AFBF President Gives Annual Address

Cindy Zimmerman

afbfAmerican Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman gave a rousing “rally the troops” address to thousands meeting in Seattle for the AFBF 91st Annual Meeting Sunday morning.

“We gather in Seattle this week to measure progress along our own Passage to Success,” Stallman began, continuing on to talk about the many challenges currently impacting the industry – from critics to carbon credits.

Stallman was especially critical of the climate change legislation, or “cap and trade,” being considered by Congress, and he called on members to tell lawmakers – “Don’t CAP Our Future!” – by stopping by the trade show booth and signing a petition.

“At the very time that we need to increase our food production, Climate Change legislation threatens to slash our ability to do so,” Stallman said, noting that USDA estimates it could take as much as 59 million acres out of production. “That’s like setting aside every acre of land used for crop and food production in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee…that means eliminating about 130,000 farms and ranchers that grow food and crops.”

Listen to or download Stallman’s 2010 AFBF annual meeting address here:

AFBF, Audio

Farm Bureau Annual Meeting Coverage Starts Here

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf“Passage to Success” is the theme of the 91st annual American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting that officially starts today in Seattle.

Today’s events include the opening general session with President Bob Stallman’s address to the farmers and ranchers gathered from around the country followed shortly by his annual press conference with the agricultural media. State Farm Bureau awards will be presented, the trade show will open and seminars will be held, as well as the Young Farmer and Rancher discussion meet.

I spent the first day of my first trip to Seattle visiting with an old high school friend who lives in Tacoma, which was very nice, but I am ready to get to work bringing the sights and sounds of AFBF in Seattle to Agwired readers.

AFBF

Sculpture With 1,000 Pounds of Butter

Chuck Zimmerman

2010 Butter SculptureI thought you’d enjoy this story from over on World Dairy Diary yesterday.

What better way to kick-off the Pennsylvania Farm Show than a butter sculpture made of 1,000 pounds of butter! Unveiled today, the sculpture is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association and the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program, from butter donated by Land O’ Lakes in Carlisle, Pa.

The sculpture pays tribute to dairy farm families and depicts a dairy cow, as well as a dairy farmer pouring a glass of milk at the breakfast table with family members.

“Pennsylvania’s dairy industry is the largest sector of our state’s number one economic enterprise – agriculture,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “With more than 98 percent of our dairy farms being family-owned, dairy producers are truly committed to providing high-quality milk for consumers while playing an integral role in supporting our local communities, the environment and economy.” Read More

Ag Groups, Dairy

Charlene Finck Promoted to Senior VP, Farm Journal Media

Chuck Zimmerman

charlene-finckCongratulations to Charlene Finck who has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Editorial & Content Development, at Farm Journal Media.

“Charlene has been very visible in all four corners of our company in not only integrating our content efforts into a much more cohesive and impactful offering for the hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers we serve, but as importantly, in contributing significantly to the growth of the company by forwarding new content platforms,” said Andy Weber, Farm Journal Media President/CEO.

Finck founded the Farm Journal Test Plots program in 1992 with Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. Since then, the program has provided independent testing of equipment, production practices and technology. Under her leadership, Farm Journal Media launched its popular Corn College events, the Farm Journal Legacy Project and the new Market Rally event.

An agricultural journalism graduate of the University of Missouri, Finck grew up on a Missouri crop and livestock farm near where she and her family live today. In 2009, she was honored with the prestigious Citation of Merit from the University of Missouri Alumni Association. Under her leadership, FARM JOURNAL was named one of min’s 14 Most Engaged Magazine Brands in 2009. She has won numerous writing awards throughout her career, including the American Agricultural Editors’ Association “Writer of the Year” award, and is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Media

Final Preview of AG CONNECT Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 245The floor of the upcoming AG CONNECT Expo is very busy right now. This morning I spoke with Show Director, Sara Mooney, who was on-location. In this week’s ZimmCast she provides a last preview and let’s us know how the final preparations are going. I’ll be there by the end of the weekend for the pre-show activities that take place on Monday and Tuesday.

Sara says ACE is meeting or exceeding its goals because of things like the co-located industry events and many educational opportunities in addition to a great trade show. She says they’ve seen a major push in registration in the last couple weeks and the average number of acres farmer registrants have is currently at 3,400. There are registrants from 46 states in the U.S. and from 45 countries.

The 2010 show will feature more than 30 education sessions with top industry experts. More than a dozen events are co-located with AG CONNECT Expo 2010, including Agrievolution, the Second World Summit on Agricultural Machinery. AG CONNECT Expo 2010 has the support of more than 40 leading industry groups worldwide, including as strategic partners Agritechnica, the world’s largest agriculture machinery show, and its organizer, DLG (the German Agricultural Society).

