Dave Barry Leaves Farmers Laughing at AFBF

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf annual hawaiiGrowing up in south Florida, I have been a fan of humorist Dave Barry from the time he was still just the humor columnist at the Miami Herald before he hit the big time, so it was a thrill for me to see him at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting. And while he was unknown to many of the farmers and ranchers in the crowd before today, he was really hilarious and they know him now.

Barry is a big city guy who admitted to knowing nothing about agriculture except for an attempt to grow zucchini, but he was quick to pick up on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s announcement about closing many Farm Service Agency offices around the country. “I’m kinda ticked off because Secretary Vilsack took my entire speech,” Barry said when he took the stage. “So, I’m just going to give the zip codes of the FSA offices that are going to close and then I’m outta here.”

Here’s a couple more ag-related Barry funnies:

“Americans don’t understand agriculture. Way too many Americans believe that food comes from the supermarket. That’s so stupid. It comes from the trucks parked behind the supermarket. Even I know that.”

“You do something useful, something important, you feed the entire world. If you stopped doing what you did, people would starve to death. If I stopped doing what I did, there would be a tiny, incremental drop in the world’s supply of booger jokes.”

Dave Barry also mentioned that he is still running for president. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t, everybody else is. They’re all in New Hampshire, I’m here in Hawaii with you. That’s how much I care…. I will be a friend to the American farmer and rancher. You can just text me the Farm Bill, I’m good with it.”

Here’s a sample of Dave Barry’s keynote at AFBF: Dave Barry at AFBF

AFBF 93rd Annual Meeting Photos

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Kruse Receives AFBF Distinguished Service Award

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf annual hawaiiThe American Farm Bureau Federation Monday presented its highest honor, the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award, to former Missouri Farm Bureau President Charles Kruse.

“This is a tremendous honor to receive this award,” Kruse said, accepting the award from AFBF president Bob Stallman on stage at the 93rd annual meeting with his wife Pam and current Missouri Farm Bureau president Blake Hurst. “In Farm Bureau, it’s not only about what we do, it’s about who we are. That’s what makes Farm Bureau the great organization that it is. And that’s what makes me so very proud to accept this award that I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

A fourth-generation farmer, Kruse has dedicated more than 40 years to agriculture, including service on numerous local, state and national committees, among them the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Agriculture and President George H.W. Bush’s Council on Rural America.

For 18 years, until his retirement at the end of 2010, Kruse served as president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. Prior to that, Kruse was the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, from 1985-1991.

Listen to or download Charlie Kruse’s comments accepting the AFBF Distinguished Service Award: AFBF Distinguished Service Award Winner Charlie Kruse

AFBF 93rd Annual Meeting Photos

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Vilsack Announces USDA Streamlining at AFBF Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf annual hawaiiAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed a plan for streamlining operations and cutting costs at USDA during an address to the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting on Monday.

“The USDA, like families and businesses across the country, cannot continue to operate like we did 50 years ago,” said Vilsack. “We must innovate, modernize, and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. We must build on the record accomplishments of farm communities in 2011 with a stronger, more effective USDA in 2012 and beyond.”

Part of the plan includes closing 259 domestic offices, facilities and labs across the country, as well as seven foreign offices and consolidating over 130 county Farm Service Agency offices in 32 states. “Of the 131 offices on the list, 35 currently have no employees,” Vilsack said. “Let that sink in for a second.”

A map and list of impacted offices can be found here.

The Secretary outlined other budget cutting measures for USDA, such as consolidating more than 700 cell phone plans into about ten.

Listen to or download Vilsack’s entire comments to AFBF annual meeting here: Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack at AFBF annual meeting

Listen to or download Vilsack’s press conference at AFBF here: Vilsack Press Conference

AFBF 93rd Annual Meeting Photos

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Aloha from NAFB President

Cindy Zimmerman

Aloha from yet another president at the 93rd American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting – the president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB). Tom Steever of Brownfield Ag News gave the traditional NAFB president greeting at the start of the closing general session Monday – and was darn near as funny as keynote speaker and Pulitzer Prize winning humorist Dave Barry.

Watch NAFB’s fearless leader Tom Steever here:

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Aloha from Hawaii Farm Bureau President

Cindy Zimmerman

On the American Farm Bureau annual meeting blog is a nice video interview that Janice Person (@JPLovesCotton) did with Hawaii Farm Bureau president Dean Okimoto, a farmer on Oahu who mainly grows baby greens, herbs and specialty vegetables for restaurants in Oahu or to sell through farmers’ markets.

Dean talks with Janice about agriculture in Hawaii, which mainly features small farms compared to the mainland but with year-round productivity. Dean also discusses the importance of the ag community in Aloha State.

Enjoy, and be sure to check out the AFBF meeting blog for the perspectives of guest bloggers from around the country who are contributing.

