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: 
and 
Unfortunately, Chuck and I did not get to go on that tour, as it was sold out immediately. There were three different tour options for the trip, which is really kind of a shame – everyone would have enjoyed getting to see this. 
In 
This afternoon 
If you’re looking for something to watch today besides college football, then you might want to tune in to Farm Aid.
I don’t know when the first Quasimojo performance was at an IFAJ event but they’re still going strong.
Our program for the final dinner called for some “traditional dancing.” That’s something I’ll have in a different post.
A year before the IFAJ Congress 2008 we were given packets of pumpkin seeds to plant and then we were supposed to send in or bring photos of our pumpkin plants. I tried but let’s just say growing pumpkins isn’t one of my things.
“Rolling on the River” was the theme of the grand opening event this week in St. Louis of 
This company is most definitely on a roll that has a global focus and the river is their highway to the world. Vice President of Global Marketing Jeff Whetstine says they are selling AGROTAIN technology in 68 different countries. “We started here in the United States, expanded to South America and now we’re going around the world,” Jeff says. “It was a regional fertilizer company up until the year 2000 when Lange-Stegmann purchased the AGROTAIN technology and started AGROTAIN International, their subsidiary.”
Several members of the Stegmann family are actively involved in the operation of Lange-Stegmann and 
Rick explained the river station barge unloading operation portion of the facility. “The majority of urea comes in from New Orleans by barge and St. Louis is the northernmost lock-free, ice-free port on the Mississippi River,” he said. “And so we are able to bring barges up and off load them either into storage, into truck or into rail.” 
While we were in Slovenia at the IFAJ Congress one of our hosts was Ciril Smrkolj who is President of the Slovenia Agriculture and Forestry Chamber, a primary ag group in the country.