Alltech Young Scientist Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Young Scientist AwardThe Alltech Young Scientist Award program keeps getting bigger with more entries and that means the competition level increases. This is the fourth year of the program and the awards were presented at the Symposium.

The overall winner in the undergraduate category is Fan Liu of Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China who submitted a paper on HSP70 as a new biomarker in the development and evaluation of anti-stress feed additives.

There were regional winners in both the undergraduate and graduate categories as well.

Alltech Young Scientist AwardThe overall winner in the graduate category is Tung M. Che, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA who submitted a paper examining the Effects of mannan oligosaccharide on immune function and disease resistance in pigs. Both these winners are pictured in between Dr. Mark Lyons and Inge Russell.

“This year’s Alltech Young Scientist Award program was a very close competition which attracted many high caliber young scientists” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “At a time when we need the brightest young minds in the world to engage in scientific study, I am delighted to present this prestigious award to such talented young students.”

Tung M. Che and Fan Liu will be awarded prizes of $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • In recognition of their vision, inspirational efforts and leadership that has helped shape today’s cattle feeding industry, Paul F. Engler and the late William D. “W.D.” Farr are honored as the inaugural inductees into the newly established Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame.
  • Kuhn North America, Inc., of Brodhead, Wis., introduces the new GF 7802 T, six-rotor, trailed rotary tedder with a working width of 25′ 7″.
  • AutoFarm announces embedded steering control (ESC) for Envizio Pro, allowing it to work with the AutoFarm OnTrac2 GPS Assisted Steering System to provide robust steering of a broad range of equipment including tractors, sprayers, spreaders and combines.
  • Emily Caldwell of Beaver Falls, Pa., will serve as the 2009 editorial intern this summer at Farm and Dairy, a weekly agricultural publication based in Salem, Ohio.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Biofuels Discussion at World Ag Congress

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag ForumBiofuels from the perspective of India and East Africa, as well as Europe and the United States, were part of the discussion at the World Ag Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.

    Henk Joos with London-based D1 Oils moderated the panel focusing on an integrated approach to biofuels. He stressed that the purpose of the panel was to find solutions. “We can decide to go again in an immense debate on food versus fuel,” he said. “I would like to take a different approach. I would like with my fellow panelists to identify responsible ways to make food and fuel at the same time.”

    The panelists included former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh, Lee Broughton with Enterprise, Bill Horan with 25x’25, and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa.

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Biodiesel, Novus International

    New CEO Introduced for World Agricultural Forum

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Kathy MoldthanDr. Leonard J. Guarraia, Chairman and CEO of the World Agricultural Forum, announced today at the 2009 World Ag Congress that his title will soon only be chairman of the organization and that Kathy Moldthan is taking over the job of CEO. Kathy has been with WAF for ten years, just before the first World Ag Congress in 1999. Prior to that, she worked in the sustainability division of Monsanto.

    Kathy says her goal going forward with WAF is to take the organization from only having congresses in St. Louis to expanding into other areas of the world. “To better bring the solutions and innovative ideas that are working in one area and see if we can replicate them in other areas,” she said.

    They were expecting 200 participants for this year’s congress and Kathy says there are over 260 registered from more than 20 different countries. “The theme this year is food security and looking at the technological issues related to food security,” she said. “The participants feel the panelists have been outstanding and the discussions have been robust, and some pretty innovative ideas and concepts coming out of those.” She is also pleased with the participation in this year’s Congress by a variety of stakeholder companies – from food manufacturers like Hershey and General Mills to agribusiness companies like Novus, Monsanto and AGROTAIN.

    You can listen to my interview with Kathy here: waf-09-kathy.MP3

    Download the audio file here: Kathy Moldthan interview

    Click here to see all stories from the World Ag Congress.

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Audio, Novus International

    Agrotain Focuses on Sustainability at Ag Congress

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Mike StegemanIt should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.

    Another company making a difference in that arena is St. Louis-based AGROTAIN International and I talked with president Mike Stegmann today about some of the ways they are helping. “Sustainability means different things to different people but at AGROTAIN International we’re talking a look at fertilizer specifically,” Mike said. “We truly believe there’s ways to use fertilizer, be more efficient, get more, cost less and still do the right thing for the environment.” AGROTAIN is the world’s largest producer of StabilizedNitrogen™ fertilizers.

    Along those lines, AGROTAIN has been participating in a study with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service on the impact of nitrogen fertilizer on climate change. “We wanted to understand what the climate change benefit is of using a product like AGROTAIN to using conventional fertilizer or no fertilizer at all,” Mike says.

    In fact, the study has found there is a dramatic reduction in nitrous oxide emissions when nitrogen fertilizer is applied with AGROTAIN. More on that will be revealed tomorrow here at the Congress by Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory.

    You can listen to my interview with Mike here: waf-09-agrotain.mp3

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Fertilizer, Novus International

    Novus International Helps Feed the World

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Giovanni GasperoniNovus International is playing a major role in this year’s World Ag Congress because they are a company that is playing a major role in global food and agricultural production.

