BIVI Swine Health Seminar Overview

Chuck Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health SeminarThe emcee for the North Carolina Swine Health Seminar is David Gocken, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica North America National Sales Manager for the Swine Group. I spoke with him before we got started to get an overview of the program here.

David says this is the 10th annual seminar that BIVI has conducted and although it has been in different places, the facility we’re in was the first one. That’s kind of fitting for an anniversary.

The seminar will include an economic update for the industry in addition to presentations on animal health issues. David says the seminar attracts senior executives to operations managers within various farms and types of production systems and from as far as Iowa. He hope they leave the seminar with some good technical business information that will help them with their operation. He says the seminar has evolved beyond an educational business event to a social one with attendees bringing their families and getting to know each other in a very casual family friendly atmosphere. David Gocken Interview

BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

BIVI Swine Health Seminar

Chuck Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health SeminarThe 10th annual Boehringer Ingelheim North Carolina Swine Health Seminar is in session. We’ve got a classroom full and an all day program.

Topics today include Area/Regional Control of PRRS, Nursery/Finishing, Key Points of Production, Economics, Oral Fluid Diagnostics, Controlling Post Wean Scours and lots of time for Q&A. If you don’t know what all that means don’t worry. I’ll be posting interviews with our presenters during the day and then you’ll know more than you do now!

The seminar is not all classroom learning. It’s also family time and you’ll see that in my BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • American Farmland Trust (AFT) is celebrating National Farmers Market Week through its America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest and the launch of an online leader-board of the top 20 vote getters in each of four categories. The lists of boutique, small, medium and large markets track up-to-the-minute results during the final month of voting, which closes on August 31.
  • The Florida Specialty Crop Foundation has appointed agriculture industry veteran Sonia Tighe as its executive director effective Aug. 1.
  • Individuals interested in the seed industry, especially the areas of corn, soybeans and sorghum can now register to attend the American Seed Trade Association’s CSS & Seed Expo, held Dec. 7-10 in Chicago, Ill.
  • AG CONNECT Expo announces that registration has opened for the 2011 show.
    Zimfo Bytes

    North Carolina Swine Health Sunset

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The sunset over the Intracoastal from Wrightsville Beach, NC was pretty. This is just one of the scenes from the Boehringer Ingenheim Vetmedica, Inc. 10th annual North Carolina Swine Health Seminar. Cindy and I are here through the weekend and I’ll have a number of stories for you tomorrow.

    We had a nice rain shower which we could actually use in central Missouri now. Participants are coming from all over the country and have been arriving all afternoon. So sit back and relax and we’ll have some fun with photos and interviews during the next couple days.

    Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

    Camelina Gaining Favor with Farmers for Biodiesel

    Joanna Schroeder

    Farmers in several regions of the U.S. are discovering a new potential cash crop – camelina. Camelina is beginning to find favor with both the biofuels industry as a strong potential feedstock for biodiesel, as well as with farmers who are discovering they will be able to grow the crop profitably.

    One such farmer is Steve Camp, whose farm is located in Lacrosse, Washington. He is working with researchers from Washington State University (WSU) to test the viability of camelina for biodiesel. This program is one element of a recent initiative known as the “Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest” project, a large scale effort to create biodiesel for use in aviation applications. Camp was featured in an article focusing on WSU’s research.

    Camp began growing the crop in 2007 after visiting an oilseed rep who was encouraging farmers to test the crop. Last year, he crushed the camelina commercially and used it to run his tractor and pick-up. This past winter, he also pressed some of the camelina using a press from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the result is waiting in storage to be converted to fuel.

    Camp’s initial outlook is sunny on crop. “I feel good about the possibilities for camelina,” he said. “I am excited about this endeavor. I really see potential. I’ve got enough experience now to know that it does work.”Read More

    Biodiesel, Farming, Video

    Register for Export Exchange

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Registration is now open for the Export Exchange 2010, an international trade conference focused around the export of U.S. coarse grains and the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

    usgcThe event is co-sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association and the U.S. Grains Council and will bring together more than 150 international buyers of U.S. DDGS and coarse grains with more than 300 U.S. producers and agribusinesses. “We are excited to have the Renewable Fuels Association co-sponsor the Export Exchange 2010,” said USGC President and CEO Thomas C. Dorr. “The burgeoning world population is demanding more meat, milk and eggs. U.S. DDGS and coarse grains continue to play an important role in livestock and poultry feed rations globally. We have to educate and connect our buyers and sellers to continue to grow vital markets for the United States.”

    The conference will be held on Oct. 6-8, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Hotel in Chicago, Ill. Registration information is available here.

