How many discussions have you participated in about showing consumers how food gets from the field to the plate? I lost count a while ago. There are many groups and efforts going on to accomplish this. Here’s one I just found from the Canned Food Alliance. They’re using YouTube and MealTimes.org.
Canned food is one of the most versatile options for creating affordable, quick and healthy meals especially during colder months. But common misperceptions persist about the canning process. Within hours of harvesting, top quality fruits and vegetables are simply and naturally preserved for convenience and year-round availability, so you can enjoy tropical fruit even during the cold days of winter. Cans are also one of the safest and most recyclable forms of packaging available. Watch “Canned Food From Field to Table” to get the facts from the people who grow, pack, recommend and cook with canned foods.
The video features food blogger Tom Barritt, authto of food blog, Culinary Types, Associate Director of the Food and Nutrition Practice at Ketchum. Interesting combination. Are you a journalist or a public relations person? I don’t care personally and he is transparent about it. Doesn’t bother me. Does it bother you?
Things We Learned During the Ag Associates Conference
StollerUSA’s Ag Associates Conference has come to a close. The attendees were pumped up by all that they learned and they are looking forward to next year.
I asked many people during the course of the week what information they found to be most valuable. While many had a hard time just coming up with one thing (they all had many things) I heard several topics repeated no matter where the attendee was from. Some of them included how to listen to the plant, the importance of not only root mass but root tips, epigenetics, and learning to focus more on plant health below the soil because if the plant is does not have healthy roots, it will not achieve maximum yields.
Watch the recap video below with more things that the attendees would like all growers around the world to know, and we hope to see you next year.
Chicago Farmers Reminder
This is just a reminder that I’ll be attending and presenting at Saturday’s Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair. It will be held at the Joliet Junior College Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center.
I’ll be conducting two morning sessions on social media before heading to Dallas, TX for the National Biodiesel Conference where I’ll be the Biodiesel Blogger again.
If you haven’t registered for the Farmland Investment Fair it’s not too late.
SureVac From Ag Leader Technology
Earlier this week Ag Leader Technology added the patent-pending SureVac electric row shutoff to their lineup of planter section shutoff devices. Since I was at the Iowa Power Farming Show I stopped in and learned all about it from Chad Huedepohl. You can watch the interview or just listen to it below. Here’s the details:
SureVac provides today’s precision farming operation with an easily- installed, zero-maintenance solution to reduce seed costs and increase yield potential.
SureVac is designed for John Deere Pro-SeriesTM XP row units, but is also compatible with any John Deere vacuum seed meter manufactured in the last 20 years. In addition to John Deere corn and soybean seed disks, SureVac supports the eSet® vacuum disk from Precision Planting.
Chad says SureVac is an electric row shutoff made to shut off the seed placement per row on a row by row basis. He says this benefits the farmer user by saving on seed and avoiding “doubles” such as on point rows.
America’s Farmers Grow Communities
There are booths on the floor of three different buildings at the Iowa Power Farming Show. They’re also in the hallways. I stopped at this one to learn about the Monsanto sponsored America’s Farmers Grow Communities Project. Lots of farmers were stopping by to sign up their favorite local charity. To tell us all about it I interviewed Gayla Daugherty, Monsanto Communications Manager.
She says it’s a new project for farmers to sign up a local non-profit of their choice to win via a random drawing. There are 179 counties involved in Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas and you can see them listed on the official rules page.
Plant $2,500 in your community and watch it grow.
As a farmer, you care for our land and grow our economy. You make everyone’s lives better – locally, nationally and globally. To thank you, Monsanto wants to make a contribution in your name to your local community with the America’s Farmers Grow Communities™ Project.
One nonprofit community organization in each eligible county will receive a $2,500 award. It’s up to farmers like you to help decide where it goes.
Together we can grow rural America…one community at a time. Apply now.
You can listen to my interview with Gayla below.
