Some of my friends I’ve come to know through the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists just held a big party in Serbia. Happy anniversary AGROPRESS and congratulations to Goran Djakovic!
The Serbian Association of Agricultural Journalists AGROPRESS has celebrated its 6th ANNIVERSARY. On that occasion, more than 200 journalists, representatives of diplomatic corps, partner organizations, educational institutions, managers of companies and friends of AGROPRESS gathered.
Addressing the audience President of the Board of Directors Goran Djakovic reminded of Association’s activities during these six years in which more than 90 events was organized in the country and abroad. He stressed that AGROPRESS organized the very first Fair of Women Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness and five professional conferences in which more than 1200 domestic and international experts participated.
Presenting perspectives and future activities of the Association, Mr. Djakovic announced the establishment of the Fund for Promotion of Serbian Agriculture in and out of country, and as an important part of this project 60 foreign journalists will be hosted next year in May. “AGROPRESS will continue its work on the project Women Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness, as well as on a new project – high quality magazine destined to professional agricultural producers”, added Mr. Djakovic.
I would be happy to attend their BALKAN TOUR 2011 – Serbia which is the one referred to in May if anyone would like to discuss a sponsorship.
The next stop in our series of conversations with agency leadership is Weber Shandwick. In this week’s program you’ll hear from JoDee George and David Krejci. Since our theme is all about “what’s new” you’ll hear them answer – Farm and Food Advocacy Practice. It’s a timely focus and one they’ve been working on for some time. As they told me, “Advocacy Starts Here.”
Social media takes up a good portion of our conversation. No surprise there. Since it is a specialty of David’s I asked him to talk about how they measure social media use in terms of results for their clients. He makes some excellent points about not only looking at numbers but creating bench marks to gauge effectiveness. JoDee adds that they also like to take that kind of information and integrate it with the overall campaign for a client that still needs to include traditional media components. David also mentions a very new program the agency has created for their clients called Firebell. It basically puts their client through a simulated real time social media crisis. Practice makes perfect, eh?
I’ve mentioned many times recently how dairy farmers seem to have really jump started social media advocacy and pointed to a Weber Shandwick client, Dairy Management, Inc and their MyDairy program. You can still listen to an interview about that from a recent World Dairy Expo that Cindy did that included Polly Ligon O’Grady, also part of the leadership team at Weber Shandwick.
ZimmCast 283 - Weber Shandwick - Farm and Food AdvocacyThis week’s program ends with some music from Music Alley. It’s called “Can I” by MSU Orchestra.
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.
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In case you were not able to tune in for the estate tax press conference, here is the audio with statements from all the major ag organizations participating. That includes the American Farm Bureau Federation; the American Soybean Association; the National Association of Wheat Growers; the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; the National Corn Growers Association; the National Cotton Council; the National Farmers Union; the National Milk Producers Federation; the National Pork Producers Council; and the Public Lands Council.
Death Tax Press ConferenceSoybean farmers are in Washington D.C. this week for a little lame duck.
In addition to uniting with other agriculture groups urging Congress to fix the “death tax,” American Soybean Association (ASA) farmer-leaders are participating in a biodiesel fly-in to discuss renewing the biodiesel tax incentive that expired at the end of last year.
Participating from ASA are grower-leaders Joe Steiner of Ohio, Bob Henry of Kansas and Darryl Brinkmann of Illinois. These ASA leaders are joining with farmers from state soybean associations, biodiesel producers and others in the biodiesel industry to push for passage of legislation to extend the biodiesel tax incentive during the lame duck session.
Ten diverse agricultural organizations are conducting a press conference right now in Washington DC to urge Congress to act on estate tax reform during the lame-duck session.
Scott Bennett (pictured), Virginia Tech University student and active participant in his family’s livestock operation, did a really nice job speaking on behalf of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association – noting that he was the youngest of the speakers and very concerned about the impact a high “death tax” could have on future farmers and ranchers.
The conference is being live streamed right now on BeltwayBeef.com – thanks to the superior social media skills of NCBA’s Mike Deering!