Sara is going wild with her new Flip camera too. Here’s one her latest YouTube videos with one of the exhibitors (Krone).

Thanks to AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

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.

Audio, ZimmCast

Colle+McVoy is Digital Agency for Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods

Chuck Zimmerman

land-lakes-websiteCongrats to Colle+McVoy for being named “digital agency” for Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods Division of Land O’Lakes, Inc. The agency will manage the consumer Web site including strategy, creative, production and development.

“We are very impressed with Colle+McVoy’s interactive expertise and technical capabilities,” said Thea Keamy, Vice President Retail Cheese & Marketing Services, Land O’Lakes. “It was imperative that the team we selected resonated with our team, which was apparent with Colle+McVoy throughout the selection process.”

Colle+McVoy will build and maintain landolakes.com, including the LAND O LAKES® Simple Rewards® Club, oversee search initiatives, and provide comprehensive Web analytics support.

Becoming digital agency for the Dairy Foods business of Land O’Lakes is the next chapter in the agency’s transformative growth story. Colle+McVoy’s interactive billings have doubled since 2007 and now account for more than 40 percent of the agency’s revenue. The agency overall has experienced remarkable year over year growth in recent years and expects this momentum to continue in 2010.

Agencies, Food

World Ag Expo Goes Digital

Melissa Sandfort

WAXExhibitors and attendees can now make the most of their time at World Ag Expo using the Digital Show Grounds feature at WorldAgExpo.com.

The Digital Show Grounds feature allows those planning to attend World Ag Expo to view a high-resolution map of the show grounds and map out their experience minute-by-minute with seminars, tours and stops at exhibits that apply directly to their industry.

The 43rd annual World Ag Expo 2010, powering global agriculture, will run Feb. 9–11 at the International Agri-Center show grounds in Tulare, Calif. An estimated 100,000 visitors from 67 countries are expected to attend World Ag Expo this year. The expo is the largest annual agricultural show of its kind with 1,600 exhibitors displaying cutting-edge agricultural technology and equipment on 2.6 million square feet of show grounds.

Online attendee registration is now available at WorldAgExpo.com. Those who register online through Feb. 1 will save time at the gate, $2 off daily admission, and automatically be entered to win a Yamaha Rhino and other registration prizes.

Uncategorized

Monsanto Sponsors Tweetups at Farm Bureau Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

afbfMonsanto and the American Farm Bureau Federation will host two “tweetups” for Twitter users in the Monsanto booth during the AFBF annual meeting which starts Sunday in Seattle.

monsantoThe Tweetups will be held at the Exhibitor Showcase in the Monsanto Booth #210. First one is Sunday at 3 pm, then they will do it again on Monday at 8 am. Come learn about the usefulness of Twitter and network with some of the agricultural leaders advocating for the industry online. Non-Twitter users are also encouraged to come and find out what it’s all about!

AFBF

Fluidigm Inks Deal With USDA

Chuck Zimmerman

Fluidigm LogoIt looks like AgWired sponsor, Fluidigm Corporation, is making some new inroads into the agricultural sector with their announcement that “USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has purchased a Fluidigm microfluidic-based EP1™ System to help develop and validate focused 96- and 384-SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) panels for testing America’s dairy and beef cattle. To ensure healthy cows and top quality product.”

ARS scientists are collaborating with leading members of the U.S. biotechnology industry to develop low-cost, high-throughput SNP panels that can genetically indicate cattle growth rates, disease resistance, milk productivity, health and longevity. To date ARS has studied over 100 of the more than 50,000 previously discovered genetic markers for cattle. The project’s goal is to turn out healthier cows that produce higher-quality milk and meat for consumers while also preserving the viability of the country’s thousands of cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. Validated SNP panels are expected to be utilized routinely in livestock breeding management. There are approximately nine million dairy cows and 35 million beef cattle in the United States
 Read More

Agribusiness, Biotech, Technology, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • AgraQuest Inc. announced the launch of SERENADE SOIL, the first soil fungicide based on its patented active ingredient Bacillus subtilis strain QST 713.
  • Patrick Pelstring, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of National Wind, lays out the ways in which farmers can benefit economically from wind energy and demonstrates how unobtrusive wind turbines can be to farming.
  • Syngenta and Dow AgroSciences, announced that Syngenta has granted Dow AgroSciences licenses to a number of VipCot cotton varieties, as well as access to its COT102 cotton transgenic event.
  • Thank you to those who have responded with nominees for the 2010 Agricultural Leadership and Excellence Award. If you have not yet had a chance to send in your response, please do so by Jan. 15, 2010. Please send to erica.venancio@agbizkc.com.
    Zimfo Bytes