Novus Stays Close to Customers
Novus International Executive Vice President of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni, pictured here with a delegation from Thailand, seemed to know everyone at the International Poultry/Feed Expo in Atlanta last week and he greeted them all as close friends. His genuine and effusive personality reflects his passion for the business of animal agriculture and the people in the industry who produce food for the world. He is firmly dedicated to Novus’ vision to help feed the world affordable, wholesome food and achieve a higher quality of life. “This is really important to us, this is our vision, and we’ve maintained the same vision for the last 20 years,” Gio told me during an interview.
One of the ways Novus is working to achieve that vision is by maintaining a close relationship with their customers in every one of the more than 90 countries they serve. In January, Novus opened a new blending plant in Singapore for animal feed supplements. “It’s part of our overall strategy to be closer to our customers with our specialty products,” Gio said. “We needed to address that in the Asia Pacific and northern China.” The plant will serve as a distribution hub for regional Novus clients in industries including aquaculture, poultry, ruminant and pork.
Gio says in the coming year, Novus will be focused on Africa. “It’s kind of a last frontier for us in helping feed the world affordable and wholesome food,” he says.
Listen to or download my interview with Gio in the player below, and check out our photo albums from the IPE – especially if you had a photo taken with baseball great Bob Gibson at the Novus booth.
International Poultry Expo 2010
Bob Gibson/Novus Photo Album
Zimfo Bytes
- Extreme Makeover Home Edition has just “knocked on the door” of the home of Brian and Audra Skaggs, Lexington, Okla., active in the Limousin breed and a familiar face in the cattle industry. The reveal will be held Sunday, Feb. 7, and members of the cattle and livestock industry are encouraged to be there when they “move that bus”!
- Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., announces the promotion of three professional service veterinarians. Tom Wetzell, DVM, Angela Baysinger, DVM and Greg Cline, DVM, have been promoted to senior veterinarian.
- BASF and Farm Plan have teamed up to help growers finance their purchase of two crop protection products from BASF through Farm Plan with 0% interest through next fall. To take advantage of this special offer, growers need to sign up by Feb. 15, 2010.
- Newsham Choice Genetics is launching a new Web site to benefit pork producers.
Priority Setting For FY 2011 Beef Budgets
After all the committees meet during convention the leaders got together for a special extra meeting to set their priorities. This was done via a wireless electronic process. You can see CBB Board member Robert Fountain, Jr. (Secretary/Treasurer) holding up his device before they got started.
I spoke about the process with Rick Husted who managed the session. He says that in the past the priority setting has happened in each of the committee meetings. This year they have evolved that process to bring all the committee leaders together in one session to set and rank priorities. This will be used to set the FY 2011 plan. You can learn more about the process by listening to Rick.
You can listen to and download my interview with Rick below.
Coming to Your Farm: Weekly Video Crop Reports
If you are interested in getting up-to-date ag reports from growers around the world, then you need to check out Ag Reports Network (ARN). The site utilizes video clips from farmers and agronomists to give growers timely and accurate crop condition 
reports from farms around the world. The newly designed site gives updates from around the United States as well as from Brazil. Within the next few months, reports will also be coming from farmers in the Ukraine and Argentina.
In addition to crop reports, growers can also buy and sell equipment, also featured via video, as well as view educational pieces focused on various crops such as corn and soybeans. There will also be weekly market reports available that are designed to help a grower manage risk.
ARN is currently looking for additional growers from around the world, growing a diversity of crops, to participate in the weekly video reports. You can visit the website to learn more at www.agreportsnetwork.com. And while you’re there, register to win an all expenses paid trip for two to Bahia, Brazil to learn, first hand, about Brazilian agriculture.
Soybean Man
You never know what you’ll run into at a farm show. In this case it’s the Bayer CropScience Soybean Man.
He didn’t talk so I didn’t interview him. Just saw him wandering around and took his picture. I’m sure that if you want to know more you’ll need to talk to your local Bayer CropScience representative.