Korean Ambassador Urges Passage of FTA

Cindy Zimmerman

The Korean ambassador to the United States says “time is running out” for Congress to approve pending free trade agreements and “the stakes are high.”

Ambassador Han Duk-soo was the keynote speaker at the National Pork Producers Council Strategic Investment Program luncheon at World Pork Expo on Thursday. He encouraged pork producers to “not let up” in urging Congress to ratify the FTA with South Korea, which is pending along with those for Colombia and Panama. “The disagreements in Washington that have delayed the FTA’s ratification are ironic, in that it enjoys almost unanimous support,” he noted. “America’s pork producers have been among the most vocal and active proponents of these agreements.”

Like those here in the U.S. who want to see the agreements passed, the ambassador is concerned that if they are not approved by end of summer, the presidential campaign will effectively delay them even longer.

Listen to or download the ambassador’s comments here: Korean Ambassador Han Duk-soo

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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Pork Producers Can Measure Carbon Footprint

Cindy Zimmerman

Thanks to the efforts of the Pork Checkoff, pork producers now have a tool that will allow them to calculate their carbon footprint.

The “Live Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator” was unveiled today at World Pork Expo by the National Pork Board. Pork producers Randy Spronk of Minnesota (pictured) and Roy Henry of Kansas did the introduction, as well as Rick Ulrich with the University of Arkansas, which actually developed the program.

Randy was one of the first to test the carbon footprint calculator and shared what he learned with the media and later during an educational session with producers. “The impetus for this came from producers,” Randy said. “The original intent was to identify ‘hot spots’ for energy use, areas where they could have the most impact on cost of production.”

Randy says the calculator is very simple to use and clearly shows how inputs, such as feed, energy use, manure and pig performance, are all related to the carbon footprint of a barn. Due to privacy issues and the tremendous size of the computer program, it is only available to producers via disc and cannot be downloaded from the web. Copies are being distributed here at World Pork Expo and can be ordered on-line at pork.org/sustainability.

Listen to or download comments from Roy Henry, Rick Ulrich and Randy Spronk here: Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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World Pork Expo Weather

Chuck Zimmerman

The weather has been “interesting” this morning here at World Pork Expo. This is hail coming in the sides of the Novus tent at the start of their morning press breakfast. Novus did something very smart this year. They put their whole tent display on a riser. No more flooding through the tent here.

But even with some thunder and rain the show is going on. I’ve got a fully updated batch of photos for you and will have more as our coverage of this year’s Expo continues.

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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World Pork Expo

Novus Introduces Accelerating Finishing Profitability

Chuck Zimmerman

This morning Novus International announced the Accelerating Finishing Profitability program. This was done with a group of agricultural reporters in their World Pork Expo tent.

High feed ingredient costs are no longer a temporary blip on pork producers’ radar screens. Instead, lofty corn and soybean prices seem to be here to stay and thus require a long-term strategic solution aimed at helping producers get the greatest possible returns from all their nutritional inputs.

The new Accelerating Finishing Profitability program from Novus International is designed to be one of these strategic solutions. The program helps optimize nutrition and delivers tangible results to the performance and profitability of a pork operation during the grow-finish phase.

Our announcement panel included (l-r) Brad Lawrence, Novus Technical Manager, Pork Business Team, International; Randy Anderson, Novus Senior World Area Director, North America and Mark Bertram, Nutrition & Production Consultant, First Choice Livestock. I spoke with each of these panelists after the presentation and have those interviews posted below. Here is the full presentation to the media: Novus Panel - Accelerating Finishing Profitability

Randy says “We’ve been working on this for a couple of years already. It’s about how can we help you understand how to nutritionally feed your animals differently that will allow you to manage your total costs and your total performance. Ultimately it’s about working with our customers to figure out how to manage their total profitability.” Randy Anderson Interview

Brad says the takeaway message this morning is “allowing producers to challenge the paradigms that they’ve had that have limited their ingredient selections to corn and soy. Instead of saying this is all we can use challenging that paradigm and saying what are the limitations to use and what blend of nutritional technologies will allow you to overcome those paradigms, overcome those challenges and improve the returns you see to your operations by opening up a broader range of ingredient options.” Brad Lawrence Interview

Mark says what the Accelerating Finishing Profitability program is about is “utilizing the technology that Novus has developed and applying those technologies to current industry issues and allowing us to, for example, increase the utilization of some of the by-product feed ingredients that may have been limiting in the past and focusing on decreasing feed costs.” Mark Bertram Interview

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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Boehringer Ingelheim Hosts PRRS ARC Seminar at WPX

Cindy Zimmerman

With all the hog farmers and swine vets gathered in Des Moines for World Pork Expo this week, it was a perfect opportunity for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) to host a PRRS Area Regional Control (ARC) seminar.

“It’s a very good opportunity to have a peer-to-peer meeting,” said Dr. Laura Batista with the BIVI PRRS Solution Team, who says there are two projects underway now in Iowa of the 25 nationwide. “More and more it is countywide, rather than the whole state.”

Laura says producers are starting to see a return on investment by implementing the PRRS control program.