BASF Corporation has just introduced a new online, interactive educational module – planthealtheducation.com. The new learning program is customized by region and provides growers with education on disease control, Plant Health benefits and resulting yield advantages of F500®, the active ingredient found in Headline® fungicide, Headline AMP™ fungicide and TwinLine® fungicide.
“This educational session gives growers an in-depth look at F500 and will help growers evaluate the science behind Plant Health and the disease control of these products,” said Nick Fassler, BASF Technical Market Manager. “It lays out key information about fungicides, including disease control, harvest efficiency, and other Plant Health benefits of fungicides.”
Headline was Nick’s topic at NAFB Trade Talk this year. He is pictured here on the right being interviewed by Gary Jackson of ABN Radio. Nick says that Headline is labeled on over 90 crops, from sugar beets to legumes, soybeans, corn, wheat, to citrus and sugar cane. “A very widely used product and that just proves how effective the active ingredient is and what kind of performance we’re seeing from it,” Nick said. Headline AMP was just launched this year and Nick says it was used on about 500,000 acres this season. “Headline AMP is everything Headline is, plus metconazole, a new triazole for corn, and that’s bringing added disease control.”
Listen to my interview with Nick where he also talks about special offers for growers. Nick Fassler Interview
And while we are on the BASF beat, I also talked with Dr. Dan “the Kixor man” Westberg about the amazingly successful launch of Kixor herbicide products this past year. “With over 10 million acres treated this year with our family of products with Kixor herbicide technology, it’s the most successful herbicide launch in the last 20 years – a real testament to the fact that growers were looking for better broadleaf weed control,” Dr. Dan said. After a year on the market, Dan says they have updated the Kixor product line so that one can be used on both corn and soybeans and changing the name from Integrity to Verdict.
Listen to Dr. Dan discuss the Kixor launch and what’s coming down the road from BASF. Dan Westberg Interview
Next up from the recent NAFB convention Trade Talk session is the Dairy Farmers of America. I spoke with Jackie Klippenstein, VP, Industry and Legislative Affairs.
Jackie says that priorities for DFA include making sure new legislators are familiar with the needs of dairy farmers. She says the industry lost some long time supporters in the recent election. Looking ahead she says that dairy farmers need farm policy reform quickly and cites margins as the biggest challenge facing them.
You can listen to my interview with Jackie here: DFA Interview
It looks like the death tax is going to be really hard for Washington legislators to ignore. There are 31 ag groups making sure of it. They sent a letter to President Obama today “urging immediate, permanent and meaningful estate tax reform.” Anyone with a lick of common sense would know that if estate taxes are allowed to be reinstated at the beginning of the year there will be a huge negative impact on the industry let alone individuals. This goes for a lot of people outside the ag industry as well.
During the recent NAFB convention Trade Talk session this was one of the items that came up in my interview with Gregg Doud, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief Economist. Gregg is pictured here being interviewed at Trade Talk by Julie Harker of Brownfield while NCBA’s Mike Deering looks on in the background.
Listen to Gregg describe where things currently stand on the death tax issue: Gregg Doud on Death Tax
Keeping up the pressure, a number of ag groups will join with NCBA in a press conference tomorrow at 1pm EST.
Speaking on behalf of NCBA is Scott Bennett, a junior at Virginia Tech University and an active participant in his family’s operation, Knoll Crest Farm, in Red House, Va. The American Farm Bureau Federation; the American Soybean Association; the National Association of Wheat Growers; the National Corn Growers Association; the National Cotton Council; the National Farmers Union; the National Milk Producers Federation; the National Pork Producers Council; and the Public Lands Council will also participate in the news conference.
To watch the event live, go to NCBA’s policy blog at www.BeltwayBeef.com.
Some of the latest research being conducted by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board includes environmental footprint research, changes to the National Beef Cook-Off and new lean cuts of meat. To talk about them at the recent NAFB convention Trade Talk session was Robert Fountain, Jr., CBB Secretary/Treasurer.
I thought the environmental footprint research sounded especially interesting. Interesting but sad that money has to be spent to overcome emotional non-scientific information that’s floating around about animal agriculture/production. The good thing is that other valid scientific research along these lines has already debunked some of the myths out there. This study will no doubt do the same and focus specifically on beef.
You can listen to my interview with Robert here: CBB Interview
