BIVI Goes Ogio

Chuck Zimmerman

If you were attending the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica PRRS ARC&E Seminar then you’d be sporting a brand new Ogio Half Dome Duffel Bag! It’s a gym bag that has the following features:

Audio pocket with headphone exit port
Standard webbing shoulder strap
Reinforced base with triple needle stitch trim
Front sleeve pocket
All metal hardware
Side grab handle

The veterinarians and swine producers attending the seminar here have been scooping them up!

We go to so many meetings that have bags. Most are shoulder bags. How many of them can you have? This is a great idea because it has so much functionality. I will probably use at the gym. But I can see this carrying some equipment and supplies in a truck or a tractor.

Our PRRS Seminar is just now underway. I’ll have interviews to share shortly. Photos are already being uploaded and you’ll find them here: 2012 BIVI PRRS ARC&E Photo Album. Remember that you can download photos you find in our albums by clicking on the photo you want, using the drop down menu above the photo to select All Sizes and then choosing which size you want to download directly to your computer.

Agribusiness, Boehringer Ingelheim

Economic Outlook for Pork Industry

Jamie Johansen

Pork producers were well represented at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk. I sat down with National Pork Producers Council economist, Steve Meyer. Steve shared his thoughts on the 2012 growing season, as well as his outlook for our next fiscal year.

“It’s been a tough year because of the cost of production. The drought drove corn prices to records and soybean meal prices to records. Producers have suffered through that, but many had some coverage on feed costs through the end of the 2011-2012 crop year in August. But there wasn’t a lot of coverage for the fall.”

“We had a lot of hogs come to market in August and September primarily because producers were trying to ship the hogs a little early to reduce weights. So, we had a surge of pigs that drove, what I think the prices to the seasonal low. I think we will kind of move sideways, still seeing some pretty substancial loss for cash markets this fall. The outlook for next year is a little better, but still not very good with only profits during the summer months. A real critical thing for producers right now is that we get rain next year.”

Steve also commented on what impact pork producers across the county would see if the farm bill wasn’t reinstated come January.

Listen to my complete interview with Steve here: Steve Meyer - NPPC

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, Farm Bill, NAFB, NPPC, Pork

AFBF Goes to ‘Music City, USA’

Melissa Sandfort

The American Farm Bureau Federation has announced the country music artists who will be performing at its 94th Annual Meeting, Jan. 13-16 in Nashville, Tenn., also known as “Music City, USA.”

The three-part country music group Edens Edge will perform at the opening general session on Sunday Jan. 13, which begins at 9 a.m. The Arkansas trio is composed of Hannah Blaylock, Dean Berner and Cherrill Green

On Monday Jan. 14 at 8 p.m., the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture will host a Night Out at the Grand Ole Opry House for Farm Bureau members and guests, featuring award-winning singer/songwriter Phil Vassar. Vassar has co-written songs with country greats such as Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson. His first self-titled album came out in 2000 and went gold; his latest album, Noel, celebrates the holidays.

Night Out at the Grand Ole Opry House will be hosted by former Miss Mississippi and Great American Country personality, Nan Kelley. Other performers include: The Driven Bow; Line Dancers: Barry and Dari Anne Amato; The Fiddleheads; and Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman performing together. General admission tickets for this fundraiser, which is sponsored by Chevrolet, are $55 each plus tax.

ZimmComm will once again provide coverage of the event.

AFBF, Agribusiness, Events

Farm Credit – Working For Producers

Jamie Johansen

Whether it’s managing risk associated with high prices, a drought or the lack of a farm bill, Farm Credit Services of America shared with us at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk that producers are always #1 in their mind.

Doug Stark, President and CEO of Farm Credit Services of America, spoke with me about how producers can take advantage of the servies they have to offer.

“There is a lot going on in agriculture right now. Certainly the drought and the weather has occupied most producers minds throughout this year. But fortunately we have crop insurance, which was a great safety net. That leads to the farm bill and the debt deficit and getting something done there. It’s been an interesting year and challenging year in a lot of regards, but at the same time producers are doing well.”

“There are some really good opportunities out there in agriculture and we are seeing that the Farm Credit system is really doing a good job stepping up and financing producers when they need credit to expand and grow and buy land in some cases at record prices. And in other cases we just need to support them because they were impacted by the drought and by high feed costs.”

Listen to my complete interview with Doug here: Doug Stark - Farm Credit

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, Crop Protection, Insurance, NAFB

BCS Communications Holiday Party

Chuck Zimmerman

The holiday season has officially begun. How do I know? Because the annual BCS Communications Holiday Party has taken place. For all I know, it’s still going on!

Here are the partners, (l-r) Illinois Blasdel, Leigh Ann Cleaver and Kelly Schwalbe. They know how to have a party. If you couldn’t attend then as you just might guess, I took some photos to share. Speaking of share, Cher made an appearance and not only posed with party goers, she sang a couple of songs with the band and partnered up on one with Kelly (Sonny) Schwalbe. Yeah, it was funny.