    Ethanol, Grains, RFA, USGC

    Busy BASF

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Playing catch-up here on news from the past week out of BASF Crop Protection

    basfFirst, the company recently released “Top Plots: Episode 2” starring award-winning corn and soybean farmer Gary Porter of Mercer, Missouri. In the video, Porter shares how he began farming with his father in the 1970’s in an area not known for deep fertile crop ground – the far northern part of Missouri. Despite facing challenging land every year, Porter consistently ranks high in the National Corn Grower Association (NCGA) National Corn Yield Contest and won the competition in both 1994 and 2003.

    Also, BASF is in the final stages of defining Initium® fungicide, a new active ingredient designed to protect a wide array of specialty crops and ornamentals from disease. Research on Zampro™ fungicide—a new multi-mode preventative fungicide for specialty crops, and Orvego™ fungicide—a formulation specifically for the greenhouse and nursery markets was presented at the recent American Phytopathological Society (APS) in Charlotte, NC. EPA registrations for the products are expected in 2012.

    basfLast, but certainly not least at all – BASF is proud to announce that Kixor® herbicide technology was the largest new herbicide product launch in two decades, applied to more than 10 million acres in first year. Launched almost a year ago in September 2009, the Kixor chemistry powers a family of four products – Sharpen™ herbicide, OpTill™ herbicide, Integrity™ herbicide and Treevix™ herbicide. Mike Hofer, Kixor Marketing Manager, says the new herbicide chemistry has been successful in part because it addresses two of the most common challenges faced by growers – managing input costs and protecting yields – by controlling broadleaf weeds quickly and providing residual activity on tough broadleaf weeds.

    There you go – all caught up on the latest BASF news!

    BASF

    No-till Cotton Provides Conservation Opportunity

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Jon BlackDuring the Conservation in Action Tour one of our farm stops was the Carter Farm where we met Jon Black (pictured left). He gave us a presentation on no-till cotton which he is standing in. I caught up to him on the phone afterward since we didn’t have time for an interview there.

    Jon says continuous no-till farming is the main conservation practices he employs on his farm. He says most of the land on his farm hasn’t been worked up in over 15 years. He says this helps keep a cover crop or mulch cover on the ground all the time which controls runoff and keeps the nutrients intact. He says yields for corn and cotton have been good using this no-till method except when they follow corn with wheat but a lot has to do with the weather. Imagine that! He has employed nutrient products from AGROTAIN although he tries not to apply more nitrogen than the crop will take. He says these products become more important if there has been a lot of rain or heat. In the case of heat he says you worry about volatility and AGROTAIN products help with that.

    Jon Black Interview

    Conservation In Action Tour 2010 Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the Conservation In Action Tour is made
    possible by and the

    Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, Farming

    Farm Podcaster Tool

    Chuck Zimmerman

    With a name like Olympus LS-11PKG it must be a good gadget for the Farm Podcaster. I haven’t tried one but they’re on special now at BSW.

    The Olympus LS-11 handheld PCM recorder features two high-sensitivity microphones and 8GB of internal memory as well as up to 24-bit/96kHz linear PCM recording in multiple formats for better than CD audio quality.

    In addition to its 8 GB of internal memory, the LS-11 has the capacity for another 32 GB of memory utilizing SD or SDHC cards. It also offers up to 32 hours of battery life.

    With the LS-11 you can do stereo or mono recording in WAV, MP3 or WMA formats, fine tune your recording with an LCD-displayed level meter, edit the audio files, or use an auto-record function that activates (and shuts off) the LS-11 at pre-set levels. It also boasts two built-in reference speakers for handy stereo monitoring.

    And you can plug in an external mic or other audio source.

    Equipment, Podcasts

    There Is Truth In Food

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 269When it comes to food we all need a little bit of truth. Well, maybe a lot of truth. So TruthInFood.com sounds like a good idea. To learn more about this intriguing project I spoke with Mike Smith, Food Chain Communications.

    Mike and I had a great conversation about understanding why people from both production agriculture and the urban consuming public think the things they do. To effectively communicate you need to understand your audience and not just preach at them. Sounds easy, eh? Not really. However, Mike and Kevin Murphy set out a year ago to create an online location to post thought provoking stories about the Truth In Food.

    Truth in Food traverses the entire food chain, traveling the long and winding road from conception to consumption armed with the farmer’s natural skepticism and the scholar’s thirst for knowledge, the mechanic’s understanding of nuts and bolts and the philosopher’s impulse toward the sublime, all blended with insight, scholarship, thought and good old fashioned humor.

    The most popular story they’ve posted so far is “The Ten Reasons They Hate You So.” I encourage you to read it. So let’s learn more about TruthInFood.com and what Mike has learned during this past year. ZimmCast 269

    The program ends this week with Truth of the Matter by Drew Vics from Music Alley.

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems 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 a Subscribe page

    Agencies, Audio, Food, ZimmCast