Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Rep. Randy Neugebauer

Cindy Zimmerman

New on Agri-Pulse this week:

open-micFresh from voting on a split farm bill that creates a new permanent farm law, Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, tells why GOP leaders decided to pursue this path. Neugebauer represents the 19th Congressional District of Texas that covers several counties of the Texas Panhandle and the cities of Abilene and Lubbock and serves as a senior member on the Agriculture Committee. He describes last week’s farm bill vote as a “first down, not a touchdown” as the measure hopefully heads to conference on at least the commodity title.

Listen to the Agri-Pulse Open Mic interview with Rep. Randy Neugebauer here.

Agri-Pulse

Whaley Joins Wheat Growers

Cindy Zimmerman

whaleyIt’s now official. Our good friend and ag industry veteran Hugh Whaley has joined the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) as director of corporate relations. Though we have known Hugh for nearly 30 years now, this is the best fairly recent photo I could find. And Chuck just saw him a month ago!

In his new role, Whaley will be the organizations’ lead staffer working to initiate, build and maintain strategic relationships with agribusinesses and other industry partners. NAWG and the Foundation, which is managed by NAWG, facilitate a wide range of policy, educational and outreach activities and maintain the Wheat Growers Building on Capitol Hill. Whaley was most recently the general manager for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), of which NAWG is a member. Previous to that, he worked for two well-known marketing communications firms focusing on agriculture clients and for the American Soybean Association.

nawg-staffNAWG is also pleased to announce the promotions of Brooke Shupe to director of government affairs for risk management and Will Stafford to assistant director of government affairs for trade, transportation and commodity markets. Shupe joined the Association in April of last year and manages farm policy, crop insurance and related policies. She also runs WheatPAC, wheat growers’ political action committee. Stafford came to NAWG in 2011 and became a government affairs representative last year. In addition to trade, transportation and markets, Stafford follows research policy.

Ag Groups, NAWG, Wheat

How Could UAVs Help You?

Talia Goes

Before we get to our new ZimmPoll let’s look at the results of our latest one which asked the question, “ Do you watch or want to watch live or recorded ag news television programs online?” The results indicate that there is an interest in online agricultural television programming.

Our poll results: Thirty-nine percent said Yes, I Currently Do, thirty-six percent said Yes, Need To Find Them, and twenty-five percent said No, Don’t Have Time or Interest. Online activities have become the way of the present and future. With technology making jobs more time efficient it allows for extra minutes to be spent catching up on the latest.

Untitled

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What use would you have for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle?” That would be UAV for short – better known as drones, but the industry doesn’t like to use that word because it has a negative connotation. Nevertheless, we’re talking about small, remote-controlled aircraft that can be used to get a bird’s eye view of the land, capturing either still photos or video or both, or even live streaming. Is that something you could use on your operation? Let us know.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

ZimmPoll

Corn Growers in Washington

Cindy Zimmerman

Corn farmers from across the country are in Washington this week to discuss policy issues and visit with lawmakers during another crucial point in the quest for a five year farm bill.

“We’re getting very close to deadlines again, so there’s 21 days left to act” before the current bill expires, said National Corn Growers Association president Pam Johnson of Iowa. “We want to know when the conferees will be named and what are the next steps to get this over the finish line.” The farm-only farm bill passed by the House last week was sent to the Senate yesterday.

ncga-vilsackIn addition to farm policy, the corn growers will be talking today with members of Congress about the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) and the role of biotech crops in trade talks with the European Union.

This morning, Pam presented Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack with NCGA’s annual President’s Award, which is given during the Corn Congress to a leader who has worked to advance issues important to corn growers and agriculture. “It was an easy choice for me to give the Secretary the award this year,” she said, noting that he has been a “tireless voice” to remind the 99% of the population who are not farmers of the importance of agriculture. “Secondly, he’s called those of us who do farm to step up to the plate and tell our story.”

Also this morning, NCGA delegates elected five farmers to serve on the organization’s Corn Board. Taking office on Oct. 1, the start of NCGA’s 2014 fiscal year, are new board members Kevin Ross of Iowa and Paul Taylor of Illinios. Current board members Rob Elliott of Illinois, Jon Holzfaster of Nebraska and Wesley Spurlock of Texas were re-elected. Chip Bowling from Maryland was ratified as first vice president starting on the same date.

Listen to my interview with Pam: Interview with NCGA President Pam Johnson

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, NCGA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • USPOULTRY’s Women’s Leadership Conference will be held August 22-23 at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort, Amelia Island, Florida, and will focus on providing essential techniques for professionals to cultivate and improve their leadership skills and effectiveness.
  • The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is seeking farmers’ help in telling stories of the innovation and experiences of farming and ranching across the United States.
  • broadhead received six 2013 Telly Awards during the 34th annual film and video competition for work done for Almond Board of California, The Mosaic Company and USDA APHIS.
  • Missouri Farmers Care announced it is partnering with USFRA to hold The Food DialoguesSM: Columbia on September 19, 2013 at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.
Zimfo Bytes

Swine Link Wrap-Up

Joanna Schroeder

Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) held a networking event for women in the swine industry last weekend and overall the event was a great success. To learn more about Swine Link, I spent some time with Lara Sheeley, senior associate director of BIVI who moved from BIVI Australia to lead the swine brand team in the U.S.

