Professional Development Awards of Excellence

Melissa Sandfort

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) will honor four recipients of the 2013 Professional Development Awards of Excellence on Wed., Sept. 18 at the NAMA Fall Conference in St. Louis. These awards honor NAMA members based on outstanding achievement in the professional development areas. This year, Awards of Excellence will be presented in the areas of marketing communications, public relations, product/species management and sales. Click here for more information on the Fall Conference.

Marketing Communications – Gary Sakin, Monsanto
Gary joined Monsanto in November of 2006, and has made impactful changes to how Monsanto approaches branding, measures marcom impact, and engages with its audiences.

Public Relations – Linda Romander, Broadhead
A senior public relations manager at leading agribusiness marketing agency broadhead., Linda has achieved a great deal since her arrival in 2005. Since day one, she has fast become the go to resource for clients seeking sound PR strategy and vision, as well as a mentor for our firm’s younger staff and teams.

Product/Species Management – Zach Hetterick, Case IH
Zach has distinguished himself in the past two years, leading the charge at Case IH for the Livestock/Hay/Forage business as Livestock Marketing Manager. While in this role, he has successfully spearheaded several new product launches, including the Case IH LB4 large square baler, and current launches for the WD3 series windrower, DC3 series disc mower conditioner, and RB565 round baler.

Sales – Jay Carlson, Penton Media – BEEF Magazine
As regional sales manager for BEEF magazine and its digital communications properties, Jay is arguably the nation’s top marketer on a volume basis of print and online livestock advertising. He has been a key innovator in U.S. livestock publishing, developing a number of key instruments and programs that continue to meet the needs of both U.S. livestock producers and U.S. product marketers.

Agribusiness, NAMA

America’s Farmers Food Drive

Talia Goes

AmericasFarmersLogo2013Nearly 15 percent of households in Illinois face food insecurity, which amounts to an estimated two million people, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization. In Macon County alone, more than 16,500 people struggle to find food. Families in these farming communities are often busy helping to feed the world, but do not have access to enough food to sustain a healthy lifestyle for themselves. Thanks to the upcoming America’s Farmers Food Drive, rural households across the state of Illinois will soon see food on their own tables.

The fifth annual America’s Farmers Food Drive, sponsored by Monsanto in conjunction with Farm Progress and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation (HGBF), will take place at the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 27-29 in Decatur, Ill.

All FFA chapters and 4-H clubs in Illinois are invited to participate in the America’s Farmers Food Drive. Food collected will benefit the communities of those who donate. Students who donate food at collection centers located at entrance gates one, seven and nine will receive free entry to the Farm Progress Show. The top three FFA chapters and top three 4-H clubs that donate the highest amount of food, in pounds, will be awarded $250.

Additionally, for every pound of food collected, Monsanto will donate $1 (up to $10,000) to United Way of Decatur and Mid- Illinois, and the HGBF will donate $1 (up to $10,000) to Feeding America.

Agribusiness, Food

BASF DPM is a Gator

Cindy Zimmerman

basf-rtp-brianneDr. Brianne Reeves with BASF Crop Protection has a DPM from the University of Florida – that would be a plant doctor, not a foot doctor.

We interviewed the lovely and talented Dr. Reeves a couple of times this year but I never knew she was a fellow Gator until last week when she talked to the Southern Media Symposium about her background. Even though her dad and grandfather were both in agriculture, Brianne says she’s actually “not a farm girl.” She was born in Nebraska but grew up in South Florida where her father was in the citrus business.

uf-pmdBrianne got her Bachelor’s degree in agronomy from UF and then went on into the Doctor of Plant Medicine program. “It was right up my alley,” she said. “Very multi-disciplinary graduate program that really covers anything that would affect a plant’s growth … so it really set me up for success in a career in agriculture.”

Brianne says her education continues with BASF. “Specifically within the Professional Development Program (PDP) which is how I came into BASF,” she said. Brianne encourages other young people who think about a career in agriculture. “You don’t have to be a farm girl or a farm boy to want to do agriculture,” she said. “Do what your heart tells you.”

