Final Day For AG CONNECT Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

AG CONNECT ExpoThe staff at the Atlanta Convention Center was out shoveling snow early today. That’s something they don’t do very often but it was sure needed. The final day of the 2011 AG CONNECT Expo is here and the show will open for business at 9am. All educational sessions are taking place too. A lot of things got canceled in Atlanta but here, the show goes on. The roads are pretty well covered with snow and now freezing rain has moved in. It was crunchy walk over but not too bad.

The American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Meeting is also in full swing after this morning’s Foundation Flapjack Fundraiser. I did not get to that breakfast but enjoyed one in the AFBF Media Room area with several other reporters. I’m back to the AG CONNECT Expo media room now and getting ready to do some posts and more interviews on the floor. Cindy will be working over at AFBF until I transition over there later today.

We hope you are warm and safe wherever you are.

2011 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

AFBF

The Art of Moving Hay

Melissa Sandfort

The year was 1930 and my Grandmother was 5 years old. For historical preservation, the dog, Spot, was lovingly noted on the back of the photograph. A while back, I wrote about round bales versus smaller square bales. Today, the picture depicts a time before either of those existed and hay was moved in loose piles.

This photograph is my grandmother, her mother, and her younger brother, posed in front of a hay wagon, onto which the hay was loaded with pitchforks. The wagon was then taken to the barn where it was parked under the hay fork. The hay fork was a large hook, tied to a heavy rope, looped through a pulley at the end of the barn.

A team of horses was hitched to the end of the rope, and they would pull on the rope to raise the forkful of hay into the barn. Grandpa said on their farm, he was always in charge of the trip rope, which emptied the hay into position in the loft. And then the process would start all over again until the hay wagon was empty.

Today we have balers, and tractors with forks, and large trailers to stack bales on to transport them to a barn, or even another farm three states away for cattle feed. And with digital photos and frames, I doubt the dogs get their notoriety these days. Thanks to Grandma for finding this picture.

I’m telling you folks, grandparents are a goldmine. Take time to do some digging.

Until we walk again …

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Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • U.S. Wheat Associates (www.uswheat.org) welcomes Tyler Jameson as Assistant Director of Policy in its Arlington, Va., headquarters effective today.
  • A cooperative effort between Hoosier Ag Today and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, all the photos featured on the Indiana Agriculture Calendar were taken by Indiana farmers and are of scenes from Indiana farms and rural communities.
  • Bayer CropScience announced the official launch of GlyTol glyphosate-tolerant technology, GlyTol + LibertyLink technology and six new cotton varieties for 2011.
  • The American Veterinary Medical Association has released a new video promoting its policy on how to reduce pain for cattle during a common surgical procedure — dehorning.
    Zimfo Bytes

    AFBF President Meets the Press

    Cindy Zimmerman

    American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) president Bob Stallman fielded questions from the press for 40 minutes on Sunday afternoon at the annual meeting in Atlanta, covering a wide variety of topics.

    Several questions centered on the legal action AFBF intends to take against EPA over the regulation of the Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load (TMDL), a so-called “pollution diet” that he says threatens to starve agriculture out of the entire 64,000 square mile watershed spanning five states. Stallman says they are planning to file the challenge Monday in the federal district court for the middle district of Pennsylvania.

    Stallman was also asked about what he expects will be the biggest issues for the delegate session, progress made by the new US Farm and Ranch Alliance, regulation of biotech crops, the proposed GIPSA rule, and more.

    Listen to or download Stallman’s press conference here: Stallman Press Conference

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio

    Going Mobile To Teach Children Where Food Comes From

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AG CONNECT ExpoOut on the AG CONNECT Expo floor in the AFBF trade show pavilion you’ll find the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Mobile Ag Ed Science Lab. This is one of a number of mobile classrooms to teach children where their food comes from. The Lab is a project of the PA Friends of Ag Foundation.

    I visited with Tonya Wible, Program Director for the project. She says that when they asked children where their food came from it wasn’t just the inner city but also in suburban and even rural areas. So they created this program which now has six mobile labs place across the state. The trailer can accommodate a full size class. It’s a mobile agriculture education science lab, complete with all supplies and a certified teacher, that travels to a different elementary or middle school in Pennsylvania each week. The lab is designed to target grades K through 8.

    You can listen to my interview with Tonya here: Interview With Tonya Wible

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Ag Groups, Audio

    Kenny Wallace Supporting Family Farmers

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AG CONNECT ExpoKenny Wallace, NASCAR driver, says, “Ethanol all the way in NASCAR!” That’s what he told me this afternoon in the American Farm Bureau Federation Pavilion on the floor of the AG CONNECT Expo. Thanks to Tricia Braid, Illinois Corn Growers, for setting up our interview and taking the photo. Kenny was signing autographs in the Nationwide Insurance exhibit.

