The 18th International Plant and Animal Genome Conference was a big success for AgWired sponsor Fluidigm. I spoke with product manager, Yong Yi, about his participation and what his take-aways were.
Yong says the key one for him was seeing the pace at which people are doing plant and animal research and picking up new technologies. He says it was easy to see it at the conference with not only the researchers in attendance but also in the exhibitors space with the growth of vendors coming to the show.
Fluidigm conducted a workshop titled, “Enabling High Sample Throughput SNP Genotyping for Plant and Animal Studies.” Speakers included Curt Van Tassell, USDA-ARS, Bovine Testing; Jim Seeb, University of Washington, Salmon Conservation and Nanne Faber, Enza Zaden, Seed Quality Control. Yong says they had great attendance and are planning on conducting a workshop like this at future conferences.
Fluidigm was also an exhibitor and Yong says the show once again proved a great place for the company to be. He said that they had a lot of interaction with people who were not familiar with their system that includes SNP genotyping and a new product line that does sample preparation for next generation sequencing. He feels very optimistic for the future after Fluidigm acquired recent new customers, USDA-ARS and Bayer CropScience.
You can listen to my interview with Yong below:
The New Holland Boomer 8N made its debut at the 
The Boomer 8N is a updated remake of the classic Ford 8N tractor, part of New Holland’s heritage. I talked about the Boomer’s first year with New Holland’s John Hundley. “The history of this project was basically a fusion between the old styling of the Ford 8N with new technology of today,” John said. Many of this first year’s sales have been to collectors or people who have fond memories of the legendary Ford 8N growing up on a farm in the 40s and 50s. “We have some people who are buying this tractor and parking it because they don’t want to use it, but this is a workhorse and we do have people buying it and running it in the field everyday.”
Are you a journalism student who has a passion for the environment? Then don’t miss out on your opportunity to 
The term “resistance fighter” was coined in World War II to describe the underground guerrilla movement that actively fought against Nazi occupation, particularly in Yugoslavia, Poland and France. Today, resistance fighters are targeting a different enemy in the ground – glyphosate-resistant weeds. 
I had the great opportunity and honor to meet and work with Celeste Laurent at the 2010 Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Frankenmuth, MI. I had first encountered Laurent through the big world of social media, where I have countless online friends across the country who are actively engaged in social networking and who are also passionately involved in the agriculture industry. Laurent is a junior studying animal science and communications at Western Kentucky University, and she found her internship on Twitter! 
During the recent Cattle Industry Convention,