Bayer Celebrates 150 Years

Chuck Zimmerman

Bayer Celebrates 150 YearsThe Bayer 150th Anniversary Celebration activities were held this morning at the Bayer CropScience headquarters in RTP, NC. On had were local dignitaries and stakeholders in the agricultural community.

We were welcomed to the event by Phil Blake, President and head of Bayer in the USA. He made some opening remarks I’m sharing with you as well as taking time for a short interview afterwards. Phil talks about the history of Bayer which you can find a lot of information about on the Bayer 150th Anniversary website.

You can listen to Phil’s remarks here: Phil Blake Remarks

You can listen to my interview with Phil here: Interview with Phil Blake

Jim Blome Bayer 150th CelebrationAlso welcoming us to the Bayer celebration was Jim Blome, President/CEO, Bayer CropScience LP. Jim says it is a real honor for the CropScience headquarters location to be chosen out of all the Bayer U.S. locations for this celebration activity.

Included in the activities were a tour of the local Bayer facilities as well as seeing the only U.S. public display of a multi-component interactive exhibition.

Bayer on the road: in February 2013, to mark the 150th anniversary of Bayer, an interactive exhibition showing how the company has improved the quality of life for millions of people around the world will begin its tour of some 30 sites in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Bayer has chosen a highly creative way to portray these subjects. The Anniversary Tour brings to life the company mission, “Science For A Better Life.” The exhibition will focus on the topics of health care, agriculture and high-performance materials.

You can listen to Jim’s remarks here: Jim Blome Remarks

You can listen to my interview with Jim here: Interview with Jim Blome

You can find lots of photos to view and share here: Bayer 150th Anniversary Celebration Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

Novus Promotes Water-Delivered Organic Acids

Cindy Zimmerman

wpx13-novus-leheWe’ve all seen and many of us drink the popular types of vitamin- and mineral-enhanced water products on the market for humans. Now Novus International is promoting water-soluable organic acids to enhance pig performance.

At World Pork Expo last week, Novus Technical Services Manager Dr. Karen Lehe gave a talk on adding the Aliment-based Activate WD US Max to drinking water for pigs and how studies have shown benefits from improved gut health and lowering water pH. “With piglets, especially in herds that are challenged with E. Coli or salmonella that we do have a nice benefit in terms of reduction of medication costs in the nursery period, from 74 cents to 17 cents (per head),” she said, adding that it also improves feed efficiency.

Alimet is commonly used as a feed additive, but Dr. Lehe says adding to water may make it easier and the animals like it. “To us it smells a little bit acidic, but to the little pigs it smells yummy,” she said. Novus has also studied the water-delivery with sows and seen benefits in lactation and heavier weaned pig weights.

Listen to my interview with Karen and/or watch a video of his presentation below: Interview with Novus' Karen Lehe

2013 World Pork Expo photo album.

AgWired coverage of the 2013 World Pork Expo is sponsored by NOVUSAgWired coverage of the 2013 World Pork Expo is sponsored by boehringer-ingelheim
Animal Health, Audio, Novus International, Pork, Swine, World Pork Expo

Farmer Cooperatives on the Hill

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s a great week for the National Council of Farmers Cooperatives to be holding its annual Washington Conference with all that is going on in the nation’s capitol impacting the agriculture industry.

ncfc-dc-13GROWMARK Executive Director of Corporate and Government Relations Chuck Spencer called me from DC this morning to talk about what they are discussing on the Hill and of course the main topic is the farm bill which the full Senate passed last night. “I think a lot of agriculture is supportive of the Senate farm bill program,” he said. “They have the provisions in there that would provide risk management programs that farmers have utilized very successfully” particularly last year during one of the worst droughts in history.

Members of the GROWMARK executive committee will be visiting with lawmakers in the House this afternoon to urge them to get a farm bill passed as well. “The House does have more of a potential for challenge to the farm bill so there may be a tremendous amount of debate regarding food and nutrition programs,” Chuck said, noting that the House bill does have language eliminating the duplicative permitting process for applying crop protection products. “We’ve got to see a farm bill passed. We’ve put it off one year. We need to get to conference committee, strike a compromise so we can have good farm business plans put into place for the next few years.”