Listen to my interview with Brianne here: Interview with Dr. Brianne Reeves, BASF

BASF Southern Media Symposium and SWSS Contest photo album

Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, Education

Cost of Raising Children Born in 2012

Melissa Sandfort

childrenThe USDA released its annual report, Expenditures on Children by Families, also known as the Cost of Raising a Child. The report shows that a middle-income family with a child born in 2012 can expect to spend about $241,080 ($301,970 adjusted for projected inflation*) for food, shelter, and other necessities associated with child-rearing expenses over the next 17 years. This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 2011. Expenses for child care, education, health care, and clothing saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2011. However, there were smaller increases in housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses during the same period. The 2.6 percent increase from 2011 to 2012 is also lower than the average annual increase of 4.4 percent since 1960.

The report, issued annually, is based on data from the Federal government’s Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most comprehensive source of information available on household expenditures. For the year 2012, annual child-rearing expenses per child for a middle-income, two-parent family ranged from $12,600 to $14,700, depending on the age of the child.

Read more report results here.

Agribusiness, Food, USDA

Doing Corn

Melissa Sandfort

20130802_130935These days around our parts, you may hear the phrase “We’re doing corn today” quite often. I think of city folks who go to Hy-Vee or their local grocery store, pick up a few ears of sweet corn for the evening meal, take it home, shuck it and grin as the butter runs down their chin and arms to their elbows. And for special occasions or family get-togethers, they might pick up as many as 10 ears.

*I do have to throw in a bit of humor as I once dated a man from Missouri who had no idea how to tell the difference between field corn and sweet corn. I tried my best not to laugh at him, only to fail miserably. *

That said, it can be an honest mistake if you didn’t grow up around it. But when my family “does corn”, that means that about three back ends of pick-ups are full with corn that someone has picked. We gather at my brother’s shop where there’s a turkey roaster or two filled with boiling water. We set up stations: two people shuck, two people cook and toss them into cold water, then two people cut the corn off the cob and another person or two bag it up in freezer bags. It’s hot. There are knives involved (and I’m not good with knives!). And your fingers eventually go numb from picking the silks off each ear.

But at the end of the day when you have nearly 200 pint and quart bags of sweet corn to enjoy for the year ahead, it’s fabulous.

That’s how we “do corn” around here.

This is just a snapshot of my kitchen where I only did about 25 ears.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

GROWMARK Report on China Demand

Cindy Zimmerman

Is demand from China really driving commodity prices?

growmarklogoThat was the question that GROWMARK economic and market research manager Kel Kelly set out to answer in a recent research report.

“Overall the report concludes that China does not have the dominant impact on commodity prices that everyone thinks they do,” said Kelly in an AgWired interview. “The primary reason for this is that China simply does not buy enough of our agricultural commodities to have that much impact on price.”

Kelly says that while China’s population is indeed growing rapidly, “China produces the majority of what they consume.”

So, what has been driving commodity prices higher in the last decade? “That is simply massive amounts of money that were originated on Wall Street and injected into the commodity markets,” said Kelly. “That’s what pushing up the prices of all commodities since the early 2000s, including ones that China does not buy.”

Kelly adds that the same reasoning applies to those who want to blame ethanol production for rising commodity prices, that it is not physical demand driving higher prices, but instead is monetary demand from Wall Street.

Click here to read the entire report and listen to Kelly explain some of the major points in this interview: Interview with GROWMARK economist Kel Kelly

Audio, Grains, GROWMARK, International

2013 W.D. Farr Scholarships Awarded

Jamie Johansen

cisc-13-turnerDuring the 2013 Cattle Industry Summer Conference, two recipients were awarded the W.D. Farr Scholarship from the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF). THe $12,000 award recognizes superior achievement in academics and leadership and will allow the students to further their study in fields that benefit the cattle and beef industry.

Benjamin Turner is from Rapid City, South Dakota. He is a Ph.D. candidate studying Biological Sciences at South Dakota State University. He received his bachelors of science degree in Agriculture Business from Sam Houston State University. And then later received his masters of science in Agribusiness from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Over the past year Turner has been a graduate assistant for South Dakota State University in the Natural Resources Management Department. His career goals involve teaching and developing useful teaching tools, such as a textbook on ecological economics and management so that students can make better decisions of consequence under real-world conditions. Turner’s Ph.D. Dissertation is: To Plow or Not to Plow: Investigating Grassland to Cropland Conversion in the Northern Great Plains Using Systems Thinking and Dynamics. He is expected to graduate in 2014.