Agencies

A Kansas City Moon

Chuck Zimmerman

Pulling out of the Kansas City airport last night I had stop on the side of the road for a quick photo of the nearly full moon. Also showing very brightly was the planet Jupiter. My photo doesn’t do the scene justice. There was a lot more color just a few minutes earlier but I couldn’t get out of the rental car center fast enough to catch it.

It was a pretty greeting to Kansas City, MO where I’m attending today’s Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, PRRS ARC&E Seminar. That would be porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, area regional control & elimination seminar. Remember that. It’s so much easier to just say PRRS!

Lots of photos and interviews will be done so that we can spread the word and an understanding of what is possible and being done to control this virus.

Agribusiness, Boehringer Ingelheim

What keeps you busy during winter?

Melissa Sandfort

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, ” What gadget is on your Christmas wish list?”

Our poll results: Twenty-four percent said other; twenty percent said tablet; ten percent said wide screen TV; seven percent said desktop computer; three percent said smartphone; and three percent said notebook computer. Some of the things falling in the Other category include: Powerball Jackpot, camcorder, desktop hard drive, laser pointer, car and gun.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “With harvest over what are your winter plans?” During the winter months, you may not see farmers out in the field but that doesn’t mean they’re not busy! So what will you be doing until next year’s planting season? Let us know!

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

ZimmPoll

Seed Shindig in Chicago

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s all about the seed next week in Chicago at the CSS 2012 & Seed Expo. That’s short for the 67th annual Corn & Sorghum Conference, 42nd annual Soybean Seed Research Conference and 36th Seed Expo which will be held December 4-7 at the Hyatt Regency.

American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Chairman Blake Curtis of New Mexico says this is a great event for anyone in the industry to learn about everything from new traits and equipment to issues impacting the industry, such as “The Accord” – as the new agreement regarding the transition of biotechnology traits is called. “As we end up with expiring rights associated with the patents of these traits, the question is how do we move forward?” Curtis said in an interview at the NAFB Trade Talk earlier this month.

The technical name for the first part of “the accord” is the Generic Event Marketability and Access Agreement (GEMAA) and it was opened up for signature on October 31 through the efforts of ASTA and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

Under the GEMAA section of the Accord, signatories to the agreement that have developed proprietary regulatory information to support the authorizations for events globally would be required to provide notice of patent expiration three years before the last patent on the biotechnology event expires and provide access to the generic event at patent expiration. Additionally, the regulatory data owner must elect to either maintain regulatory responsibility on its own for the whole marketplace for at least four years after the last sale of the product, or share or transition this responsibility with other users. If no interest is expressed by other signatories, the owner could discontinue the event.

In addition to the GEMAA, the BIO-ASTA group continues to work on a Data Use and Compensation Agreement (DUCA) that complements the GEMAA and will have additional provisions related to structured access to regulatory data, and data compensation, to compliment the bilateral negotiated process in use today by companies to create novel combination products. The DUCA is targeted to be open for signature in the first quarter of 2013. “It’s a great opportunity to make available these traits and this information to everyone in the seed industry,” said Craig.

We will be attending the CSS and Seed Expo next week to learn more about this issue and to celebrate the signing of a new MOU between US and China seed associations.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Blake from NAFB: Interview with ASTA Chairman Blake Curtis

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

ASTA, Audio, Biotech, Seed

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Capper/Hayes paper on the environmental and economic effects of removing productivity-enhancing technologies from U.S. beef production has been officially published.
  • The national report for the 2011 Economic Analysis of Animal Agriculture, conducted by Agralytica Consulting, is attached and can be found by clicking here.
  • Brighton agency recently hired several new employees including Sally Thomas, Kathy Meyer, Carrie Doza, Allison Stein and Kelli Naegeli.
  • Ten scholarships of $1,500 each are being awarded to outstanding students studying for a future in the beef industry.
Zimfo Bytes

US Wheat Associates Fight For Farm Bill

Jamie Johansen

US Wheat Associates sat down with me during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk to discuss how their checkoff dollars are used to promote and market US wheat and what the lack of a farm bill come January will mean to US wheat producers.

Dan Hughes, Vice Chairman for US Wheat Associates, shared his passion for the industry as a farmer and as an advocate for other US wheat producers.

“US Wheat Associates is a group of 19 states that has wheat checkoffs. These are funds generated by producers in each state to help in marketing and promotion. We take those funds and leverage with USDA funds. We get grants from the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program. For each dollar the producer puts in we get a grant for $2 or $3 from USDA. That is how we fund our overseas offices. We have 15 offices around the world. From Korea to Africa. From these locations we service the buyers of US wheat.”

“The lack of a farm bill is a great concern for us right at the moment. As I mentioned earlier we rely heavily on MAP and FMD funding from USDA. Currently without a farm bill those program have expired. So by the end of January we will have to begin closing offices overseas. That is really not expectable because we are not the only wheat supplier in the world.”

Listen to my complete interview with Dan here: Dan Hughes - US Wheat Associates

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Farm Bill, NAFB, Wheat