Lara Sheeley BIVISheeley said that Swine Link evolved from another group geared toward women in the swine industry called Sweet on Swine. Over the years, Boehringer Ingelheim has sponsored networking events to really get women in the swine industry to be able to network and meet each other and learn from each other. This event took a different form and focused on women in leadership in the agriculture and the swine industry. She noted that there are not a lot of opportunities for women in leadership to network both in the ag industry and the swine industry and so they focused this event on meeting this need.

When Sheeley took the job, she thought it would be a challenge because she moved from the companion animal side of the business to the production animal side of the business. But she soon discovered that another challenge was moving into an industry with few women in leadership roles, including at BIVI. She said she could really relate to what many of the speakers said, especially Jane Fallon with Cargill Pork, having moved from one side of the business to the swine side of the business.

Swine Link is an ongoing networking group and Sheeley says BIVI plans to host more events over the next few months. Examples include breakfast networking meetings or receptions during industry events. So keep your eyes out for Swine Link news.

Listen to my interview with Lara Sheeley here: Swine Link Wrap-up

Check out the photos from the event in the Swine Link photo album.

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pork, Swine

2013 InfoAg Conference Sets Record Attendance

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve Phillips IPNIIt’s all good at the 2013 InfoAg Conference on precision agriculture. Attendance is at a record above 1,100 at current count. Two years ago it was at 700! And now the conference is moving to every year and will be in St. Louis, MO in 2014, Union Station Hilton, July 1-3.

Steve Phillips, Southeast Region Director for the North American program of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), the host organization for the InfoAg Conference, welcomed us to this year’s event this morning and I visited him on a break. He says that the increase in attendance is something they are seeing at other precision conferences where exhibitor participation is up, sponsorships are up and media coverage is up. With the pace of new technology introductions and adoption a decision was made to go to every year to keep up. A big attraction this year are unmanned aerial vehicles which I still call drones. Several companies are exhibiting them and I hope to visit with them before the event ends.

You can listen to my interview with Steve here: Interview with Steve Phillips

FYI. Internet access is sparse to say the least in the convention hotel so I’ll be posting mostly after the conference this year.

2013 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Precision Agriculture

Farm Bill Expected to Go to Senate Today

Cindy Zimmerman

News out of Washington this morning is that the House will send its farm-only version of the farm bill over to the Senate today to begin the conference process.

deb-stabenowSenate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) held a conference call with reporters on Monday urging the House to take that action before time runs out. “We’ve got only six legislative weeks before the current farm bill expires,” she said, noting that adds up to only 24 legislative days. “I’m willing to take whatever the House gives us and work with with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee” to put things back together to get bipartisan support for a bill.

The House passed a farm bill without a nutrition title last Thursday and Stabenow says that approach will not work. “We could not pass that through the Senate, nor would the President of the United States sign that kind of bill,” she said. “That would be a very short term approach.”

Stabenow says because the Senate bill included a nutrition title it can be put back in the final bill in conference and there are people on both sides who understand the need to have both. “We’re not going to negotiate with the extreme elements of the House (who think) we shouldn’t have a safety net for families or for farmers,” she said.

Sen. Stabenow answers questions about the nutrition title and the impact of the bill passed by the House in regard to permanent law.

Listen to or download press conference here: Senator Debbie Stabenow 7-15-13

Audio, Farm Bill

Case IH’s Long History with CTIC

John Davis

ctic-13-alan-forbesCase IH has a long history with the Conservation Technology Information Center, so it just makes sense that they were an overall sponsor and sponsored dinner one evening during the tour in Livingston County, Ill., at Rooster Heaven, a hunting club near the Vermilion River. Chuck caught up with Alan Forbes with Case IH, who serves on the CTIC board and explained why his company has been so involved with the group for the past 30 years.

“Really, they just have a culture and attitude of conservation that really fits what we believe in at Case IH when it comes to preserving the water, the air, natural resources. Culturally, it fits us.”

Alan says the Indian Creek watershed project, which looks to address preventing runoff into the area’s creeks and rivers, represents a best-in-class initiative for conservation.

“Lots of people talk conservation about what we could do, what we should do, but here producers are putting together real-world initiatives that are providing benefits, not only in the watershed, but some of the best practices witnessed here are being exported nationwide and across North America. It’s a real good effort and it’s something that Case IH is happy to be a part of,” he said.

Alan added that Case IH’s push into precision farming equipment falls in line with this whole conservation theme, helping farmers make sure they have the right inputs in the right quantities in the right places. And the CTIC tour expands that into making sure those inputs STAY where they are needed.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Alan here: Interview with Alan Forbes, Case IH

2013 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Case IH, Conservation, CTIC

InfoAg Conference Underway

Chuck Zimmerman

2013 InfoAg ConferenceThe 2013 InfoAg Conference is underway in Springfield, IL. It’s time to learn what’s new in the precision ag realm and I’ll be doing that for the next couple days courtesy of our sponsor, Ag Leader Technology.

This three day conference is brought to us by the International Plant Nutrition Institute. It has grown so much that it will be moving to an annual conference instead of every other year. Attendance is a record this year and I’ll find out actual numbers later. I’ve been told there over 200 more registered than last conference.

I have a photo album started for the conference. Feel free to view and share: 2013 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Precision Agriculture