Classes are in full swing, homework is piling up, I’m in my senior semester at SDSU, the snow is getting deep and I’m ditching school to head to sunny Arizona for the Cattle Industry’s Annual Trade Show and Convention. I’ll be catching up with Chuck in Phoenix as we gather with ranchers, industry professionals and friends for some good conversations and fellowship.
This will be my third time attending this convention, and without a doubt, it is one of my favorites. It’s pretty amazing that Chuck has captured my travels several times over the last three years. I enjoyed a little blast from the past by listening to this interview, “Passionate About Beef,” and reading this blog post, “Beef Ambassador Blogs.” It’s a little embarrasing to share these blasts from the past, but everyone needs a good chuckle now and again. This time, it’s just on my behalf!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to taking part in Cattlemen’s College, the Cattle-Fax Outlook Seminar, beef industry issues forums, Cattlemen’s Beef Board Update sessions, a media reception and NCBA’s Young Producers Council meetings. Yes, it is going to be a busy week, but I’m excited for it. It’s time to get back on the road again!
The Beef Board Operating Committee meeting is over and before he went to dinner I caught up with Chairman Dave Bateman.
Here’s the Yard-O-Beef welcoming committee in the Cattle Industry Convention news room. It’s always nice to see the staff here and between chocolate and beef we’re well fed.
“All Star” is the theme for Novus International at the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta this week. There’s a couple of good reasons for that. 
The other reason is that the 2009 Baseball All Star game will be held in St. Louis – which is also the home of Novus International. To drive home that theme, Novus will have a special guest at their expo trade show booth this week – Hall of Famer Lou Brock.
Lunch was on Novus International today at the 
In a relaxed atmosphere, Dr. Tara York with Novus presented some information on the “Synergistic Effects of Nutritional Antioxidants” to about 200 attendees, focusing on vitamin E, selenium, and ethoxyquin (as well as a bunch of other big words that I can’t pronounce or spell!!) Novus is pretty much the world leader when it comes to antioxidants for poultry, with over five decades of basic and applied research, development and manufacturing expertise being utilized to develop, manufacture and support multiple lines of nutritional and health products for the poultry industry.
Welcome to AgWired’s coverage of the International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo, sponsored by 
This afternoon I got to visit with Bob Callanan and Cassandra Schlef, 
Our new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, just held his first teleconference and I’ve got it recorded for you. He makes a short opening statement then takes Q&A from select media who could ask questions (I was not one of them). I was interested in things like biofuels and rural development of broadband internet access. Both are mentioned several times.