NAMP and NMA Unveil Logo for New Association

Melissa Sandfort

The executive committees of the North American Meat Processors Association and the National Meat Association met last week in Washington, DC, for two days to continue working out the logistics of bringing together the two organizations under the banner of the North American Meat Association (NAMA).

They agreed everything is on track to complete the consolidation by the target date of July 1, 2012.

The map image emphasizes that its membership and scope of work is North American. The three-word tag line highlights what it offers members.

One of the first tangible results will be a new NAMA Membership Directory delivered to all members by the start date. There will be a strategic planning session during the summer months, and the combined committees from the two associations will continue working on critical issues for the industry and the new association.

The two executive committees also confirmed a first year of major events for the new association and other events popular with each group over the years.

Uncategorized

Farmers Willing To Share Their Harvest

Chuck Zimmerman

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Would you be willing to donate the proceeds from one acre of your farm to help your local food bank?” Apparently we have some very generous farmers out there since 61% said Yes and 39% said No. Of course they may be many areas that don’t even have a local food bank too. I don’t know. But we sure appreciate everyone who participated!

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “With all of the discussion on projected corn acres this year, how many acres of corn do you expect to plant this year?” So how about it corn growers. I wonder how many will grow corn for the first time this year too. Should be interesting. Let your corn growing friends and neighbors to know we’d like to know what they plan and remember this is an anonymous poll! Use this link to share.

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

ZimmPoll

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Alamo Group Inc. and Alo jointly announced a major new manufacturing and distribution alliance for their tractor loader businesses in North America.
  • Nominations for the 2012 PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence are now being accepted. Recipients will be honored at the International Conference On Precision Agriculture in Indianapolis this July.
  • RFD-TV and Alltech have announced a partnership with iHigh.com which could reshape the way people around the world look at agriculture.
  • Incofin Investment Management, Fairtrade International and Grameen Foundation announced they are establishing the first fund to focus on the unmet demand of smallholder farmers for long-term loans. Starbucks Coffee Company joins as the Fund’s first anchor private investor with a$1.3m commitment.
Zimfo Bytes

USDA Confirms BSE Case

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today confirmed the nation’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow from central California.

“The carcass of the animal is being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed. It was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health. Additionally, milk does not transmit BSE,” said USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford. “Samples from the animal in question were tested at USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Confirmatory results using immunohistochemistry and western blot tests confirmed the animal was positive for atypical BSE, a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed.”

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Cattle Health and Well-being Committee Chairman Tom Talbot noted that BSE is fast approaching eradication worldwide. “According to USDA, there were only 29 cases of BSE worldwide in 2011, which is a 99 percent reduction since the peak in 1992 of more than 37,300 cases,” he said. “We commend USDA and animal health experts for effectively identifying and eliminating the potential risks associated with BSE.”

“American beef and dairy products are safe,” stressed American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman. “The safeguards our government has in place to detect any incidence of this disease are clearly working. The report of a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, discovered during the pre-rendering process, is proof that our detection system works.”

USDA officials remain confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products and will “continue to communicate findings in a timely and transparent manner.”

Animal Health, Beef, Dairy, USDA

The Passing of Judy Henderson

Chuck Zimmerman

Everyone involved in the agricultural marketing industry knows Lynn Henderson, Owner/Publisher, Agri Marketing Magazine. Many of you may not have known Lynn’s wife Judy who has been battling illness for some time. Judy passed early this morning. Here’s an excerpt from a note from Lynn:

Early this morning, my beloved wife Judy left this earth to be with our God. She passed away peacefully and had a smile on her face.

Thank you so much for all of your support during this journey our family has been on.

Best wishes,
Lynn

Judy met Lynn when she was a Art Director at Century Communications. They moved to St. Louis when Lynn became Pres/CEO of Doane Agricultural Services. She recently joined Henderson Communications on the editorial staff of its Agri Marketing magazine. A memorial service is being planned to celebrate her life. In lieu of flowers, contributions are suggested to the Windsor Crossing church and Mercy Medical Care Hospice.

Media

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Excerpts

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 347In this week’s program you’re going to hear why the Agri-Marketing Conference is such an important program to have on your schedule each year.