Listen to or download Laura’s PRRS ARC update here: Dr. Laura Batista

BIVI’s Dr. Reid Phillips says the PRRS ARC project is a work in progress, so meetings like this are very important. “It’s an opportunity for the working groups to get together and share their information, identify areas of challenges and restraints, and that’s a valuable thing.”

Reid talked about the value of communication and coordination, as well as research that can help with PRRS control.

Listen to or download my interview with Reid here: Dr. Reid Phillips

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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The Great Flood?

Melissa Sandfort

Its’ coming. And for now, farmers are playing the “sit and wait” game to see just how bad it’s going to be. We’ve all heard the news reports about people evacuating Hamburg, Iowa, and seen workers frantically filling sand bags, the endangered fish, and the reports about levy capacity. We even know what USDA is telling consumers to help them prepare for a flooding emergency and what to do after flooding.

But what about the farmers? (Don’t get me wrong – it would be horrible to have to leave your home and sift through your most beloved belongings and pack what will fit into the back of a truck. My heart goes out to those folks.)

We drove to Nebraska City this week where the road is already down to one lane, and the water is encroaching upon a large elevator’s fertilizer business that sits on the river bank. The utility company also sits about 50 yards up the bank from the elevator and I wonder, when will the waters reach that level?

Farmers have spent so much time planting and it might be a complete loss. Records and photographs (possibly dating back three years) are going to be imperative for crop insurance claims, but what is the long-term impact on that farm ground? Will it ever recover for crop production?

I just wonder, as news reports highlight the BENEFITS of the flood for the endangered pallid sturgeon, did the potential impact on agriculture even cross their mind?

I’ll keep following this story.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Pork Board Celebrates Silver Anniversary

Cindy Zimmerman

Missouri hog farmer Everett Forkner is the new president of the National Pork Board. He is owner and president of Forkner Farms Inc., which has 550 purebred sows and markets 7,500 hogs per year. With members of his family, he also raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 2,000 acres in west central Missouri.

Everett takes the helm of the 15 member pork board as the checkoff celebrates its silver anniversary and anticipates golden opportunities for the industry. “I think we live in some very challenging times but we also live in some very exciting times in the pork industry,” Everett said during the NPB press conference at World Pork Expo Wednesday.

He was pleased to announce that the board voted to spend some extra advertising dollars this year. “We’ve seen first hand the results of the new campaign ‘Pork Be Inspired’ and with some additional funds we were able to vote to continue this project into the fall with an additional $5 million to be put into the Be Inspired campaign.”

“People who already eat pork just have to eat a little more, and that’s our target audience,” he added.

The pork board also added $1.2 million for export marketing efforts and another $265,000 is allocated for cooking temperature education. The pork industry is really excited about new cooking guidelines for pork just released last week by USDA officially confirming that the other white meat is perfectly safe when cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Press conference audio from Forkner: NPB president Everett Forkner

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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Pork Producers Talk Issues at Pork Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

National Pork Producers Council leaders conducted the traditional first day World Pork Expo press conference this morning to discuss issues of importance to the industry.

Among the bigger issues is expanding international markets for U.S. pork by getting Congress to pass the three pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama. “We need new and expanded markets,” said NPPC immediate past president Sam Carney of Iowa. “These FTAs combined would add more than $11 to the price producers receive for their pigs and would generate about 10,000 U.S. jobs.”

Carney says they hope to get the FTAs passed before summer recess or right after. “We’re frustrated but yet we’re hopeful we’re gonna get it done,” he said.

Press conference audio from Carney: NPPC past president Sam Carney

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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Pork For Lunch

Chuck Zimmerman

I don’t know if there is such a thing as a self-induced pork coma and I really don’t want to find out. But I have done some major sampling today at the World Pork Expo. This little display of Plowboys BBQ was found in the Boehringer Ingelheim tent and they were really good. I also sampled ribs in the Novus International tent, Pork Network tent and the Pork Checkoff media lunch. They were all good but I give my personal award to the Pork Checkoff. They served Mediterranean Back Ribs cooked in a pomegranate sauce. They were fall off the bone tender.

To top off the Pork Checkoff media lunch we had cake that celebrates 25 years of service.

The Pork Checkoff is sponsoring the Producers Opportunity for Revenue and Knowledge (PORK) Academy here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds too.

By the way. If you want that Mediterranean Back Ribs recipe you can find it right here on the Pork Checkoff website.

2011 World Pork Expo Photo Album

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World Pork Expo

Definition of QR Code

Chuck Zimmerman

So, we’ve got a little way to go as far as getting the whole QR Code thing going from the looks of our last ZimmPoll. We asked, “Have you ever used a smartphone to scan a QR code?” I was a little surprised to see the answer, What’s a QR code?, had the biggest response at 41%. But 37% of you responding said Yes and 22% said No. So what is a QR code? Here’s the Wikipedia definition:

A QR code (abbreviation for Quick Response code) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, URL, or other data.

So give it a try. The QR code shown is for Wikipedia’s main web page. You might need to get a QR code reader app for your smartphone btw. I’m wondering how many agrimarketers have used or are using QR codes. Care to chime in with your thoughts or experiences?

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “What’s your favorite meat?” If you have a choice not in our poll feel free to suggest it in comments. I can always add it to the poll.

And if you have any questions you want to suggest for future ZimmPolls please let us know.

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

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