Lou Brock Steals Hearts at Poultry Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09A man best known for stealing bases during his stellar career was stealing hearts today at the Novus booth during the International Poultry Expo.

Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, an all-star for the St. Louis Cardinals in his day, really hit a home run for Novus at the expo. He spent two hours signing autographs and taking pictures with hundreds of expo attendees. He and his wife Jackie, pictured here with several members of the Novus team, are very gracious and special people and it was a pleasure to meet them.

I did a quick interview with Lou about his outlook on life and what he thought about being a part of the International Poultry Expo this year.

Listen to that interview here:
ipe-09-brock.mp3

You can also download the interview here: Brock Interview (mp3).

Anyone who got their picture taken with Lou at the Novus booth can find those photos in the photo album link below.

International Poultry Expo Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

See all the posts from the International Poultry Expo using this link.

Audio, Novus International, Poultry Expo

LPC Holds Lunch Meeting at CIC

Chuck Zimmerman

Diane JohnsonA little ditty about Rick and Diane . . . sounds like a song. Actually it’s Rick Coyle, Northern Ag Network and Diane Johnson, Livestock Publications Council. I really have no idea what they’re doing here in the news room at the Cattle Industry Convention.

I do know that the Livestock Publications Council is having a lunch meeting today and I probably won’t be able to make it. Maybe someone will share a note and a picture from it though (hint, hint, Diane).

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

Cattle Industry Conference, LPC

Poultry Industry Outlook

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 092008 was a year the poultry industry would rather forget, but the outlook for 2009 is brighter, according to Tom Hensley, president of Fieldale Farms in Baldwin, Georgia. He presented “The Industry Outlook: An Executive Management Perspective” at the International Poultry Expo this morning.

Hensley is optimistic about this year. “You can’t be in the chicken business unless you’re an optimist at heart,” he says. “I think that our feed costs are going to come down.”

While he believes ethanol production has impacted the industry tremendously, he thinks there will eventually be some equilibrium. “We love our corn growers, without them we don’t exist – chickens can’t eat anything but corn. But I still say corn’s coming down.”

Listen to my brief interview with Tom here:
ipe-09-hensley.mp3

You can also download the interview here: Hensley Interview (mp3).

International Poultry Expo Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Audio, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Coaching the Novus Team

Cindy Zimmerman

The key to a winning baseball team is a good coach and if Novus International was a baseball team, executive vice president of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni would be that coach.

International Poultry Expo 09“Novus was born in 1991, so we celebrate our 18th anniversary this year,” Gio told me in an interview today. “When I came to the states in 1995, I was the only foreigner speaking with a funny accent in the whole company, today we have more people with funny accents in the company than speaking with English accents!” Which just shows how the company has expanded globally to help producers around the world be more productive to meet the protein demands of a growing population.

The Novus “all-star” line up of products has grown as well. “We started with two basic products – ALIMET and SANTOQUIN,” said Gio. In the last five years, they have diversified to offer a broad range of products to serve the needs of customers in not just poultry, but swine, aquaculture and ruminants in general.

“Health through nutrition, makes the animal healthier which makes them more performing, which is what helps our customers around the world,” Gio says.

Gio is passionate about the ability of Novus to serve their customers and ultimately the consumers of the world, by producing more food in a sustainable manner – definitely a winning strategy!

Listen to my interview with Gio here:
ipe-09-gio.mp3

You can also download the interview here: Gasperoni Interview (mp3).

International Poultry Expo Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Audio, Livestock, Novus International, Pork, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Headline Receives Plant Health Label

Cindy Zimmerman

BASF announced today that Headline® fungicide is the first fungicide to have EPA approved Plant Health claims on its label. State approvals are currently pending.

“We believe this is a new precedent for the agricultural community,” said Nevin McDougall, Group Vice President, North America, BASF. “Agriculture must rely on innovative products such as Headline to meet the increasing global demand for food and fuel, in the face of decreasing availability of land. BASF is proud to be a leader in crop protection innovation.”

BASF“For years growers have relied on the outstanding disease control and Plant Health benefits from Headline,” said Rick Chamblee, PhD, Technical Service Manager with BASF. “The research behind this registration underscores the commitment of BASF to helping growers get the most out of every acre by supporting the Plant Health benefits of Headline.”

