Poultry Association Elects New Officers

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association elected the 2010 slate of officers and directors during the International Poultry Expo.

poultryThe new chairman of the organization is Steve Willardsen (left) of Cargill Value Added Meats, Wichita, KS. He was presented with the traditional “working man’s gavel” by 2009 chairman Monty Henderson, George’s, Inc., Springdale, AR. Thanks to USPOULTRY communications director Larry Brown for providing the photo.

Other officers include Mark Waller of Ingram Farms, Cullman, AL, Treasurer; Gary Cooper, Cooper Farms, Oakwood, OH, Vice Chairman; and James Adams, Wenger’s Feed Mill, Rheems, PA, Secretary.

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is the world’s largest and most active poultry organization, representing the entire industry as an “All Feather” association. Membership includes producers and processors of broilers, turkeys, ducks, eggs, and breeding stock, as well as allied companies. Formed in 1947, the association has affiliations in 27 states and member companies worldwide. USPOULTRY also sponsors the International Poultry Expo.

2010 International Poultry Expo photo album

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Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

NCBA Management Report From Forrest Roberts

Chuck Zimmerman

Forrest RobertsHere’s NCBA CEO Forrest Roberts being interviewed in the media room here at the Cattle Industry Convention. I had my turn and our interview is posted below. Additionally, I have his remarks today when he gave the NCBA management report at the annual meeting.

One thing you’ll notice from talking with or listening to Forrest is his energy level. Even with all the challenges facing his industry he’s very optimistic. It has been just a year that he’s been in his current position.

Forrest mentions the work of the NCBA Governance Task Force and after his report this morning the recommendations passed by a vote of 201 to 13. I’m sure we’ll be getting details of the changes since there is still a lot of work to be done on re-structuring the organization. Working groups will be set up and the next step will take place at the summer meeting.

You can listen to or download (mp3) my interview with Forrest here: cic-10-roberts.mp3

You can listen to or download (mp3) his management report here: cic-10-annual-mtg-roberts.mp3

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference

Dan Dierschke New CBB Chairman

Chuck Zimmerman

Dan DierschkeWelcome new CBB Chairman Dan Dierschke, Texas rancher. Dan took the gavel this morning at the annual meeting and I spoke with him about his priorities for the coming year.

Dan says he has three goals as chairman: 1) develop an effective response to the increasing demands of the anti-animal use activists, 2) continue to use checkoff investments to build beef demand, and 3) reduce counter-productive arguments within the industry and stress our common goals.

Here’s the list of new officers/executive committee members:

Chairman: Dan Dierschke, TX
Vice Chairman: Tom Jones, AR
Secretary/Treasurer: Robert Fountain, Jr., GA
Virginia Coehlo, CA
Virginia Davis, IN
Will Frazee, IA
Wesley Grau, NM
Kristy Lage, NE
Hank Maxey, Jr., VA
Daryl Berlier Owen, TX
Sid Sumner, FL

You can listen to my interview with Dan below:

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Management Report From Tom Ramey CBB CEO

Chuck Zimmerman

Tom RameyEach annual meeting of the CBB concludes with a report from the CEO. Tom Ramey reported this morning and I have his comments recorded for you to listen to.

Tom detailed the changes in the staff during the last year and says he feels real good about the people who are working on behalf of the checkoff in the office. He mentioned that the latest producer attitude survey showed that 69 percent either strongly or somewhat strongly approve of the checkoff. That’s up slightly from last year. Tom also mentioned that he and the officers are committed to working with NCBA to help achieve the mission of improving beef demand.

You can listen to his comments below:

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Now Past CBB Chairman Lucinda Williams

Chuck Zimmerman

Lucinda WilliamsAt the annual CBB Banquet we honored outgoing Chairman, Lucinda Williams. She’s seen here with one of the quilts she made for the staff and board. All board members were asked to sign them before they left.

Then we heard comments from both Dan Dierschke, incoming CBB Chairman and Tom Ramey, CBB CEO. They came to the stage and expressed their appreciation and enjoyment with working with Lucinda. They noted her endless energy and care for other people at all times.

You can listen to their comments below:

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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Livestock Publications Council Hears From Steve Foglesong

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve FoglesongThe incoming NCBA President is Illinois cattleman Steve Foglesong. He dropped by the Livestock Publications Council lunch today.

He told the agricultural journalists attending the luncheon to reach out to other media when they see them reporting inaccurate information. He says that when he sees problems he’s going to do something about it and he’s quite willing to engage people who disagree with him.

