Faces of Farming & Ranching Entry Deadline

Chuck Zimmerman

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance is still looking for entries in their “Faces of Farming and Ranching” contest. Here are a couple of them, Kristin Reese, Local Flavor Foods and Jeff Fowle, KK Bar Ranch. They were on hand at the Ag Media Summit to talk about the search to find new ambassadors of agriculture. You’ve got until September 8 to enter the contest.

USFRA is looking for standout farmers and ranchers who are proud of what they do, eager to share their stories of continuous improvement with others and who are actively involved today in sharing those stories. Farmers and ranchers who raise a variety of foods differently, at differing scale and in all areas of the country are encouraged to apply as it is important to show American agriculture and all of its diversity.

Entries will be accepted through September 8, 2012 at www.FoodDialogues.com. Ten to 15 finalists will be announced at the November 2012 Food Dialogues event in New York City. This national announcement will open a public online voting period where visitors can vote for their favorite candidates. Those votes will be factored into the decision to determine “The Faces of Farming and Ranching.”

Winners will be announced in early January 2013 based on votes and the recommendation of a panel of judges.

The public will get to know the USFRA “Faces” winners through national media interviews, advertising and public appearances. For their time, they will receive a $10,000 stipend as well as a $5,000 donation to their preferred agriculture-related or local charity in their name.

You can listen to my interview with Kristen and Jeff here: Interview with Kristin Reese and Jeff Fowle

2012 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 Ag Media Summit is sponsored by FMC
Ag Groups, Ag Media Summit, Audio, USFRA

OCM Joins With HSUS To Target Beef Checkoff

Chuck Zimmerman

Really? You know, it’s one thing to have a disagreement but it’s quite another to join with a wacko organization like H$U$. But that’s what the Organization for Competitive Markets has done according to a release I received from NCBA. So much for the OCM’s credibility. Don’t OCM members realize that their new partner wants to put them out of business? If HSUS has its way their won’t be any markets, competitive or otherwise. You can watch video from the OCM press conference here and here.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President J.D. Alexander expressed disgust following an announcement that the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) has formed a partnership with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to destroy more than 25 years of market development and consumer demand building by the Beef Checkoff Program.

Specifically, OCM announced yesterday evening that it will file a lawsuit today seeking an injunction against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the Beef Promotion Operating Committee. OCM President and Director Fred Stokes stated during the press briefing that HSUS is helping fund its efforts to file the lawsuit. OCM claims to advocate for a fair, competitive agricultural marketplace; however, in doing so it partnered with an organization known for its anti-agriculture agenda. According to Alexander, independent research shows the beef checkoff is supported by nearly 75 percent of cattlemen and women.

“HSUS is an organization going state by state vowing to end production agriculture by outlawing scientifically validated production practices in animal agriculture. Their efforts put people out of business and often jeopardize the well-being of livestock,” said Alexander. Read More

Ag Groups, Beef, Wackos

BIVI Talking Swine Health

Chuck Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica is holding the 12th annual Swine Health Seminar in North Carolina once again. Twelve years means something is working and I’m recognizing a lot of faces since Cindy and I have been covering this event for a number of years now.

To find out more about the seminar I spoke with BIVI’s Ron Rampersad who welcomed everyone this morning. The program includes a number of speakers like Laurie Hueneke, National Pork Producers Council and a number of swine health researchers. I’ll have more interviews to share from them. The event is also a family oriented one with plenty of time for social interaction including with the participant’s families.

Interview with Ron Rampersad

I’m collecting photos from the seminar here: 2012 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

USDA: Corn Down 13%, Soybeans Down 12%

John Davis

The drought is certainly taking its toll on row crops, as the latest USDA crop report out this morning shows that the corn harvest this year will be down 13 percent from last year’s numbers, with soybeans expected to be 12 percent lower than 2011. Meanwhile, cotton will see a 13 percent increase while winter wheat should be up 1 percent from the July forecast numbers.

Corn production is forecast at 10.8 billion bushels, down 13 percent from 2011 and the lowest production since 2006. Based on conditions as of August 1, yields are expected to average 123.4 bushels per acre, down 23.8 bushels from 2011. If realized, this will be the lowest average yield since 1995. Area harvested for grain is forecast at 87.4 million acres, down 2 percent from the June forecast but up 4 percent from 2011.

Soybean production is forecast at 2.69 billion bushels, down 12 percent from last year. Based on August 1 conditions, yields are expected to average 36.1 bushels per acre, down 5.4 bushels from last year. If realized, the average yield will be the lowest since 2003. Area for harvest is forecast at 74.6 million acres, down 1 percent from June but up 1 percent from 2011. Read More

Corn, Soybean, USDA

American Coalition for Ethanol President’s Award

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) President’s Award was a family affair this year.

ACE President Lars Herseth, a South Dakota farmer and rancher, was honored to present the award this year to his daughter and former Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin. Three generations of Herseths are pictured here – Lars, Stephanie and her son Zachery – who is absolutely adorable.

It was a great pleasure to meet this distinguished and talented woman who is very proud of her agricultural heritage and was a great advocate for farmers and ranchers and the ethanol industry while serving in Congress from 2004 to 2011. It was an even greater pleasure to find out that she has taken a position as general counsel with Raven Industries, the sponsor of our AgWired app!

