Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) is widely recognized for his best-selling self-help books including: How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. What started as a night job teaching adults at the YMCA turned into a national phenomenon as Dale Carnegie dedicated his life to teaching others the power of self-improvement.
For animal and meat science students from across the country, the opportunity was available to take part in these legendary training sessions at the American Meat Science Association Student Leadership Conference held on Feb. 23-25, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nev. Five South Dakota State University participants competed in a meat product development contest during the event with chocolate, peanut butter, cinnamon bacon rolls. I know…intense. I had the opportunity to try these bacon rolls, and I can assure you that they were delicious (calorie count aside). Pictured here is SDSU team member, Jarrod Bumsted, with his bacon rolls.
Anyway, the conference offered three days of Dale Carnegie Training, and I wish that I could have been there as they learned about effective public speaking, conflict management, leadership, teammwork and effective decision making. I have read Carnegie’s books, and I have found them incredibly inspirational and moving. Have you read his books or gone through his training courses before?
Everyone at Commodity Classic this year seemed to be impressed that attendance was as good or better than ever, despite the economy.
Rick says he was pleased to see the producer organizations for four different commodities coming together for the first time under one banner. “We’re too small in agriculture to be fighting among our selves,” Rick said. “Things like Commodity Classic bring us together and help us realize how much we have in common.”
and 
The IFAJ/AMS planning committee got together since so many of us ag media types were in town for Commodity Classic. Yesterday the group went to Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards before heading to the upcoming conference hotel, the 
Agritechnica representatives Annette Reichhold (left) and Dr. Malene Conlong were talking with farmers at the Commodity Classic this week about planning a visit to Hanover, Germany for the event November 10-14.
Cindy took this picture of Hugh Whaley, (l) 
As things slowed down today I got to sit down and visit with Hugh about his new position. It made for a good Commodity Classic week ZimmCast. Hugh is a very good friend and I’m glad for this opportunity he has. He’s be working on obtaining, managing and working with farmer driven organizations, not for profit groups, agricultural associations as well as governmental organizations. This fits right in with the kind of work that he’s been doing which includes working with the United Soybean Board and other checkoff groups. 
BASF hosted a panel at the conference to examine how today’s technology can help manage disease in wheat and cereals to meet the growing global demand for grain. The panel featured analyst Arlan Suderman of 
After Suderman’s comments, BASF technical experts on plant disease, Drs. Gary Fellows and Gary Schmitz, talked about how BASF products can help increase global production of wheat and other cereal grains by controlling the most aggressive diseases that affect those crops.
Trish Lynn (r) and the 
You could go to school and learn about precision land management in the New Holland booth at this year’s Commodity Classic. Mike Harvey was teaching when I stopped by. He says the mobile teaching trailer provides a place for growers to see their monitors and even operate a simulator.
BASF, the American Soybean Association (ASA) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) announced this year’s scholarship winners for both organizations at the 2009 Commodity Classic. The scholarships are awarded to tomorrow’s agricultural leaders pursuing a degree in an industry-related field. 
Adam also presented the 2009-2010 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Scholarship, managed by the ASA and sponsored by BASF, to Brent Larson, a high-school senior from Canby, Minnesota, who plans to major in agronomy and minor in agricultural economics and agricultural marketing at South Dakota State University.