The cooperatives also have a big interest in comprehensive immigration reform on the Senate floor this week. “The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives have worked very closely with all of agriculture … to forge a compromise that will pass the Senate and we hope to see it pass the House,” said Chuck. The coops meeting in Washington represent a wide range of agricultural interests that depend on foreign farm labor, including fruit and vegetable growers, dairy producers and the seed corn industry.

Listen to my interview with Chuck here: GROWMARK's Chuck Spencer

Audio, Cooperatives, GROWMARK

Senate Farm Bill Comments

Cindy Zimmerman

There was not much discussion as the full Senate considered and voted on the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 Monday evening, but a few senators had some comments.

deb-stabPrior to the vote, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) talked about the hard work the Senate has done to pass the second farm bill in two years and urged the House to do its work. “This bill has been bipartisan from start to finish,” she said. “The House agriculture committee passed a bipartisan farm bill last year but for whatever reason the full House didn’t consider the bill. The good news is this year it looks like it’s going to be different.” Comments by Senator Debbie Stabenow

klobachar“It has been 354 days since the Senate passed its last farm bill,” said Senator Amy Klobachar (D-MN). “I would like to get this thing out of the House by the time we head into August.” Comments by Senator Amy Klobachar

heitkampSenator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) was pleased to be part of passing a farm bill in her freshman year. “It is a bill that will send a message to the American people that we need to provide a certainty, we need to do things in a timely fashion,” she said. Comments by Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

sherrod-brown“The Senate has again passed a deficit-reducing, bipartisan bill that will help our farms, our families, our economy, our environment,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) upon passage of the bill. “This bill saves more than $24 billion, it maintains important investments in conservation and nutrition, renewable energy and rural development.” Comments by Senator Sherrod Brown

Only one amendment was considered and passed prior to passage of the full bill, by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) for a pilot program for rural high speed internet. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) took the floor to urge funding to fight Citrus greening, spread by an insect called a psyllid, which exists now in all the top citrus producing states as well as Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. The senate farm bill establishes a Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund, but it will have no funding in it unless it is included in the final bill and Nelson received a commitment to achieving that goal from Sen. Stabenow. Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Stabenow on Citrus Greening

Audio, Farm Bill

Bayer – 150 Years of Science For a Better Life

Chuck Zimmerman

Bayer Turns 150Bayer is celebrating 150 years of Science for a Better Life. To commemorate this milestone anniversary the company is holding numerous events around the world. One of those events is happening in RTP, NC.

The event here will feature an interactive traveling exhibit that celebrates “Bayer’s rich history and our work to enhance the lives of millions of people through innovation.” We got started with a reception and dinner where many Bayer executives were on hand to enjoy some fellowship with each other and various stakeholder groups in the RTP area. Here is the Country Council for Bayer in the U.S.

I will be sharing more information from this Bayer event which includes some facilities tours as soon as I can.

Agribusiness, Bayer

Construction & Agriculture Together at New Holland

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 399Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. This is episode #399! That’s a lot of interviews with leaders of the industry to share with you. Cindy and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

New Holland RustlerIn this week’s program we’re going to delve into the integration of the construction side of New Holland’s business with the agriculture side. To do this I visited with Mark Hooper, New Holland Director of Marketing. As you’ll hear him say in the program, this is about much more than marketing. It is every aspect of the business for each industry segment. Many farmers use construction industry type products and when you get to the construction and landscape industry there are companies who use equipment that falls into the agriculture area. So these two product lines just go together. Mark says there is still a lot of work to do on this integration process that includes working with the company dealer network and even creating new dealer contracts.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: New Holland Agriculture/Construction Integration

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, for their support.

Agribusiness, Audio, New Holland, ZimmCast

Senate Passes Farm Bill – Again

Cindy Zimmerman

senateBy a vote of 66 to 27, the full Senate passed its version of a 2013 Farm Bill Monday evening, much to the relief of agricultural interests.