AFBF, Video

Missouri Rancher New Farm Bureau YF&R Chair

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf annual hawaiiThe new chairman of the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) committee is a 4th generation cattle producer from Southwest Missouri who is enthusiastic and optimistic about the future of agriculture for his generation and those to come.

“I want nothing more than for my children to be the fifth generation on the same property that my great-grandparents started back in the early 1900s,” says Glen Cope of Aurora, Missouri about his young son and daughter. “The traditions of farming and ranching are something that I think Americans should appreciate – certainly I do.”

Glen hopes to tap into the motivated and dedicated leadership of state Farm Bureau YF&R committees across the nation. “I think more and more young farmers are returning back to the farm,” he said. “They see the potential that there is and I think there’s renewed excitement in people who have grown up on the farm.”

Glen was elected to the national YF&R chairmanship this week at the 93rd AFBF annual meeting and will officially take over as chairman in February at the end of the committee’s leadership conference to serve for one year. Glen has also served on the state level as chairman of the Missouri Farm Bureau YF&R and currently serves on the Missouri Beef Industry Council board of directors as well. The YF&R program includes men and women between the ages of 18 and 35. The program’s goals are to help younger Farm Bureau members learn more about agriculture, network with other farmers and become future leaders in agriculture and Farm Bureau.

Listen to or download my interview with Glen Cope here: New AFBF YF&R Chairman Glen Cope

AFBF 93rd Annual Meeting Photos

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Get The AgFax

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 334During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I got to visit with and get to know AgFax with husband/wife partners Debra Ferguson and Owen Taylor. Owen conducted a conference session titled, “New vs. Old Information Sources to Clientele,” as part of the segment on social media in production agriculture. As a new media company, we can relate to that!

AgFax is “Where Ag Goes For Information” and their mission statement is “Make it as easy as possible for our community of readers to find and/or receive needed information.” Owen says they started publishing a cotton newsletter in California 21 years ago. After realizing everyone had a fax machine they started using the mechanism to distribute a growing number of newsletters and information. Then came a website and then came social media. Sound familiar? They work with a number of universities and have developed AgFax.com into a clearinghouse for ag information. And you may not be surprised to learn that they no longer send faxes!

To learn more about AgFax listen in to this week’s program: Getting The AgFax

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, 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.

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Athena For Cotton

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences my sponsor, FMC, featured two products for cotton growers, Athena and Mustang Max. I visited with Rusty Mitchell, to learn more about Athena.

Rusty says Athena was originally developed for tree fruits and vegetable crops but realized it would have a great fit in cotton. It’s a pre-mix insecticide which was initially targeting spider mite activity. In addition to spider mites he says they’ve been seeing the product pick up other pests as well. Since it covers more than one insect it provides pretty broad spectrum control. He says more product is available this year than last.

Listen in to my interview with Rusty here: Interview with Rusty Mitchell

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Cotton’s First Forty Days

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the resources available to cotton growers from the National Cotton Council is a pair of booklets on best management practices. They’re titled “The First 40 Days” and “Fruiting to Finish,” (pdf) To learn more about this project I spoke with Bill Robertson, Manager, Cotton Agronomy, Soils and Physiology, pictured toward the right in this photo.

Bill says these documents are the result of a significant amount of work. After producing the first booklet on early crop care the second one was produced. They’re both available on the National Cotton Council website. Bill says those first forty days are critical for the cotton crop. An example of one of the issues the information deals with is weed problems including resistance. He says starting clean and staying clean is the name of the game.

Listen in to my interview with Bill here to find out more about the information available in these resources: Interview with Bill Robertson

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Farm Bureau’s Thatcher on 2012 Farm Bill

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf annual hawaiiAmerican Farm Bureau Federation Congressional Relations Director Mary Kay Thatcher gives 50-50 odds on getting a new farm bill done in 2012.

“It’s going to be a real uphill battle to get it done,” Thatcher said during a farm bill session at the AFBF annual meeting on Sunday. “It’s a goal that’s certainly worth working towards because there’s going to be less money in 2013 than we have this year so the longer we wait, the more difficult it’s going to be.”

Thatcher says the AFBF board came up with a proposal for farm policy that is a totally new approach to a farm safety net, called the Systemic Risk Reduction Program or SRRP. “Instead of offering some kind of a shallow loss program where you have farmers suffer a little bit of a loss and government steps in at 13% to 25%, we believe the government should be there for the really deep catastrophic revenue losses.”

The concept would be the opposite of the shallow loss mentality of having crop insurance at the bottom and federal government at the top. “We would have the federal government at the bottom and crop insurance top that off,” Thatcher says.

The SRRP idea is going by an acronym pronounced “syrup” and with AFBF voting delegates to consider it during the policy setting part of the annual meeting on Tuesday, it remains to be seen whether they will think it’s sweet or just a bit too sticky for them.

Listen to or download Mary Kay’s comments on farm bill and SRRP here: AFBF's Mary Kay Thatcher

AFBF 93rd Annual Meeting Photos

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