Listen to Benjamin’s remarks here: Remarks from Benjamin Turner

9471085097_0c2a181d3f_bJohn Wood is from Greeley, Colorado. He is a MS-MBA candidate in Food and Agribusiness Management at Purdue University. He received a bachelors of science degree from Colorado State University in Beef Production and Business Leadership & Management. For the past couple of years he has had several positions at JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding.

Wood has been involved in the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Young Producers Council since 2008 and currently serves as the group’s chairman. He has also been part of many agricultural based clubs and teams. Wood’s career goals are to serve in an upper management position that allows him to employ a macro perspective as he helps lead, manage, develop and coach a high caliber team to obtain organizational objectives.

Listen to John’s remarks here: Remarks from John Wood

The National Cattlemen’s Foundation established this annual scholorship in 2007 to recognize outstanding students who plan to pursue careers in meat science and animal agriculture. W.D. Farr was the first president of NCF and also served as president of the American National Cattlemen’s Association, now known as NCBA. Farr’s career spanned 75 years in the beef industry.

Here are photos from the event:2013 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Visitors to www.SoyGrowers.com will find a cleaner, more streamlined web home for the American Soybean Association following a comprehensive redesign and facelift for the association’s website.
  • Paradowski Creative announced it has expanded its team with the addition of six new team members.
  • This week, the more than 22,000 farmer members of the American Soybean Association (ASA) will receive their premiere issues of American Soybean, a new quarterly magazine from ASA designed to explore the on-farm impacts of the policy, production and marketing issues that affect producer profitablility.
  • Syngenta announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the Agrisure Duracade 5122, E-Z Refuge and Agrisure Duracade 5222, E-Z Refuge trait stacks.
Zimfo Bytes

Monsanto Press Release Hoax

Cindy Zimmerman

This just goes to show that we need to be ever vigilant these days when it comes to our electronic communications.

monsanto-thumbA very official looking release came in by email today with the headline “Mexico Grants Monsanto Approval To Plant Large-Scale GM Corn Fields.” It had technical details about varieties and quotes from Monsanto and Mexican officials. Without double-checking on it, we went ahead and posted it as worded, although we did notice it had not been posted on the Monsanto website.

We were quickly notified by Monsanto that it was hoax and we immediately pulled the post down. A post on the Monsanto Blog explains that the release came from “an unidentified cyber group” that developed and posted a deceptive web page called www.monsantoglobal.com designed to appear as though it was posted by Monsanto. “This page and its related communications, including a fake news release entitled “Mexico Grants Monsanto Approval To Plant Large-Scale GM Corn Fields,” are an intentional misrepresentation and are not in any way associated with our company.” Monsanto officials further say that information on this “hoax web site and its related communication properties has been turned over to the appropriate authorities to further investigate the matter.”

We admit it – we got scammed. You can be sure that this was a lesson learned for us – check our sources before we post or tweet, just in case.

Agribusiness, Biotech, Media

Total Rewards Programs That Will Woo Employees

Joanna Schroeder

Glowa and Kantor Aon HewittDuring the recent Ag & Food HR Roundtable held in Urbandale, Iowa at the DuPont Pioneer headquarters, several sessions were held on total rewards programs. As the ag industry gets more competitive, employers are discovering that the same old, same old rewards programs are not working. During Engaging Multiple Generations in the Workplace Through Rewards Programs, presenters Tim Glowa and Richard Kantor with Aon Hewitt discussed what excites and motivates the different generations to be the most productive in the workplace – and it’s not always what you think.

During the session, Glowa and Kantor reviewed recent research that showed what types of rewards and incentives were favored by the different generations and also discussed some companies that have had huge success with their rewards programs, such as Google.

faukenOn the same day, AgCareers.com, the host of the roundtable, also released results of its Total Rewards Insights for Multiple Generations. The survey was taken in the spring of 2013 and is aimed at helping the ag industry develop stronger benefit and incentive packages for employees. To learn more I spoke with Kristen Fauken, who oversaw the survey.

Fauken said the two important factors that affected overall performance across generations were the company’s social responsibility initiatives as well as the company’s efforts toward innovation and advancement. Other valued rewards and benefits included health care benefits, retirement savings plans, paid time off, challenging and meaningful work and professional development and learning opportunities.

You can learn more about the AgCareers.com total rewards survey by listening to my interview with Kristen Fauken: AgCareers.com Total Rewards Survey

Visit the AgCareers.com Ag & Food HR Roundtable photo album.

AgCareers, Agribusiness, Audio