I’ve taken some excerpts from two of our keynote speakers, Peter Sheahan and Ross Shafer as well as an interview with one of our Conference Planning Committee members, Scott McClure, and put them into a program. Let’s get started in show order with Peter Sheahan. Peter talked about “Making it Happen: How To Turn Good Ideas Into Great Results.” Peter talks about how you take good ideas and then execute. It’s in the execution that you take those ideas and innovate!

Next we’ll move along to Ross Shafer who spoke on “Are You Still Relevant?” Of course we’d all like to think we’re relevant. One of the first things Ross says that sticks with me is the idea of “quit going to ag meetings.” He highly suggests going to meetings for other industries. He says that you’ll hear ideas in those meetings you’ll never hear in an ag meeting. That might be just what you need to stay relevant!

And finally we’ll visit with Scott McClure, Brighton Agency, who was our Vice Chair of this year’s NAMA Conference Planning Committee. Scott says the success of this year’s Conference is a combination of the enthusiasm in our industry and the coming together of one of the largest gatherings of people we’ve had in a decade. Scott also says he worked on a great planning committee this year and gives them the credit for coming up with a really good program that included speakers like Peter and Ross.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Program

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, 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.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

BASF Survey Confirms Glyphosate Resistance

Cindy Zimmerman

Farmers are responding to the threat of glyphosate resistance, according to results from a recent national BASF survey.

BASFThe survey found that about four out of five farmers plan to alter their weed control programs in 2012 due to resistance issues.

More than 50 percent of farmers surveyed acknowledged the existence of glyphosate-resistant weeds in their fields, and many of them blamed resistance for hurting their yields. In addition, even farmers who have not seen glyphosate resistance in their fields said they would make changes to their weed control programs.

BASF Technical Market Manager Dr. Dan Westberg found the results encouraging. “It indicates that farmers understand that today’s weed control challenges demand the use of a more comprehensive management approach,” he said. “For a long time, farmers relied almost solely on glyphosate to control their weed problems, but those days are over. The repeated use of a single chemistry is the number one reason many have developed resistant weed populations.”

A majority of survey respondents acknowledged the need to do more, with more than 80 percent saying they would be willing to invest additional dollars to control resistant weeds.

Read more from BASF here.

Tell us if you are excited about the 2012 growing season by clicking here.

BASF, Crop Protection, weed management

MGEX Debuts Canadian Conference Call

Cindy Zimmerman

MGEXThe Minneapolis Grain Exchange has been doing a monthly conference calls with commentary on USDA crop and supply/demand reports for many years. Now they are doing the same for their friends north of the border.

Today was the inaugural MGEX conference call in conjunction with the Stats Canada agricultural data releases, following the release of March Intentions of Principal Field Crop Areas, 2012 report. The call included commentary on the data from Dennis Cajigas from Zaner Group. The first call had several Canadian journalists tuned in, as well as farm broadcaster Al Gustin of KFYR in Bismark, ND who asked about the impact recent developments regarding the Canadian Wheat Board may have had on this year’s planting intentions in Canada.

All of the MGEX conference calls are posted on the exchange website – links right on the front page. Contact Rita Maloney or Joe Victor at MGEX if you would like to receive notices about upcoming calls.

Listen to today’s MGEX Canadian crop conference call here: MGEX Canadian Conference Call

Audio, Wheat

Iowa State Student NAMA Wins Marketing Competition

Chuck Zimmerman

The announcement of the student NAMA team that wins the annual marketing competition at the annual Agri-Marketing Conference is always so emotional. There are smiles, cheers and tears. And you even find them on the students too!

This year the winning team is the Iowa State University Student NAMA team. I did not get to be involved in the team competition much this year so somebody needs to help me out and add a comment about what their product was. Sorry, I just did not get notes of that. However, I did capture the winners on video. Think they’re excited?

The other winners included:

2nd place – University of Minnesota,

3rd place – Kansas State University,

4th place – University of Wisconsin-Madison,

5th place – Arizona State University,

6th place – University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Education, NAMA, University

Flapcakes with Chef Ray

Chuck Zimmerman

Chef Ray made both kinds, pancakes and flapjacks. We call them flapcakes. So did you AgWired fans at the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference survive the Brownfield Party for a little After Party Pancakes with Rhea + Kaiser? These folks did and I did too. There’s just something about having an early morning breakfast and then a later in the morning breakfast that gets your day off to a great start. Know what I mean?

In case you didn’t make it to Chef Ray’s breakfast you can still learn a little etiquette from him.

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Agencies, NAMA, Video