From New Zealand to BASF

Cindy Zimmerman

The Vice President of U.S. Crop Protection for BASF decided he wanted a career in agriculture when he was still a young boy growing up on a small farm in New Zealand.

“Mom and Dad farmed on a small holding just outside Christchurch, New Zealand,” Paul said during a recent interview at the BASF Ag Media Solutions Summit. “So farming’s in my blood. It’s all I’ve ever done, all I’ve ever known.” His family operation had mixed crops, peas and cereals, and sheep. “I also worked on a number of local dairies, milking cows on Sundays, and worked on a poultry farm as well,” he said, which impressed upon him the importance of hard work and dedication in agriculture.

Paul moved into agribusiness by taking a job with an ag retailer in New Zealand. “I was lucky to have some great bosses who helped me in terms of guiding my career,” Paul said. He moved on to a seed business in Australia after a few years. “You think that Australia and New Zealand are right next to each other, but the agricultural systems are different in lots of ways,” he said, noting that he worked there for 15 years, including three years with BASF.

Paul has been with BASF for about 11 years, moving to the U.S. eight years ago. “I really enjoy working with my team and seeing us achieve our goals of helping growers push their yields even further,” he said. “When you see growers doing really cool things with this technology, it’s fun.”

Learn more about Paul and BASF in this interview: BASF VP Paul Rea

Audio, BASF, Farming

Ag Media Summit Closing Banquet

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2012 Ag Media Summit is nearing the end. Tonight we had a lot of award presentations. I’ll have some of those posted for you soon.

After the awards banquet it was time to relax and we did that on the dance floor and in the hallways. Just another time to enjoy fellowship with friends and colleagues in the ag communications industry.

I’ve updated the photo album. So please feel free to enjoy and share. I have more interviews to share when time on the agriblogging highway allows.

2012 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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

Day One is a Wrap at AgCareers HR Roundtable

Jamie Johansen

The first day of the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable is a wrap. Agribusiness representatives, university personnel and HR professionals have listened two to renowned speakers and already have had a fun evening networking with agriculture colleagues from across the country sponsored by ADM.

A big shout out to Tyson Foods for hosting the event. A pre-conference tour was offered where attendees had the opportunity to take a behind the scenes look into how Tyson’s works their magic. It is easy to tell we are all welcome on their campus because every employee I have seen has greeted me with a smile on their face.

Greg Honey, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Farm Credit Canada (FCC), took the stage after a warm welcome from Eric Spell, President of AgCareers. He discussed the importance of reinventing the image of agriculture and the food industry. FCC just launched AgricultureMoreThanEver.ca where you can share your agriculture story and listen to others.

Economist and futurist, Dr. Jay Lehr, has five decades of expertise in agricultural economics, agronomy, environmental science and business administration. He talked about how the price of ‘X’ impacts recruitment and retention in the agriculture and food industry. He challenged us all to spend two hours a month simply talking about what we know about agriculture to someone different. He shared this video of him doing just that in San Francisco, CA.

Follow the event on Twitter using #AgRT and check out our photo album for the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable.

AgCareers, Agribusiness, Education

Soybean Farmer Leaders Excited About New Uses

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. soybean crop may be struggling this summer, but the farmers who grow it know there will still be plenty to go around and they are excited about the newest biobased soy products in the pipelines for the domestic market.

Left to right here are Dale Profit and Jim Stillman – both from Iowa, Karen Fear of Indiana, and Lewis Bainbridge of South Dakota. They are all members of the United Soybean Board who attended this week’s USB Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop in Dearborn, Michigan. I talked with each of them about the event, the importance of biobased products made from soy, partnerships with companies like Ford, and how the crop looks in their areas.

Jim is USB Vice Chairman, a 4th generation farmer from Emmetsburg, and he was impressed to find out that Henry Ford originally used soy oil to make some of the components of his early vehicles and tractors. “To think that it started clear back in the ’30s,” he said. “What if we had carried on? What would we see today?”

Listen to my interview with Jim here: USB Vice Chairman Jim Stillman

As chairman of USB’s Domestic Marketing Committee, Lewis was pleased to announce the new Collegiate Biobased Network to help grow the scientists who will create the new products of the future. “It’s an opportunity for outstanding students working on biobased products to actually see something brought into the market,” he said. “Gives students a chance to interact with folks who are actually getting the products on-line.”

Listen to my interview with Lewis here: USB Director Lewis Bainbridge

Karen is on the USB New Uses Committee and she stressed how the soybean checkoff works with private industry like Ford Motor Company. “It really helps the farmer understand where his dollars are going,” she said.

Listen to my interview with Karen here: USB Director Karen Fear

Dale is also on the New Uses Committee and says even though the types of new uses for soy would make up only a small percentage of the crop, it’s value added for the farmer.

Listen to my interview with Dale here: USB Director Dale Profit

Check out the photo album below and the SoyBiobased.org website as well.

2012 USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop Photos

Audio, Soybean, USB

Ag Media Summit InfoExpo

Chuck Zimmerman

Last night the InfoExpo opened for the Ag Media Summit. There are at least 76 companies exhibiting here and developing relationships with ag editors.