“America’s farmers greatly appreciate the leadership and bipartisan efforts by the Senate to complete their work on the farm bill,” said National Corn Growers Association President Pam Johnson. “We also recognize the efforts put forth to address regional concerns to ensure all areas of the country are adequately represented in the final language.”

“We appreciate the Senate’s decision to protect and strengthen the federal crop insurance program and not reduce its funding, as well as the approval of a commodity program that provides farmers varied safety net options,” said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman. “This approach to farm policy will encourage farmers to follow market signals rather than basing planting decisions on anticipation of government farm benefits. Most importantly, the program will be viable because the Senate stood firm on a budget savings level of $24 billion.”

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Scott George of Wyoming says while there is not a livestock title, the bill incorporates priorities important to the cattle industry such as conservation and research. “We are also pleased that disaster assistance programs are included in this legislation which is a positive step toward providing a strong safety net for our producers,” said George.

Suffice it to say everybody is pretty happy about it, except maybe Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) who was one of the 27 who voted against the bill. The full House is expected to take up its version of a farm bill next week.

AFBF, Farm Bill, NCBA, NCGA

Farm Bill Attention Turns to the House

Cindy Zimmerman

The Senate passed the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 by a vote of 66 to 27 on Monday evening, putting even more pressure on the House of Representatives to complete its work to get a bill to conference and passed by the end of summer. Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), a member of the House agriculture committee, is hopeful.

hartzler“Certainly that should be the goal,” says Rep. Hartzler. “I know the leadership of the House Ag and I think the Senate Ag Committee as well want to see this done and wrapped up by August, so we’re certainly going to try.”

Rep. Hartzler says the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) of 2013 is a good bill that deserves to pass so she is cautiously optimistic it will once it gets to the floor next week. “But there are going to be a lot of amendments and there is going to be a lot of discussion,” she said. “There’s a lot of controversial aspects to the bill among several members.”

Those controversial issues include food assistance, the dairy program and the sugar program. Even though it is not part of the Senate bill, Hartzler is hopeful that her amendment repealing the catfish inspection program will survive in conference. “It’s a perfect example of wasteful, duplicative government spending and we can’t afford that nowadays,” she said.

Listen to or download interview with Rep. Hartzler: Interview with Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)

Audio, Farm Bill

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • DuPont Pioneer is bringing the next generation of powerful Web-based field management tools to growers with the introduction of Pioneer Field360 Select software.
  • IRON Solutions launched its enhanced and redesigned IRONSearch.com site, with streamlined features that allow buyers and sellers of agricultural and industrial equipment to connect and close deals faster than ever before.
  • The National Pork Board has approved $450,000 in Checkoff funds to help speed research into finding answers to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus threat facing the domestic pork industry.
  • Purdue Extension’s 2013 Weed Day, June 28th at the Throckmorton Purdue Agricultural Center, will give participants a firsthand look at the effects of different herbicides on various field crops.
Zimfo Bytes

USFRA Wins National PR Award

Cindy Zimmerman

sabre-awardsThe U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance recently earned a place next to big names like Kimberly Clark, GE, Proctor & Gamble, and General Motors by capturing one of the public relations industry’s most prestigious awards – the Gold Sabre. USFRA won the award for its digital campaign “From East to West and Everywhere In Between, America’s Farmers and Ranchers are Leading the Food Dialogues”

“USFRA’s long-term, consumer-facing movement is centered on reaching online consumers who are searching for answers and shaping opinions about food and food production,” said Bob Stallman, chairman of USFRA and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “Our results show the organization is making a great impact, but we still have significant opportunity ahead of us.”

USFRATo date, the USFRA Facebook page has more than 208,000 likes. The Food Dialogues.com website has received more than one million unique visitors and notably The Food DialoguesSM events have consistently trended on Twitter.

The world’s largest awards competition for the public relations industry, the SABRE Awards celebrate PR campaigns that demonstrate the highest levels of creativity, integrity and effectiveness. Big congrats to the USFRA and agency Ketchum for this prestigious honor!

Ag Groups, Public Relations, USFRA