AgWired

Top ten things the student correspondents learned at the International Farm Management Congress last week:

10. Make sure the microphone is plugged in all the way when recording an audio interview.
9. When the British woman says she does not want her picture taken, she really means it!
8. Always be a half an hour early when waiting to on a tour, they may leave without you.
7. Do not bring any outside food such as Krispy Kreme or Panera inside teh Bone Student Center, they do not like it.
6. Do not let people print from your computer when they say their computer crashed at home.
5. Australian’s are from Australia and New Zealander’s are from New Zealand, never mix the two up.
4. Never say you like to eat kiwis in front of a New Zealander.
3. World Scholars know how to cut a rug on the dance floor!
2. Do not hit people on bicycles with your car on your way to the newsroom, to could potentially be dangerous, you could go to jail.
1. Thank you to Colleen and Carroll for giving us the opportunity to work in the press room and cover the IFMA 17! We had a great experience!

Bonus: Thank you to Chuck, Cindy and the staff at AgWired that helped us make IFMA 17 a success! Chuck, we hope you feel better soon!

Sincerely,
The IFMA Congress Correspondents
DeAnna J. Schertz – University of Illinois
Matt L. Spialek – Illinois State University
Joe Genzel – Alum – Illinois State University
Erin Yancey – Illinois State University
Ross Albert – Illinois State University
Jacquie Holland – Illinois State University
Savanna Anderson – Illinois State University

Colleen Callahan – Alumna – University of Illinois – Advisor

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Since my bout with pneumonia was “outed” last week I thought I’d start out this week with an update for y’all. To start with, I’m feeling a lot better. Thank you to all who have expressed their well wishes and offered their prayers. It has been rough and I won’t deny it. But I should be home this week and on the mend for a while longer before back to “normal.” Yes, we’re all normal in one way or the other.

Cindy will be on the road a little more this next month along with some of our awesome free lance helpers so ZimmComm is going to have a busy schedule through the end of August. She’ll get things kicked off at the end of this week with the combined IFAJ/Ag Media Summit mtg. in Ft. Worth. I wish I could be there but I’ll be following along online. For all you tweeters who will be attending or want to follow the conversation on Twitter please use the hashtag, #AgMS, in your tweets.

The 17th annual International Farm Management Congress (IFMA17) drew to a close Friday at The Bone Student Center on the campus of Illinois State University.

During the conference, IMFA17 members were privy to a slew of academic presentations from students and professors from the 30 countries that were represented. IMFA17 also took to the road with stops at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, John Deere, Monsanto, Twin Groves Wind Farm, an ethanol plant, hog farm and countless other agricultural destinations.

The theme of IMFA17 was food, fiber and energy, and patrons certainly were educated on all three, whether they were touring an agricultural high school in Chicago or riding on the Peoria Charter Coach buses that have been running on more efficient bio-fuels since 2004.

This year’s conference was one of the most diverse, and allowed for a free exchange of ideas between academics, administrators and farmers. IFMA prides itself on its ability to create an environment where agricultural concepts can thrive, and this years congress certainly allowed for that.

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Bob Swires, President of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, presented the association’s mid-year survey Friday at the 17th annual International Farm Management Congress Friday. Here are the findings for the first half of 2009:

1. Illinois Society members indicated that land values fell slightly during the first half of 2009. For excellent quality farmland, land prices declined by $171 per acre, or 2.3%. For fair quality farmland, the decline was $225 per acre, or 5.4%.

2. On July 1, 2009, farmland prices averaged $7,200 for excellent quality farmland, $6,300 for good quality farmland, $4,900 for average quality farmland, and $4,000 for fair quality farmland.

3. Volume of sales declined during the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008. Eighty-eight percent of respondents indicated that volume of sales were less during the first half of 2009.

4. Fifty-six percent of the respondents expected sales to be less during the last half of 2009 as compared to the last half of 2008.

5. Half of the survey respondents expected declines in farmland prices over the next twelve months. Thirty-two percent expected stable prices.

6. Interest rates are expected to increase by 53% of survey respondents over the next year. Forty-seven percent expect stable interest rates. No respondents expect declines in interest rate
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The International Farm Management Association 17 (IMFA 17) Congress, held at Illinois State University this week, came to a close on Friday, July 24 with a unique keynote address from Dr. Lowell B. Catlett. His presentation, “New Frontiers that Change Everything,” was an eye-opening discussion about the future of farm management in connection to changes that have developed within society.

Dr. Catlett began his address with a story about antibiotics first being discovered by those in the agricultural world. “Change is tough, it ‘ain’t’ what we don’t know that will kill us, it’s what we know that we don’t want to be so,” Catlett said in reference to the medical world’s slow acceptance of the claims made by those in the agricultural field about antibiotics and neurogenesis.

“If you want healthy humans, you can’t separate them from animals and nature,” Catlett said multiple times throughout his address. He emphasized the importance of farm managers in providing for the changing needs of each generation. “What’s a luxury for one generation, is a necessity for the next,” he said.

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MEDIA ALERT!

Who: Bob Swires, AFM, Swires Land and Management

What: The Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraiser will release their Mid-Year Survey of Illinois land values for 2009. Did the value of land increase or decrease? Bob Swires of AFM and Swires Land and Management will tell all during the final session of International Farm Management Congress 17 2009.

Where: International Farm Management Association 17 Congress (IFMA 17) at Illinois State University, Brown Ballroom, Bone Student Center, Bloomington, Ill.

When: Friday, July 24 at 9:30 a.m.

Why: The survey highlights changes taking place in farmland value, and the results are only released once a year. Also, this marks a change in venue for the survey results that are usually unveiled at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill. Six weeks earlier than usual!

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Amin Ismail Abdou of the National Research Centre in Egypt presented the abstract of his paper on the role of Egyptian women in agriculture during Wednesday’s afternoon session of the 17th International Farm Management Association Congress.

Abdou acknowledged that Egyptian women have significantly improved their standards of living over the years. While the women’s suffrage movement during the 1920s and 1930s helped women to improve their social status in the United States, it was not until later in the century that Egyptian women were able to improve their quality of life. Since the mid 1970s, the number of women in the Egyptian parliament has increased from 30 to 65. Increased amounts of women are rising to high-ranking posts that were exclusively held by men in the past. Today, women constitute nearly 43 percent of Egypt’s labor force.

While women have made much progress, Abdou noted, these advances have been limited geographically. The rural sector has not made as drastic of improvements as the urban dwellers have and are still behind in most aspects. A mere 6.7 percent of rural women are in the official labor force, a small number compared to 28 percent of women in urban areas. Illiteracy rates range between 50 and 70 percent of women in rural areas, while less than 35 percent of urban women are illiterate.

There are many differences for this variance. Religion, traditions, education levels, geographic location and ethnic influence are major factors that prevent a better standard of living. North and South Egypt are vastly different in beliefs. In the South, women are not allowed to marry outside of their family for fear that the land will fall out of the family’s name once the woman marries. Therefore, genetic mutations such as blindness and lameness are common. Abdou also points out these factors are interactive.
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