The opening speaker at the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium was Dr. Edgar Diaz, DVM. He’s a technical manager for BIVI. His task was to provide a scientific overview of PCVAD (porcine circovirus associated disease).
Dr. Diaz says that they’ve found the focus to be on vaccinations recently so he was on the agenda to talk about some new research in this area. The research, he says, shows that vaccination is a very effective tool to reduce the impact of the disease on the farm.
Paul Soli, Web Biz, Inc., asked to bring RuralClassifieds.com to you attention. I have done so. Let him know what you think. They have topic specific shopping sites internally like, BullShop.com.
http://www.ruralclassifieds.com/ offers no cost ads to Farmers, Ranchers, Businesses and Residents of Rural America; and currently, users have over 9,000 ads running on its 5 websites.
Many users say this site is similar to Crag’s List, only it offers many more applicable
ad categories which better serve the advertising and marketing needs of Rural America.
The Renewable Fuels Association, a ZimmComm client, has some cool new tv ads out.
America’s ethanol industry has a fantastic story to tell. Beginning this week, that story is being told to millions of Americans as the Renewable Fuels Association launches two ads very clearly stating the benefits of today’s domestic renewable fuels industry.
Entitled “Faces” and “Places,” the two 30-second spots feature real Americans from Hereford, Texas who are actively leading America toward a more secure energy future. In “Faces,” local Hereford residents explain why ethanol is critical to America’s energy future. In “Places,” the geographic diversity of America’s ethanol industry is on display as the self-proclaimed “Beef Capital of the World” is also home to two ethanol biorefineries. As the Mayor puts it, Hereford is “the ethanol capital of Texas.”
“America’s ethanol producers are on the leading edge of an energy evolution in this country, but far too often aren’t given the credit they deserve,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen.
Here’s Places:
Places – TV Ad from GoodFuels on Vimeo.
The other winner of the Boehringer Ingelheim PCVAD Research Awards was Brad Leuwerke, DVM. Brad is an Iowa State University graduate. Brad (center) is pictured with Klaas Okkinga, Boehringer Ingelheim (left) and Dr. Edgar Diaz, DVM, technical manager for PCVAD at BIVI (right).
BIVI is providing Brad with a $25,000 cash grant for his research project:
* a study to determine the influence that maternal porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) antibodies have on the interference of circovirus vaccination efficacy in young pigs.
Brad says he’s going to get started on his new project as soon as possible. He was very impressed with the Flex Symposium that was held in advance of the annual Allen D. Leman Swine Conference and says that he’ll be taking home information from the presentations to use in the field. I’ll have more on those presentations coming up soon.
You can listen to my interview with Brad here: bi-flex-08-leuwerke.mp3
Or you can download the interview here: Brad Leuwerke Interview (mp3 file)
There were several PCVAD Research awards presented at the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium. A double award recipient was Tanja Opriessnig, DVM, PhD, seen here in front of the attendees.
BI is providing $25,000 cash grants to the winners of the PCVAD Research Awards for their projects. Tanja will be working on two different studies as follows:
* a study to determine the prevalence of PCV2 viremia and persistent infection in conventional piglets at birth.
* a study to evaluate the influence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus viremia on circovirus vaccine efficacy in conventional growing pigs.
Tanja is from Austria (I just got back from there a week ago!) and is currently working as a veterinary pathologist at Iowa State University in the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. She says she feels “really good” about the awards and hopes to have her work done within the next year.
You can listen to my interview with Tanja here: bi-flex-08-opriessnig.mp3
Or you can download the interview here: Tanja Opriessnig Interview (mp3 file)
I love these new ads about high fructose corn syrup from the Corn Refiners Association. The fact that they have to make them shows what kind of an ignorant consuming public we have that doesn’t want to take responsibility for what or how much it eats. Here’s one of them:
Find more videos like this on AdGabber
You can get a sense of where AdGabber stands on the issue from comments they wrote like this one:
The spots have already generated moody debate on YouTube, but their real targets are housewives, in some ways the most influential force in the fight against high fructose corn syrup — which, sure, may be fine in moderation. The problem is, it’s in just about everything: most snack foods, ready-made baked goods, drinks, ice cream, some condiments, and even bread.
You can get the sweet facts here.
Farm Progress has re-designed their websites. They’re calling it a new “internet portal.”
Farm Progress has redesigned its state and regional magazines’ Web sites to provide readers with a more feature-packed and flexible Internet portal. The introduction is more than a redesign and its functionality is not found elsewhere in agricultural media Web sites. The sites have a totally different look, feel and experience.
The internet portal thing makes me have to make a comment. Does that term still make sense in today’s new media world? I think it suggests an all-inclusive environment where the visitor never leaves because the site contains all they need. After a quick look, it does indeed contain a lot of information but . . . I think today’s web savvy farmers and ranchers surf all over the place and go to places that are their favorites for various kinds of information. Let’s take weather for example. How about Weather.com or AccuWeather.com? How about sports (ESPN, Sports Illustrated)? How about market prices (CME Group, MGEX)? What do you think about the portal concept?
The Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium is underway in St. Paul, MN.
We’ve got several presentations taking place right now and I’ve already interviewed all of them. I’ll probably be posting them by Monday since I’ll be traveling home on Sunday.
We had to bring in more chairs because the attendance at this year’s Symposium is larger than expected. Now isn’t that what you want?
Of course there is a photo album and you can find it here: Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album
Bring a wafer-thin slice of Vulcano to your mouth and savour the magnificent aroma of the dry-cured ham before allowing the full taste to develop on your tongue. That’s the translated version of the sales pitch for Vulcano Ham company in Austria.
This was our last stop before leaving Austria for Slovenia on the 2008 IFAJ Congress trip and it was an interesting one. In the photo you see Bettina Habel, the wife of one of the three main proprietors of Vulcano, mingling with the herd at the farm, including big Leo (who is the “mascot” of the operation and not for consumption!)
Vulcano specializes in air-cured hams that are sold for a premium only to high-end consumer markets. The regional trademarked product is manufactured from hoof to ham in the same location.
I was happy to be able to put a brochure from one of our sponsors, Novus International, in Bettina’s hands, as well as give one to their veterinarian who was our local guide and interpreter for the visit. They did seem interested in the animal health and feed products Novus offers for hog producers – and I pointed out that their website is also available in several languages, including German!
IFAJ Congress 2008 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2008 is sponsored by: 
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