    “Our mission as a company is to support sustainable, industrial animal agriculture,” says executive vice president of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni. He notes that there is a great deal of discussion about “organic” farming under the concept of sustainability. “Organic is not for the mass. You’re not feeding 6.2 billion people by going organic. We need to make sure that the people who want to spend the money for organic are not imposing the rule for the rest of the world.”

    John Davis interviewed Gio here at the World Ag Congress yesterday about Novus’ role in sustainability and making food more accessible and affordable for the world. “It’s not by promoting free range chicken or organic chicken,” Gio says. He also talks about some of Novus’ products, Alimet and Santoquin, two livestock feed additives that he says have helped to “change the world” for livestock producers and meat eaters. Santoquin is actually 50 years old and has the distinction of being the first feed additive approved by FDA.

    You can listen to John’s interview with Gio here: waf-09-gasperoni.mp3

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Food, Novus International

    Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education Fund

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Alltech Muhammad AliThe Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Humanitarian Fund has been officially announced here at the Alltech Symposium. His name is one of the most recognizable in the world and the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world was on hand with his wife Lonnie. They’re seen here with Dr. Pearse Lyons after the announcement moments ago.

    Alltech president and founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons presented Muhammad and Lonnie Ali a check for $50,000 to establish the Alltech – Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The focal point of the fund is education. Alltech and the Muhammad Ali Center will stress programs that positively impact others around the world, promote excellence and achieving one’s potential. The fund will have humanitarian and artistic components as well.

    “For 29 years Alltech has believed that it is our responsibility to not only provide science-based solutions to agribusiness, but to give back to the communities in which we operate,” said Alltech president and CEO, Dr. Pearse Lyons. “The establishment of this fund and this collaboration will undoubtedly help us raise global awareness of the problems that we hope to address; particularly those that are educational or humanitarian in nature.”

    On the stage this morning we heard remarks from Lonnie Ali and then Dr. Lyons. I have them recorded for you here.

    You can listen to their remarks here: alltech-symposium-ali.mp3

    You can also download the remarks here: Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Fund Remarks (mp3)

    Alltech Symposium Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio

    Trade, Food and Agriculture

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day 2The impact of trade on food and agriculture security for the global economy was the topic of the first roundtable discussion on day two of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.

    Roundtable participants included moderator Gary Blumenthal, CEO of World Perspectives; Joel Velasco of Brazil’s Sugar Cane Industry Association, Cargill’s Devry Boughner, Robert Modarelli with the National Center for APEC; and Tjada McKenna of The Gates Foundation.

    I am taking over for John Davis covering this event this week and hope I can do half as good a job. Thanks to John for his excellent coverage, and thanks again to Novus International for sponsoring Agwired coverage of the congress.

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Novus International

    Freelance Blogging For Alltech

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast-220 - Freelance BloggingThis morning I had an interesting Twitter exchange on the subject of bloggers vs. journalists. I don’t see the difference really and I don’t think you can lump people into those categories as if they’re mutually exclusive. I think you’ll find plenty of “journalists” on mainstream media channels without credibility and you’ll also find plenty of blogging “journalists” with plenty of credibility. That exchange became the inspiration for this week’s program which features an interview with Debbie Hildreth who is the Alltech blogger here at the Symposium I’m attending. I was the Alltech blogger last year so it was easy for me to understand what Debbie is doing as a freelancer with a new gig.

    Alltech BloggerHere’s Debbie doing one of her many interviews which are winding up as YouTube videos that are also being posted on their blog.

    If you’re a freelance writer or photographer you might find our interview of interest. There is a world of opportunity out there and hopefully Debbie’s story will inspire you.

    You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 220 (12 min MP3)

    Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Debbie Hildreth - ZimmCast 220

    The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

    Alltech, Audio, ZimmCast

    I Love Farmers They Feed My Soul

    Chuck Zimmerman

    I Love FarmersHave you heard of or visited I Love Farmers, They Feed My Soul? Here’s what it’s all About.

    We may be young, but we are not stupid.

    We love farmers. They feed our soul. Together we are working to help our generation understand the importance of knowing where our food comes from and who produced it.

    We’re not your typical “who cares” kind of young people from the Millennial Generation. Sure, we all have cell phones and we text like crazy. We have iPods and spend way too much time on Facebook and MySpace, but we care about our planet. We care about our country. We care about the American family farmer.

    Few of our friends know how their food is produced. We think that is sad. And, really it is kind of scary. If we are not careful, we will become dependent on other countries to provide our food. That is not good. Who knows what goes on in other countries when it comes to growing our food? We have an idea, and it too is not good.

    In an effort to create a conversation among our peers about our food, our farmers and our future, we have committed to getting connected. We want to get the word out about where our food comes from and how it is produced. We invite you to join our I Love Farmers group on Facebook and be a part of the conversation about American agriculture.

    “Together, our generation can make a difference.”

    Ag Groups