You can listen to Steve’s lunch comments below:

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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Audio, Cattle Industry Conference, LPC

Drought Biggest Challenge for Stoller Australia

Joanna Schroeder

Fifteen years ago, StollerUSA opened up an office in Australia, and today Stoller Australia has demonstrated that they have many products that are beneficial for Australian growers. I caught up with Richard Emery, who runs this division during the Ag Associates Conference. He began by telling me that the country has a diverse range of crops including wheat and cotton, mangoes and table grapes, citrus, vegetables, and more.

One of the country’s biggest challenges is water scarcity – the country has been in a drought for nearly 10 years. Emery told me that the drought has flown down through many of the crops and water has become a very scarce commodity and has become one of the company’s biggest challenges.

However, Stoller has some products that help growers address some of these challenges including Root Feed. “For example, Root Feed has become very popular because it builds the root system of the tree or plant. So it actually makes it a more durable plant and able to overcome some of these stress periods,” explained Emery. “And also the development of the product Bio-Forge has been very timely because we’re now using it after a drought stress or heat wave. Afterwards, we apply Bio-Forge and we get a much quicker recovery of the plant.”

Bio-Forge can be used universally, whereas Root Feed, Emery notes, is limited to where there is a good fertigation system.

The importance of root systems is very new to growers in Australia and Emery says that his team spends a good amount of time educating the grower about the importance of strong, healthy roots. Emery concluded, “The roots are the brains of the the plant. So they need to be doing everything they can to have a robust, continually growing root system under their crop.”

Listen to my interview with Richard below.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

Agribusiness, Audio, Uncategorized, Wheat

Studying Soil to Improve Plant Growth

Joanna Schroeder

Dave Alexander is a consultant with Agri-Science Technology. His area of expertise is soil and he exams, assesses and helps a grower understand where he is at using his product history and goals. I spent some time with Alexander during the Ag Associates Conference sponsored by StollerUSA.

“In my practice I build a strong foundation first and then bring in extra technology,” explained Alexander. “In doing so, we primarily bring in Stoller technology.”

I asked him what the biggest problem growers in his area faced in regards to soil. He answered that his biggest challenge is helping them to understand the agronomic situation from an NPK value system. While he acknowledged that understanding this system is vitally important, he also stressed that growers need to look beyond the system and study secondary systems.

“When it comes to fertilization balance you really have to go beyond NPK. We’re a very educated society even in agriculture, and if NPK was the answer, we should have learned NPK was the solution 30 years ago,” said Alexander.

One of the secondary systems he is referring to include the control of hormone balance. “Keeping that balance is what will increase our production more than anything.”

He went on to explain that the first two weeks of any crop is the most important time frame to start that process and stresses that building a foundation program during this time is important.

In conclusion, I asked him what he felt was important for growers to understand and he said, “I think we have to learn to trust the technology that’s in the marketplace as long as the people who are delivering the technology understand what it is, what it’s supposed to do and what the outcome is. So ask yourself, what’s out there that we can utilize to extract more of that potential that we know exists?”

Listen to my interview with Dave below.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

Agribusiness, Audio

NOVUS Displays Wally

Chuck Zimmerman

Wally the steer is getting a lot of attention at the NOVUS International booth in the NCBA Trade Show. He’s there to make the point of how important it is to put the right fuel in the engine. With animals, it’s no different and NOVUS would love to talk to cattlemen about it.

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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Using Bio-Forge to Increase Soybean Yields

Joanna Schroeder

This week, during the Ag Associates Conference hosted by StollerUSA, I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Molnar, with Town and Country Ag. His company is a co-op working in nine counties in North Eastern Ohio and three of their locations provide full-service ag products and applications for growers.

Molnar told me that he has been using Stoller products for the last four years to help overcome one of their biggest challenges which is poor soil. “We’re always looking for ways to improve root growth to get better yield in our crops,” he said.

He, along with other growers in the area, are still learning and he recently did a trial with grass hay where he has seen some pretty drastic results using Bio-Forge and Folizyme together. He mentioned that he has also done some good things with soybeans using Golden Harvest Plus, a Stoller product.

“If you’ve got a plant stalled or not growing the way you want it to, you can get that plant to jumpstart a little bit and take off and start growing again for you,” explained Molnar.

Molar has learned some important things working with Stoller, one of which is that its not just about nutrients. It’s also about the hormone balance of the plant. “Cytokinin is a hormone that’s manufactured in the root tips. So, if you have a root system that’s not actively growing and not making new root tips, you’re not going to have the hormone production or the nutrient uptake you need to have maximum yield of your crop,” said Molnar. “Anytime during the growing season that our roots stops growing, we’re losing yield.”

Listen to my interview with Mike below.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

Agribusiness, Audio, Hay, Soybean, Uncategorized