Alltech Kicks off Lecture Series at AG CONNECT

Cindy Zimmerman

2010 was a big year for Alltech, what with hosting the FEI World Equestrian Games and all, but in 2050 the company is talking about having 9.3 billion people for dinner.

“Feeding the World – 9.3 billion people for dinner in 2050” is the theme of Alltech’s lecture tour this year that kicked off during AG CONNECT Expo on Saturday. Dr. Mark Lyons, International Project Director for Alltech, says AG CONNECT was a great place for them to start. “We have operations in 90 countries, we’re selling into almost 120 countries,” Mark said. “So for us, it’s an excellent venue. Having a stop in Georgia is one thing, having a stop here at this event is much different.”

Now the lecture tour moves on to stops along the eastern part of the U.S. and then the western part. “We’ll have 23 stops in North America and over 100 stops globally,” Mark said. “It culminates in our symposium in May in Kentucky. It’s a very important part of what we do. We estimate that we get in front of about 20,000 people a year.” There were several hundred at the event in Atlanta.

Listen to my interview with Mark here: Dr. Mark Lyons

Watch Mark’s portion of the lecture tour here:

2011 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

AEM, Alltech, Audio, Video

USDA Outlook Board Chair at AFBF

Cindy Zimmerman

Appearing at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting in Atlanta this week almost cost USDA Outlook Board Chairman Gerald Bange a 28 year perfect record.

Gerald Bange has not missed a lockup prior to the release of a crop report since 1983, but it was a close call getting out of the snow-bound south in time after his crop outlook presentation at AFBF on Monday. “It’s amazing to see what five inches of snow and some ice will do in Atlanta,” he told USDA Radio. “It shuts that city down and when they shut that airport down, things get a little bit difficult.”

In his presentation at AFBF, Bange said that high commodity prices for corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton indicate higher crop acreage in 2011, as much as 10 more million more acres. “We won’t know until we get the planting intentions report. It won’t be until June until we know for sure,” Bange said.

High prices and very low stocks for corn should mean more corn acreage in 2011, but Bange said indicators right now are actually pointing to more soybean acres. “As farmers look to the future, they may be looking to soybeans,” Bange said. “That intrigues us a little bit because I think everybody is of the opinion that corn would be the favored crop as we move into 2011.”

One factor driving greater prospects for soybeans may be high fertilizer costs associated with corn production as well as greater weather risks for corn production, according to Bange.

2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

AFBF, USDA

UC Davis Wins $40M in Ag Grants

Joanna Schroeder

UC Davis has won $40 million in federal grants to develop climate-change-tolerant plants and plants better suited to produce fuel. UC Davis scientists, who will led the various projects, will work with researchers at more than 50 universities spanning 20 states. UC Davis wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky will receive $25 million to head a team that will work to develop new varieties of wheat and barley, and UC Davis forest tree geneticist David Neale will receive $14.6 million to head a team that will work to sequence the genomes of loblolly pine and two other conifers.

“Each of these projects features transdisciplinary, regional, integrated teams, including scientists from institutions that represent underserved populations.” said Roger Beachy, director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture that awarded the grants.  “This approach represents a new paradigm in how USDA science can best solve critical issues facing agriculture today.”

Linda P.B. Katehi, UC Davis Chancellor, added, “We are honored and pleased that the grant awards recognize the expertise and leadership of UC Davis in the field of plant genomics. We look forward to the practical solutions for agriculture and for the environment that will arise from these collaborative projects.”

Biofuels, Research, Wheat

USFRA Update

Chuck Zimmerman

AFBF Annual MeetingAt the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Meeting I got an update on how things are going with the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance from General Manager Hugh Whaley. He’s seen here in their booth out on the trade show floor.

Hugh says they now have 23 national and regional organizations that have joined in the alliance with an eleven member board. They just added a board member from the National Milk Producers Federation. Of course, the Chairman is Bob Stallman, President of AFBF! Now that the organizational structure is in place Hugh says the next step is to select or identify a company with a proven track record of creating opinion changes with the general public. He says they are also talking with and open to more organizations joining in and the board just approved a strategy to involve agribusinesses as well. They’ve received proposals from 4 firms to become their legal counsel and hope to have a selection made soon.

You can listen to my interview with Hugh here: Hugh Whaley Interview

2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

AFBF, Ag Groups, USFRA

Morning Temp A Nice Round Number

Chuck Zimmerman

I thought that when Cindy and I got to Atlanta last week we were not in the balmy south, but maybe we were. We got home last night and here’s what this morning’s temperature was. It actually said minus one before I stopped at a light to take the photo.

We’re in post AG CONNECT Expo and AFBF Annual Meeting recovery mode with some more stories to post and to get ready for the next agventure. We’ve got some pretty exciting announcements coming up and now I need to get to work on them.

One of those things is our move to a brand new web server with our hosting company, Joyent. We’ve been on some great hardware but now we’re moving to the latest and greatest. The move should be complete my this weekend. We’ve already moved about 13 websites for various clients and this weekend AgWired gets moved. It will mean no posting from about mid day Friday until Sunday. But I can take a day off. Really.

