to inspire young people,” he said, adding that the Prize was sponsored by General Foods in the very beginning and taken over by Iowa businessman and philanthropist, John Ruan.

In this interview, Quinn talks about this year’s event, the history, honoring biotechnology, how the WFP winners are chosen, and a new statue of Dr. Borlaug being installed in the U.S. Capitol next year. Interview with WFP President Kenneth Quinn
2013 World Food Prize photos

Audio, World Food Prize

EAB Ag Network Formed

Chuck Zimmerman

EAB Ag NetworkThere’s a new ag radio network in town. Actually, in Arkansas.

East Arkansas Broadcasters has formed the EAB Ag Network, a new farm information radio network that will launch in Jan. 2014.

The EAB Ag Network is anchored by its flagship station, Jonesboro-based KFIN. Its affiliate list includes stations located throughout eastern and central Arkansas, with signal coverage in western Mississippi, western Tennessee and southeast Missouri. The network will reach 100 percent of Arkansas’ soybean acreage and more than 99 percent of the state’s rice acreage.

Several EAB stations are affiliated with the Arkansas Radio Network through the end of 2013. These stations currently air both ARN and EAB Markets. Beginning in 2014, they will carry only EAB Ag programming, which will include the latest in weather, farm news and markets.

Mitch Mahan has been named farm broadcaster for the EAB Ag Network. A broadcasting and programming veteran, Mahan joined East Arkansas Broadcasters in 2009. He delivers markets and farm news. Cate Morgan has been named associate farm broadcaster.

Media

A Local Business Supplying Local Feed

Chuck Zimmerman

Jeff and Jen WiseMeet the Wise family. A family of five who randomly found a demand for a niche market and jumped at the opportunity with O.H. Kruse.

I visited with Jen & Jeff Wise of Wise Acre Feed and Supplies, in Sanger, CA. Jen is a radio personality on KMJ, Fresno, CA. Locals might know her as Jennifer Lipp. In just 10 months, Jen shares how they went from two chickens to 144. After an O.H. Kruse employee heard Jen talking about her chickens on the radio, he asked her to try their feed. She explained how excited she became when she opened the bag and it smelled like real food, not grain. After a month on the feed, the eggs were creamier, the coops smelled less and a hen who never grew feathers, grew them.

Jen and Jeff were hooked on the product, but soon found out that it wasn’t carried by local feed stores. They quickly decided that they needed to open a feed store and provide customers with the same connection to their food as they had found. But the business they opened was unique, they decided that they would exclusively carry O.H. Kruse products.

A local business supplying local feed. Jen says, “I am interested in everything local. I’m interested in what people in the community are doing and I am very interested in finding out how people tick.”

You can find out more about the Wise family and their new business venture on their Facebook page.

You can listen to my interview with Jen and Jeff here: Interview with Jen and Jeff Wise

2013 O.H. Kruse Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Feed, O.H. Kruse

O.H. Kruse Takes Time to Listen

Chuck Zimmerman

Chad PinterThere is no doubt the Great Opportunities event O.H. Kruse held was customers focused. But it was more than simply honoring customers, it was a chance to listen to their opinions on products and strive to help them overcome their farming challenges.

I caught up with Chad Pinter, CFO, O.H. Kruse, and he shared what it mean’t to put on a customer appreciation event and what feedback they have received from such valued customers.

“It’s a way for us to get close to our customers and understand what challenges they are facing, educate them on the trends in the industry that we see and make sure we have a lot of opportunities to interact with them while charting a path forward that works for both of us.”

Customers were able to share their opinion on what products moved faster than others and why. Employees also got to ask questions about what draws customers to specific products. O.H. Kruse takes pride in the chance to listen to their customers and actually act on the response they receive.

“We have gone through a very challenging time over the last number of years because a lot of our customer base hasn’t been profitable. That’s changing. Feed prices have come off and we are seeing people come back to profits and that’s healthy for everybody. It’s going to take a long time to recover the loses that occurred by our customers, but every step in the right direction is positive.”

You can listen to my interview with Chad here: Interview with Chad Pinter

2013 O.H. Kruse Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Feed, O.H. Kruse