The Women of DTN/The Progressive Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

Girls of DTN/The Progressive FarmerAfter today’s BI PRRS Foundations Seminar I went upstairs at the Marriott to the DTN/The Progressive Farmer 2008 Ag Summit. After all they’re our sponsor. So before I left to the airport I visited with a number of my DTN friends including Adrian Blake, Publisher, who will be the subject of tomorrow’s ZimmCast.

Here are the friendly faces of the girls of DTN/The Progressive Farmer. Actually, professional women! According to Adrian they doubled the attendance at this year’s Summit. You can learn all about it tomorrow.

I’ve also got a number of posts to do still from the BI event so look for more on PRRS too.

Uncategorized

Combination of Control Options Works Best on PRRS

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Dale PolsonThe whole focus of today’s BI Foundations Seminar is on area and regional control of the PRRS virus. One of our presenters did some research on just how well applying control techniques works on a wide area basis. He’s Dr. Dale Polson.

He presented findings from a project that applied the principals of control to a large production system over a wide geographic area. I asked him what they found and he said, “We found that if you make mistakes you pay.” He says they also found that it takes a combination of control methods like closure, mass vaccination, linear pig flow and bio-security which he compares to a multi-legged stool. You need all the legs or you’ll fall over!

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Polson here: bi-foundations-08-polson.mp3

Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

Vaccines in PRRS Control

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. J. P. CanoThe first presentation at the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Seminar was on the “Impact of a modified-live PRRS vaccine intervention on a population of pigs infected with a heterologous isolates.” Presenting was Dr. J. P. Cano from Venezuala.

His presentation was on the results of 2 different studies that showed an increase in clinical response to a virus challenge. He says, however, that besides vaccination producers need to consider other options for PRRS control at the same time since there isn’t any silver bullet solution.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Cano here: bi-foundations-08-cano.mp3

Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

Time Is Right For PRRS Control

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Bob MorrisonThe man who is keeping the program running here today at the BI Foundations Seminar is Dr. Bob Morrison. He’s our emcee and right now as I post this, our panel leader.

I spoke with him on our break to learn more about what BI is trying to accomplish. He says that by bringing together presentations on various aspects of PRRS control like vaccine use, applying maps and diagnostics, they are showing that the tools are available to control the virus on a regional basis as opposed to an individual farm approach. Information sharing is at the essence of this he says and producers are going to need to be willing to share information. He says we’re just at the beginning of this process to create area and regional PRRS control but that the time is right.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Morrison here: bi-foundations-08-morrison.mp3

Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

BIVI Foundations Seminar Underway

Chuck Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS SeminarThe Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Seminar is underway and we’re already on the second speaker in the program today.

At our break and after the meeting I’ll be conducting one-on-one interviews with each presenter to bring you up to date on the latest research in PRRS Virus Control.

I’ve got a photo album started for your viewing pleasure already: Boehringer Ingelheim Foundations Photo Album

Boehringer Ingelheim

JackPlot!™ Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

Jackplot WinnersIt looks like Cindy made it through the National JackPlot!™Finals in Las Vegas. I’ll be joining her there later on today after the BIVI Foundations Seminar I’m attending in Chicago. So here’s her post on who won:

It got down to a Husker vs. Husker contest in the Final Four with the two Nebraska teams taking first and second place.

But in the end at the elevator it was Gene Wollenburg and Larry Edgar who will be watching the Super Bowl on a 48-inch plasma television!

Congrats to everyone for playing JackPlot!™

Here is an interview with the winners: jackplot-winners.MP3

And here is a video of the winners:

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

Audio, Video

PRRS Virus Control Seminar

Chuck Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS SeminarThe streets of Chicago have a little snow on them but it’s warm inside. The 2008 International PRRS Symposium has been taking place here. After the Symposium Boehringer Ingelheim is having a “Foundations of Area and Regional PRRS Virus Control” seminar. It takes place tomorrow.

Some of the topics include; Managing Immunity, Exposure and Monitoring and Measurement. It all takes place tomorrow morning. The idea is to work on ideas for the development and implementation of control project for this disease.

I’ll have information from the seminar for you before heading to Las Vegas for the National Agricultural Aviation Association convention.

Boehringer Ingelheim

JackPlot!™ National Competition in Vegas

Cindy Zimmerman

Jackplot hostsThe JackPlot!™ National Competition officially got underway here at the Las Vegas Hilton yesterday sponsored by Winfield Solutions and CROPLAN GENETICS® seed.

Friday’s first round allowed all 16 teams to play the game four times. Total scores will be accumulated and the Final Four will play for the championship later today. The winning team – both farmer and agronomist – will each receive a 42″ plasma flat screen TV.

Jackplot teamsThe object of the game is to have the most bushels at the end – kinda like farming! In order to do that, you have to make good planting decisions. Meanwhile, the audience has been having a good time answering questions themselves for prizes!

Check out the JackPlot!™ Vegas blog to find out more and to vote for your favorite team!

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

Uncategorized

Ag-Chem Operator of the Year Named

Melissa Sandfort

Kyle Jones, a 22-year custom applicator with Heartland Coop in Slater, Iowa, was named as the 2008 Ag-Chem Operator of the Year during this year’s Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) annual convention in Austin, Texas.

Jones covers an average of 44,000 acres each year between fertilizing and spraying fields. He started in custom application because he enjoys the work, being in the field, and working with the customers. He prides himself in treating each field as a unique piece of land, knowing each waterway, terrace and wet spot, and that’s the type of attention to detail that led to his selection.

The other finalists for the 2008 Ag-Chem Operator of the Year program were: Donald Suflow, Cargill Inc., Maynard, Minn.; Randy Archer, Bollmeyer Inc., Hinton, Iowa; and Michael Grube, Valley Agronomics LLC, Ashton, Idaho.

Farming

Mindy Teaches Online Journalism

Chuck Zimmerman

Me and Mindy McAdamsIf you’re a regular AgWired reader then you know I’ve pointed you to Mindy McAdams before. She’s a University of Florida Journalism Professor. I got to meet her for coffee yesterday to talk about “online journalism.” You definitely need to be reading her blog if you want to enhance your agricultural communications skills. She actually has some ag background from a previous job she had in Pennsylvania.

We had a great talk and time just ran out or we might still be talking. I graduated from the UF College of Journalism and Communications with a bachelor degree in “Broadcasting.” Now it’s called Telecommunications. One of the the things she said to me is how the school still separates journalism and broadcasting as if they’re somehow different. Of course they teach public relations and advertising too (and separately). I wonder what’s really different about all these things today.

Actually, I believe that you can have a personal blog on a subject and be every bit as “journalistic” as anybody. I don’t write anything that I think is factually incorrect for example. If I’m wrong, I’m quite willing to be corrected. I think that helps my credibility as an online journalist who also happens to do a lot of public relations work. I think I make it very clear which is which too.

I’m just glad to see that there’s someone in the journalism department at my alma mater who “gets” this new media thing and is helping prepare students for a career which really needs to include skills many schools still aren’t teaching. Hopefully, I’ll get to meet with Mindy again someday soon.

University