Weather

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Organic yogurt leader Stonyfield Farm has launched the Stonyfield Organic Farmers Grant-a-Wish Program to help fund innovative organic farming projects that can make a strong environmental impact or improve the long-term viability of organic farming.
  • Valley Irrigation recently announced a formal agreement with CropMetrics.
  • With five completely new models, the Fendt 800 Series high horsepower tractors continue the tradition of combining technology and precise engineering in machines equipped to help innovative farmers get any job done faster, better and more efficiently.
  • The Iowa Soybean Association’s Production Research online library has been expanded with new information to help Iowa’s soybean farmers increase yield, now including a list of commercial soybean varieties with resistance to sudden death syndrome.
    Zimfo Bytes

    ZimmPoll Finds Mixed Results Response On Biofuels Policy

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It should be an interesting year in the biofuels debate. The response to our latest poll shows some pretty divided results with most thinking we’ll see just another one year extension of incentives. It will be interesting to see how Congress handles things after hearing from their constituents. In answer to the question “What do you think will happen with biofuels policy this year?” Our results are that 38% say there will be another one year extension of the tax incentive, 22% say there will be new incentives for infrastructure, 20% say there will be no federal biofuels incentives, 14% say there will be a multiple year extension and 6% chose other. If you chose other then feel free to comment with what you think will happen.

    Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What do you think about the number of farm groups? Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

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

    ZimmPoll

    American Farm Bureau Sets Policy

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AFBF Annual MeetingThe votes are in, the delegates have spoken and the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting has concluded with a new set of policies. AFBF President, Bob Stallman, held a closing press conference to point out a few highlights from today’s decision making. He said that even with the adverse weather conditions that happened here in Atlanta the program ran smoothly and attendees all accepted some small changes that had to be made. He pointed out that they’re farmers and deal with the weather every day! I’m going to pull a few comments from the news release that just came out in the interest of time and because I know some AgWired fans are waiting on this.

    You can listen and download the press conference here: Bob Stallman Closing Press Conference

    Stallman told us that delegates voted to “maintain a strong farm income safety net, address dairy price volatility and urge greater oversight of regulatory actions by the Environmental Protection Agency.”

    As Congress prepares to draft a new farm bill later this year and in 2012, the delegates reiterated their support for extending the concepts of the 2008 farm bill.

    “The 2008 farm bill has worked as farmers and ranchers have weathered market ups and downs over the last four years,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “It’s important to maintain a program that protects our nation’s food, fiber and fuel supply and the consumers who rely on agriculture’s productivity.” Read More

    AFBF, Audio, Farm Policy

    Farm Bureau Members Engage in Social Media

    Cindy Zimmerman

    A popular session at the American Farm Bureau annual meeting yesterday was “Grassroots Engagement with Social Media,” featuring some of the trailblazers in the SM world for agriculture.

    Florida Farm Bureau president John Hoblick introduced the session, which was moderated by AFBF’s Mace Thornton (@AFBFMace on Twitter). “I think of social media as being the equivalent of the green revolution of agricultural communications,” said Mace. “It really has been a game-changer.” When Mace asked how many at the session were on Facebook, about three quarters of the several hundred people in the room raised their hands.

    On the panel were Dan Toland (@d_toland) with Ohio Farm Bureau, California rancher Jeff Fowle (@jefffowle) who serves as president of the AgChat Foundation, and Minnesota farmer Emily Zweber (@zweberfarms).

    Dan started off the conversation with statistics from the latest PEW internet survey. “65 percent of those under 30 years of age have the internet as their number one source for news and information, that’s 52 percent of the world’s population,” he said. Almost half of those aged 30-59 use the internet for their number information source. Dan stressed the need to have conversations rather than lecture the general public about agriculture, and he noted that using the term “non-farmer” is better than the word consumer, since we’re all consumers.

    Jeff got specific about different social media vehicles, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. “Facebook is social media on training wheels – it’s a good place to get started,” Jeff said. He encouraged people to get involved with the AgChat Foundation “to help you take those training wheels off.” He says Twitter is the next step after Facebook, but he warned people to make sure they think before they tweet. “Read what you tweet twice before you send,” he advised.

    I had to leave the session early to get to the Mike Rowe press conference, so I wasn’t able to record Emily, but you can hear Dan and most of Jeff’s comments here: AFBF Social Media session

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio

    MyAmericanFarm.org Showcased At AFBF Convention

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AFBF Annual MeetingMy American Farm is a great and personal sounding name. It’s the url for a Pioneer sponsored project that’s conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation. I spoke with Angela Mayfield (right) about what’s new with the project.

    Angela says that MyAmericanFarm.org is a free online resource that now has 12 games covering different topics on agriculture. They all meet core content standards for elementary teachers grades 3-5. Of course the games are fun for students of all ages. Besides adding games there is also updated ag information content. The resource is available to any school anywhere.

    You can listen to my interview with Angela here: Angela Mayfield Interview

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio, Education, Internet, Pioneer