“Growing up on my family’s farm has defined me,” Stephanie told me. “One of the key reasons that I took the opportunity to join Raven Industries was to be home full time and to raise Zachery closer to family where he can spend time on the farm and have that same experience.”

Listen to my interview with Stephanie here: Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
2012 ACE Conference Photo Album

ACE, Audio, Ethanol

Support I Love Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

I Love Farmers.org was one of the busiest booths during InfoExpo at the Ag Media Summit. T-shirt sales were doing well. If you didn’t get yours then go to their website to order.

Working the booth was Luke DeGroot who says that in the last year they’ve made some great partnerships with businesses “who believe in the same things we believe in.” With support from one of those organizations they’ve started Awareness Days on college campuses and plan to increase the number of these they do in the future. For an Awareness Day they get materials in participating students hands and have them distribute those materials in their school plazas while talking with their peers about where their food comes from. In their first effort they had 16 schools involved!

Has your company thought about supporting I Love Farmers – They Feed My Soul? I recommend it. We need to see this program grow. Please like them on Facebook.

You can listen to my interview with Luke here: Interview with Luke DeGroot

2012 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 Ag Media Summit is sponsored by FMC
Ag Media Summit, Audio, Education, University

Welcome AgChatOZ to AgCareers Roundtable

Jamie Johansen

AgCareers welcomed Danica Leys, founder of AgChatOZ, to the 2012 Ag & Food HR Roundtable. After learning about AgChat Foundation here in the United States, she felt a similar dialogue was needed in Australia. AgChatOZ holds weekly online conversations on Twitter about topics and issues farmers face in Australia. I was fortunate to sit down with Danica and chat with her about some of the similar issues facing us in agriculture.

“A lot of the issues talked about here in the last day or two are really similar to some of the issues we face back home. One of the most important areas being discussed was getting kids interested in agriculture and therefore getting them to universities and graduating. We don’t have enough graduates at the moment to fill all the jobs that are posted every year and if that keeps continuing we will have some serious problems.”

“The other positive message I take home is that it is a really good time to be involved in agriculture. We are the same in Australia. There are lots of things happening, new technology, new developments, the people involved in agriculture are very passionate at what they do and that is the same back home.”

You can listen to my interview with Danica here: Interview with Danica Leys

Check out our photo album for the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable.

AgCareers, Agribusiness, Audio, Education

AgCareers Recognizes Russ Weathers

Jamie Johansen

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of the North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable, AgCareers took time to recognize a few people who have supported them since the beginning. One of those individuals was Russ Weathers, President of Agriculture Future of America (AFA). Both organizations started about the same time and each has grown successful in the support for career placement in the agriculture industry.

“Our organization really focuses on helping college students who are talented, passionate and committed for a career in agriculture prepare for that career. So, on a daily basis we are doing programming, student identification, recruiting and we work with universities and corporations across the country leverage that student into intern working situations.”

“I attended the very first HR Roundtable and from that very first experience one finds that it is a terrific place to network with not only the collegiate leadership that works with students in career services, but also with corporate recruiters.”

You can listen to my interview with Russ here: Interview with Russ Weathers

Check out our photo album for the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable.

AgCareers, Agribusiness, Audio, Education

Zimfo Bytes

Jamie Johansen

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Nominations for the 2011 St. Louis Agribusiness Club Agribusiness Leader of the Year are due September 17. The award is given to an outstanding individual in the St. Louis region who demonstrates leadership and promotes agriculture throughout the area.
  • Arkema and United Phosphorus Inc. have agreed that Arkema will assume all sales and marketing responsibilities for Paladin soil fumigant for United States and Mexico. Arkema is the world’s largest producer of thiochemicals.
  • The National Grange welcomes Austin Miller to the D.C. headquarters as the new Program Assistant for the 145-year-old nonprofit, fraternal advocacy organization focusing on rural America and agriculture.
  • Kent Meister, field staff member of Pioneer FBFM, was recently elected to serve as the president of the Farm Financial Standards Council. He succeeds Kathy Rancour, accounting manager for Christiansen Land and Cattle Company, who will now serve as the past-president on the organization’s Executive Committee.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Ag Industry Not Ready for Cloud Data Storage

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It doesn’t look like the ag world is ready to embrace the cloud to store precious data. Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Will you use the cloud to store your data?” According to the results 62% said No, too many risks. Only 20% said Yes, already do and 18% said Yes but looking for better options. So how do you handle the storage of all your data today? Stick it onto an external hard drive? Keep it on your computer’s hard drive? Are you backing up? Do you keep a copy of that data off site? Something to think about if you haven’t already. We don’t use the cloud to store data for the reason that we have lots of data and in order to upload and access it you need more massive internet access capabilities than currently available. Then there’s the whole cost of that storage on an on-going basis. We triple back up our data too. This system is working for us right now.

    Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, Do ag journalists (broadcast/print/web) adhere to good ethical practices in reporting? This topic of ethics always comes up at meetings like the Ag Media Summit. It usually generates a lively debate. How do ag journalists handle the interaction with advertisers and maintain some kind of neutrality in their reporting? That’s a good question. Our belief is that transparency is the key. We do our best to make sure our sponsors are known and the interviews we do with them are right there for you to listen to directly. Feel free to respond or posts your thoughts here in comments.

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

    Farming, ZimmPoll