I’ve interviewed quite a few and will be sharing those in coming days. One of our first time exhibitors is I Love Farmers. They were selling t-shirts, caps and sweat shirts and doing a great business. This is a good organization to support.

2012 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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

Chairing The Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 360It takes a lot of work to put on the premier event in the agricultural communications industry – the Ag Media Summit. To learn more about it I sat down with Keri Geffert English, Osborn Barr, who is the Chair of this year’s event.

Keri is pictured next to Don Norton in this photo from the new member reception here at the Ag Media Summit.

Keri got involved in the Ag Media Summit as an intern 13 years ago and has attended all of them since that time. She is chairing the steering committee which consists of representatives from each of the organizations involved in the conference. Besides committees there are a lot of volunteers who work to put on this event. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing all about it from Keri in our conversation.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Chairing the Ag Media Summit

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

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

2012 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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

Farms Threatened by Federal Tax Changes

Chuck Zimmerman

wlgIf the combination of extreme drought and historically hot temperatures isn’t giving farmers enough to worry about this summer, sweeping changes to the federal wealth transfer tax system are looming large. Yet, many family farmers are not aware of the full implications of these possible changes – including losing their farms.

“Few farmers fully understand there is a limit to the amount of wealth that can be transferred from generation to generation, and those who don’t take advantage of the current tax environment could be forced to sell their land to pay the estate taxes on that very land,” says Milwaukee-based estate planning attorney Eido Walny. “Since the IRS does not differentiate between wealth held in the form of cash versus land, equipment, or other forms, a farmer with a $2 million farm is treated the same as a Wall Street banker with $2 million cash in the bank.”

Get more information by downloading the complete release from Walny Legal Group: Full Release

Agribusiness, Insurance

Senator and Secretary Attend Biobased Workshop

Cindy Zimmerman

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were keynote speakers at the 2012 United Soybean Board Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Michigan this week to show their strong support for new products made from agricultural commodities.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” said Sen. Stabenow. “I don’t believe you have an economy unless you make things and grow things.”

She noted that soybeans are at the top of the list when it comes to developing biobased products. “There’s not a more exciting opportunity than focusing on soy,” Stabenow said. “It’s really extraordinary how we’re going to be able to focus on giving new markets to our farmers, get us off of foreign oil and create jobs, all at the same time.”

The senator made a few comments about the inability of Congress to get a new “farm bill” completed before leaving for August recess and talked about the bill that did get passed by the Senate. “We expanded the energy title beyond biofuels,” she said. “To be able to focus on our biobased marketing program and our biopreferred program.”

Listen to or download Sen. Stabenow’s remarks here: Sen. Debbie Stabenow

Secretary Vilsack spoke directly to the many students who attended the workshop and encouraged them to work in the field to develop new products. “This is an unlimited future that you have before you and you get to shape it,” he said.

Vilsack also talked about the lack of a “food, farm and jobs bill” out of Congress. “The risk that we run in delay is not just that we create uncertainty … it runs the risk of having this discussion wrapped into a much larger discussion … what are we going to do about the budget deficit,” he said. “Agriculture is already doing its part.”

Listen to or download Vilsack’s remarks here: Secy. Vilsack at USB Biobased Workshop

Lots more to come on this event – especially about how Ford is getting back to its roots in using soybased products to build vehicles in addition to running them. Cool stuff!

Check out the photo album below and the SoyBiobased.org website as well.

2012 USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop Photos

Audio, Biodiesel, Biotech, Research, Soybean, USB, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Jamie Johansen

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Broadhead was recently named agency of record for Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. cattle division. Broadhead will lead the development of all advertising, collateral and public relations efforts for BICL’s beef and dairy product portfolio.
  • Prosperity announces their first grant training course. The two-day course will include a five-part webinar series along with a live conference call for Q & A. Content includes: Application basics, effective grant services, grant funding feasibility, must knows for major grants and post application expectations.
  • Animal Welfare Approved introduced the only audited certification program in the United States for farms coexisting with predators. It is specifically designed to assess and reward wildlife conservation practices achieved at the farm or ranch level.
  • Monsanto just announced a new, expanded pre-emergence label for Warrant Herbicide. The label will help to provide farmers the flexibility to manage small seeded grasses and broadleaf weeds, as well as tough-to-control weeds.
    Zimfo Bytes

    BIVI Improving Animal Welfare & Public’s Perceptions

    John Davis

    Our friends at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. want to improve livestock health through preventive measures, while at the same time bridge the gap between producers and consumers who are more removed from production agriculture than ever before. The company has launched the Prevention Works platform to raise awareness and foster conversations between veterinarians, their clients and consumers.

    The goal is to enhance the animal’s resistance to disease and reduce exposure before diseases become a threat to the beef or dairy herd. Through proper management, animal handling techniques, a sound vaccination and deworming program and adequate operation biosecurity, incidence of disease in the herd can be greatly curbed. This can lead to a decrease in the need for antibiotic use and overall animal welfare improvement.

    “Prevention is key,” says Dr. Craig Jones, Director of Cattle Professional Services, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. “If we pay attention to how we’re managing our animals and take the necessary steps to prevent disease, that goes a long way in improving animal well-being and animal performance.” Read More

    Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim, Livestock, Video