A record crowd converged on the 2008 Commodity Classic trade show this afternoon, welcomed by the bean guy.
There are over 4,450 registered attendees at the Classic this year and more than 140 media – both new records. The Classic photo album is up to date now with about 60 photos so far – but lots more to come!
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
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Dr. Dirk Voeste from BASF Crop Protection Headquarters in Germany enlightened the media at Commodity Classic on the process of getting science on the seed at BASF.
According to Dirk, BASF seed treatment means protection plus vitality. He discussed the BASF concept of the German word “Verbund.”
“Verbund is not translated,” he explained. “It means really the linkage of expertises of various areas out of BASF. Polymer research, pigment research, agrichemicals, plant health, biotechnologies – which we will bring together for seed treatment to leverage it for American growers.”
“It’s like a recipe when cooking, you have to bring individual pieces together to get to a fine result at the end and BASF has all these recipes in house,” he added.
Dirk says BASF is planning to launch nine new products in the next two years to help improve the bottom line for US growers of various commodities.
Listen to my interview with Dirk here:
basf-dirk.mp3
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Seed treatment was the topic for BASF’s media symposium at Commodity Classic and a little show and tell with seedlings showed what their new Stamina fungicide seed treatment can mean for growers.
Cristina Pagani is the researcher who conducted the experiments for BASF and she explained a little bit about the results here. The active ingredient in Stamina is the same used in Headline fungicide and trials show it improves seedling emergence under conditions of high disease pressure, cold, wet soils and where corn follows corn.
Stamina fungicide seed treatment was just registered for corn this month and another new BASF fungicide seed treatment registration is expected this fall.
Listen to my interview with Christina here:
basf-christina-edit.mp3
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Andy Lee is the director of business operations for US Crop Protection at BASF. In this position, he oversees all sales and marketing functions for BASF inthe US crop protection market.
In his presentation at BASF’s “Science Behind Seed Treatments” media symposium at the 2008 Commodity Classic in Nashville, Andy told the ag journalists that they are the answer to helping growers accelerate their yields to get closer to the record breaking corn and soybean yields that have been achieved in recent years. “It’s the information that you can get out to growers and retailers to show them how they can, if not achieve 154, maybe they can get 56 or 65, rather than the average yield,” he said.
Andy talked about the amazing success story of Headline fungicide, which was 70 percent of the market share for fungicides last year. “The Headlline that was used in corn and soybeans in 2007 gave growers over $450 million more income,” he said. “Three million acres of soybeans treated with Headline gave us 13.5 million bushels of extra beans. Seven million acres of corn treated with Headline gave us 112 million bushels (more). Basically, what that is is about 105,000 semis loaded with grain of new crop, new soybeans, new corn that previously the US market did not produce before.” And, more importantly, this was without any new acreage.
Listen to Andy’s short and informative presentation here:
basf-lee-presentation.mp3
The BASF Flicker Photo Album has been updated with all the images from yesterday’s symposium and the riverboat fun afterward.
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
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I know I’m a little behind with the program this week but what better venue to introduce a new image icon for the ZimmCast than Commodity Classic. We’ve got 4,300 people registered already and more walk-ins will show up I’m sure. There’s also 128 registered media here so far. Both of those are records according to media room manager Bob Callanan, American Soybean Association.
In this week’s program I talk to Bob about the media room then I wandered around and asked around 20 media representatives what they were excited about and planning on covering here at the conference. For the most part it’s a serious set of answers but we also had fun with it. The interviewers aren’t usually the interviewees if you know what I mean. Prices, the farm bill, how grain growers are dealing with their recent successes financially are just some of the topics you’ll hear mentioned. You’ll hear some of the most recognizable voices in the business from farm broadcasters to magazine and web editors. I hope you enjoy it.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 160 (23 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:zimmcast160-2-28-08.mp3
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
Like Cindy, I want to thank BASF and New Holland for once again being our sponsors of our coverage of Commodity Classic. We’ll have lots of feature content on their involvement with the show as well as other interesting news and show coverage as we find it.
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and
Ray Gilmer is the group communications manager for US Crop Protection at BASF and he is shown here moderating the BASF media event at Commodity Classic. Chuck and I knew him in a former life as communications director for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, so it was a pleasure to see him again after many years.
I talked with him about the BASF Seed Treatment symposium for the media here at Commodity Classic, why they are doing it, what their goals are and why reaching out to educate the media like this helps to educate the producer.
Listen to my interview with Ray here:
basf-ray.mp3
and
I am going to have lots of audio coming from the BASF Seed Treatment Symposium and already have a bunch of photos which I loaded into a separate Flicker Photo Album for your viewing pleasure.
The room is literally packed here with media with two more on the phone. The presenters are giving their presentations and then it will be time for one-on-one interviews.
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and
The BASF “Science Behind Seed Treatments” media seminar is underway at Commodity Classic with about 40 ag journalists participating.
The presenters are Steve Hawkins from The Context Network, Andy Lee of BASF, Dr. Gary Munkvold of Iowa State University, Dr. Dirk Voeste of BASF Seed Treatment Technology Center in Germany, and Craig Lindholm of BASF.
The reason for the seminar is simple – growers need information and lots of it. Sitting next to me here at the symposium is a “celebrity grower” – the man who produced the world champion soybean yield – Missouri’s own Kip Cullers. His picture is flashing up on the screen as I type!
More from BASF coming.
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
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Once again I got to hear our Undersecretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr. He was first up on the program here this morning at the National Ethanol Conference to speak about the farm bill and focus on renewable fuel policies and provisions.
He says the ethanol industry is going through some growing pains, or put another way, transitional challenges. He’s convinced these will be overcome. Like many of the speakers here he talked about the attacks on ethanol, especially of late, in terms of sustainability. He said that some of the same regulatory rhetoric being discussed in Europe in regards to biofuels is creeping up in the debate in Washington, DC. He pointed out that farmers have long been working on sustainability and the facts show that they’re increasing yields while reducing inputs.
You can hear most of Dorr’s speech here (I missed the very beginning): nec-08-dorr-1.mp3
The online photo album from this event has grown to over 250 photos. I hope you enjoy them. I’ll be starting a new one from Nashville by tomorrow!