    You won’t find a bigger supporter of the American farmer and in particular that farm made fuel, ethanol. NASCAR is using E15 now and Kenny finds that exciting. Family farmers have supported Kenny recently and will be doing so in a bigger way in the future. He says that he wants farmers to know that he’s helping get their message out to the public. Kenny says he’s had a chance to run a combine and is amazed at the technology built into them! Here’s where you can follow Kenny on Twitter.

    You can listen to my interview with Kenny here: Interview With Kenny Wallace

    2011 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

    AFBF, Ag Leader, Audio, Corn, Ethanol

    Korean Free Trade Optimism

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Korea’s ambassador to the United States is optimistic that Congress will pass the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement when it is submitted by the president.

    Han Duk-soo spoke at a town hall forum sponsored by American Farm Bureau during the Ag Connect Expo on Saturday and then held a press conference, accompanied by AFBF’s Congressional Relations Director Chris Garza. “The momentum is very high now, I would say there’s no objections from US industry,” Han said during the press conference. “President Obama is very strong on passing this agreement, so I think it will be submitted to congress by the administration soon and if it is submitted, I think Congress should act within 60 days.” His hope is that it will be finished by the end of June.

    Han sees no downside to the agreement for U.S. agriculture. “The beneficial impacts on the part of US exporters of agricultural products into Korea is huge,” he said. “It’s 100 percent beneficial to the US agricultural sector.”

    Listen to or download Han’s press conference comments here (questions are not all audible): Han Duk-soo

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio, International, Trade

    Chambliss Welcomes Farm Bureau to Georgia

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) welcomed the huge American Farm Bureau crowd of farmers and ranchers from around the country to his “sunny, warm” home state. “Y’all from North Dakota and Montana brought your weather with you,” he joked, as a winter weather watch is in effect for the deep south with the potential for ice and snow over night.

    Chambliss, who is ranking Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, told the AFBF annual meeting that he will be holding hearings around the country in the coming year as Congress begins to write the 2012 Farm Bill. “This is going to be the most difficult farm bill that we’ve ever had to write,” he said. “But the good news is that when look at American agriculture today, it’s as healthy as it’s ever been in my lifetime.”

    Listen to or download the senator’s remarks here: Senator Saxby Chambliss

    2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio

    50 Years of Membership Growth for American Farm Bureau

    Cindy Zimmerman

    To the tune of the “Rocky” theme song, American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman showed off a special membership jacket made just for him to celebrate 50 consecutive years of membership growth for the general farm organization at 92nd annual meeting opening general session on Sunday.

    “American Farm Bureau membership stands at 6,279,813 member families,” Stallman said proudly during his opening address. “Today, thanks to you, we celebrate 50 consecutive years of growth.”

    The theme of the annual meeting this year is “Producing Results” and Stallman says American agriculture continues to be the world’s biggest manufacturer. “America’s farm and ranch families are all about producing,” he said. “You produce and you deliver.”

    Stallman used the annual address to announce that AFBF is taking new legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s time to stop the EPA,” he said. “This suit will seek to rein in EPA’s latest and most aggressive effort to use the Clean Water Act to impose burdensome new regulations on agricultural production … the Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load or TMDL.”

    The AFBF president from Texas also talked about the estate tax reform victory and the challenges facing agriculture as Congress begins to consider a new farm bill.

    Listen to or download Stallman’s opening address to the membership here: AFBF President Bob Stallman

    If you need any photos from the AFBF opening general session, including most of the state presidents with Stallman, check out the photo album here – 2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

    AFBF, Audio

    AG CONNECT Expo Showing Significant Growth

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AG CONNECT ExpoThis morning the media got an update on AG CONNECT Expo with some statistics you’ll find interesting. Pictured are (l-r), Dennis Slater, President, AEM, Martin Richenhagen, President/CEO, AGCO and Chairman of the show management committee, Charlie O-Brien, VP Ag Sector, AEM and Sara Truesdale Mooney, Show Director.

    There are 12,000 AG CONNECT Expo and AFBF registrants with more than 60 countries represented outside the U.S. By comparison, the first Expo had 7,700 registrants. There are 382 exhibitors covering 174,500 square feet of space in the trade show that includes the AFBF Pavilion. There are pavilions in the show from Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Italy. The first show had 312 exhibitors. So the show is growing and will now move to a rotation of every other year. The next show will be held back in Orlando, FL, site of the first one.

    You can listen to the full update session and download the audio here: AG CONNECT Expo Update Session

    2011 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

    Audio, Video