Headline improves Plant Health by acting on three unique areas of the plant’s growth. These Plant Health benefits are improved growth efficiency, excellent disease control, and enhanced tolerance to stress conditions such as drought, heat, cold temperatures and ozone damage.

“The Plant Health benefits of Headline help plants focus their energy on producing more output,” noted Chamblee. “Over and over again, we see the yield advantage of Headline in a number of key crops.”

Headline is the most researched fungicide on the market, with more than 7,000 farm trials conducted on well over a million acres in the past seven years.

BASF

ZimmKids

Cindy Zimmerman

ZimmKidsAre these kids cute or what?

These are the ZimmKids – our Georgia nieces and nephews that I had a chance to spend some quality time with on my first night here in Atlanta. They surprised me by wearing the AgWired t-shirts we sent to them last year. So they’re a little large for them – that just makes it all the more adorable!!!!

ZimmKidsFrom left to right, these adorable ZimmKids are Bayli, Veronica, Luke (our godson), Eli, Mary and Paul Joey. I would give all their ages, but I am not entirely sure about that – let’s just say they range from about 3 to 17.

They are the offspring of Chuck’s little brother Paul and his lovely wife Laura who have been married for 20 years this year. I would add that all these kids are home-schooled and extremely well-behaved – a real joy to be around. They live in a little town about 40 miles east of Atlanta called Newborn with several horses, five dogs, 12 cats, some chickens and a rat. They are really living that rural lifestyle!

Uncategorized

Internet In The WildBlue Yonder

Chuck Zimmerman

Wild BlueThe NCBA Trade Show kicked off with an opening reception this evening at the Cattle Industry Convention. I’m planning on spending some time there during the next couple days.

It looks like the first session went well judging by all the traffic as I wandered around. I took a few photos which have been added to the photo album but couldn’t hang around for long. I thought the WildBlue booth was worth a look for those of you who have limited internet options out in the countryside.

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

Cattle Industry Conference, Internet

Seventh Inning Stretch

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09It could be, it might be – it was a home run for Novus International’s Jeremy Lutgen and Michael Whitmer, shown here playing an interactive video baseball game during the Novus reception at the International Poultry Expo.

It was a great seventh inning stretch after a long day in the trade show trenches for everyone. Tomorrow will be the big day at the Novus booth when Baseball Hall of Famer and former St. Louis Cardinals player Lou Brock makes a two hour appearance to sign autographs for the poultry expo attendees. He is sure to be a hit!

International Poultry Expo Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Novus International, Poultry Expo

Cattle Industry Honors Terry Stokes

Chuck Zimmerman

The cattle industry honored Terry Stokes today for his service to NCBA. It was a very emotional presentation which included his being joined on stage at the opening session by the staff, including from many state affiliates. A highlight for Terry I’m sure was being presented with an American flag that flew in his honor at an Army post in Iraq for his assistance in providing our soldiers with NCBA logo materials and American made beef jerky, something that meant a lot to them at the time.

Honoring Terry Stokes

You can listen to Terry’s remarks here: cic-09-stokes.mp3

I’ve updated the photo album and there’s a lot in there to see so feel free to browse:Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

This Ain’t Just Chicken Feed

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09I have been to quite a few trade shows in my time and the International Poultry Expo could very well be the biggest I have ever seen, with nearly 900 booths. In fact, it ranks 58th out of ALL the trade shows in the United States – not just ag shows, all shows. That’s pretty impressive.

The man who makes it happen is show manager Charlie Olentine, who says the poultry expo has grown throughout its long history. “The show’s been here in Atlanta every year for over sixty years,” Charlie told me. “We’ve kind of grown up with the convention facilities in the city. We got our start in the lobby of one of the local hotels in the late ’40s.”

Three years ago, the poultry expo made a move to diversify by co-locating with the International Feed Expo, which has increased both their number of exhibitors and attendees. This year, despite the economy, Charlie says their numbers are only down about 10 percent from last year’s record attendance. “Last year we had about 20,000 people come through, this year probably about 18,000,” Charlie said. “We have a very strong international contingent, anywhere from 4-5,000, the majority of them coming from Latin America.”

Listen to my interview with Charlie here: ipe-09-charlie.mp3

You can also download the interview here: DHA Interview (mp3).

International Poultry Expo Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Audio, Feed, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo