RFA Ethanol Podcast

Schmidt Joins EMD Crop BioScience

Melissa Sandfort

Paul Schmidt has joined EMD Crop BioScience as President, succeeding Tom Winkofske, who will retire at the end of the year. To aid in the transition, Winkofske will temporarily serve in a consultant role. Schmidt brings 25 years of experience in the crop bioscience industry and most recently served as Vice President of New Business Ventures for Bayer CropScience, developing new business opportunities in the areas of nutrition, health and biomaterials.

“Our search for a new President was a long and rigorous one, and it brought us to the best possible outcome,” said Winkofske. “Our criteria demanded the skills necessary to lead our business and to reach the high goals we have set. Paul matches our target profile without compromise. He has the far-reaching expertise in global strategy for plant biotechnology products, a successful record in business alliance management and multifaceted background in sales, marketing and product management.”

Born and raised on a grain and hog farm in Saskatchewan, Schmidt earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Prior to Bayer CropScience, Schmidt had held positions with Aventis CropScience, Hoechst Schering AgrEvo and Hoechst.

“As a company founded almost 120 years ago, EMD Crop BioScience has a long and remarkable history of providing high value plant enhancers for yield enhancement,” says Schmidt. “My job is to see that continue. With the growing global demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel, the need for innovative technologies and solutions to enhance plant production has never been greater.”

Schmidt and his family are presently planning their relocation from North Carolina to the Milwaukee area.

Uncategorized

Missouri Cattle Industry Convention

Chuck Zimmerman

Missouri Cattlemen's AssociationIt’s time for the Missouri Cattle Industry Convention. Cindy and I will attending tomorrow afternoon to do a little public speaking workshop for the Missouri Beef Council which meets at the same time. I’ll try to have some pictures for you. Not to make them nervous or anything.

The 2007 Missouri Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show is just around the corner. The Convention will be held December 6-8, 2007 at the University Plaza Hotel and Springfield Expo Center in Springfield, Missouri.

For cattle producers, regardless of the size or scope of their farm or ranch, this is an excellent opportunity to help shape the policy of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association for the upcoming year, to take part in a wide range of educational programs, to visit hundreds of trade show exhibits, and to enjoy the food, fun, and fellowship of the Convention. The convention & trade show is open to the public.

Ag Groups

Lessing-Flynn Celebrates 100 Years

Chuck Zimmerman

Tom and Laurie FlynnCongratulations to Tom Flynn for his new job starting January 1, 2008 as President of Lessing-Flynn. Here’s Tom with his wife Laurie.

Last week the agency celebrated 100 years in business. What a milestone. We’ve only got about 25 times that many years to go to get there as a company.

At their celebration the agency hosted more than 230 clients, suppliers and friends. It was also announced that Connor Fynn would become Chairman of the Board with Joe Rosenberg assuming the position of Vice Chairman.

Agencies

NAMA Regional Award Ceremonies

Chuck Zimmerman

National Agri-Marketing AssociationMake sure you plan to attend one of the upcoming Best of NAMA regional award ceremonies. Here’s the list:

January 10 – Region III Best of NAMA Ceremony
This ceremony will take place at The Metropolitan Ballroom and Clubroom in Golden Valley, MN. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the awards presentation at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $65. For more information on the event visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region3.htm.

January 17 – MidSouth Best of NAMA Ceremony
Stay tuned for more information on the MidSouth Best of NAMA Ceremony.

January 17 – Region IV Best of NAMA Ceremony
The Region IV ceremony will take place at The Abbey Resort in Fontana, WI. The ceremony will start with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the awards presentation at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $65 per person. For more information visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region4.htm.

January 22 – Region II Best of NAMA Ceremony
This ceremony will take place at The VooDoo Lounge in Harrah’s Casino in North Kansas City, MO. The event will begin with a reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the awards presentation at 7:00 p.m. Cost for the event is $65 per person. For more information visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region2.htm.

January 31 – Carolinas/Virginia Best of NAMA Ceremony
This event will take place at the NC State University Club in Raleigh, NC. The event will begin at 4:30 p.m. For more information visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/carvir.html.

NAMA

Pork Recipes

Chuck Zimmerman

Pork RecipesSince I’m on the subject of pork, how about some recipes. Dave Williams emailed me a link exchange request so I’m happy to bring your attention to his Pork Recipes website.

One it you’ll find a lot of good looking recipes. That’s about it. Very simple.

It seems like he could develop this into a lot more and maybe he will. In the meantime, enjoy cooking some pork this holiday season.

Food, Pork

Nutrition Efficiency Info on Pork Board Website

Chuck Zimmerman

Pork Nutrition VideoA new section of the Pork Checkoff website contains information for producers who want to optimize their feed costs and maximize production efficiencies.

The new Nutritional Efficiency section includes information about the recently founded nutritional efficiency consortium; the consortium’s research and activity priorities; the research funded by the consortium and a subsection with links to additional information or resources.

Twenty four organizations have joined to form the nutritional efficiency consortium. Included in those are state pork associations, state and national corn grower associations and several allied industry partners. Their objectives are to determine research and producer educational opportunities that will help alleviate the increasing costs of producing pork, specifically addressing feed costs and maximizing growth and performance efficiencies. The program’s specific objectives can be found in the introductory page to the new online resource.

Resources that are available today include the video and audio presentations offered at the Distillers Grains: Implications for the U.S. Pork Industry conference that took place in Nov. 2006 in Des Moines, Iowa.

The video and audio require you to use Internet Explorer as your browser. The picture is an example of one of the videos you can find there.

Ag Groups, Pork

Get Your Animart Cowlendar

Chuck Zimmerman

2008 Animart CowlendarThe new Cowlendars are here. That would be the dairy cow calendars from Animart.

ANIMART, Inc. has released its annual, uniquely-themed customer appreciation calendar. This year, the ANIMART calendar features close-up photos with dairy cattle. Displaying playful personalities, these images also serve as timely reminders to dairy producers about seasonal animal health issues. And, as a tool for busy producers, each day on the calendar has return and due dates to help with dairy cattle heat detection, management and pregnancy planning.

For each of the past seven years, ANIMART has developed a unique theme to feature in their annual calendars and product catalogs – affectionately named “Cowlendars” and “Cowtalogs” by ANIMART staff and customers. The calendars are created as a special token of appreciation to dairy customers. For the 2008 year, each page of the 13-month calendar (starting with December 2007) features a different angle of dairy cattle. Playful captions are from a dairy cow’s point of view, and touch on everything from annoying fly problems to the pains of mastitis.

“This year’s theme is the many angles from which we see dairy cattle,” says Ruth Metz, co-owner of Animart with her husband, Dr. James Metz. “Our customers work hard, and we hope this year’s Cowlendar’s fun and playful nature will bring both humor and friendly reminders to their business.”

The cover of the new 2008 product catalog features the same theme as the calendar. The “Cowtalog” is now available and ready for customers to put to use in making convenient telephone, fax or internet orders for all their animal health needs.

Agribusiness, Dairy

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a partnership with the National Cattlemen’s Foundation in cooperation with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The partnership will facilitate the registration of additional cattle premises as part of the National Animal Identification System.
  • Raven Industries, is now offering its new “Cruizer” guidance system product as an affordable choice for farmers who have not yet ventured into field operation guidance systems. According to the company’s new product announcement, the new Raven Cruizer is a compact 3-D guidance system that provides a high degree of functionality at a competitive, complete system price of $1,695.
  • Starbucks will expand its relationship with Ethiopia, beyond an existing arrangement under which the coffee retailer agreed to work with Ethiopian farmers to improve bean quality and increase crop production. As part of its latest commitment to expand the quality and yield of Ethiopia’s premium coffees, Starbucks has agreed to open a Farmer Support Center in Addis Ababa, and also will take steps to raise the profile of Ethiopian coffees through special marketing promotions.
  • R-CALF USA’s charitable foundation, the United Stockgrowers of America Foundation for Research, Education and Endowment, is accepting applications from students interested in winning one of three scholarships to be awarded in February 2008 at R-CALF USA’s annual convention in Omaha, Neb. Applicants are required to write a research paper about a current threat to the U.S. cattle industry and include a solution. Applications must be postmarked on or before Dec. 31, 2007. Applications and more information are available here under the “USA FREE” link.
    Zimfo Bytes

    It’s Bubble Time

    Chuck Zimmerman

    I know this has absolutely nothing to do with agriculture but after 9 hours of driving and several hours of meeting today I just haven’t got anything else to share yet (meaning that I’m waiting on pictures to be emailed back for several posts I’m working on).

    So I hope you enjoy this video clip (via Sundog). Maybe AgWired will fit into the scenario described here:

    Video