I know we’ve heard a lot from Gene Hemphill here on AgWired the past few days but well we should. Here’s my interview with him from the trade show floor at Commodity Classic. In it we talk about his support of the ag media including sponsoring the media room. Gene says they’ve been doing it since Commodity Classic started and before that individually at the organizational meetings of the groups involved with Classic.
Gene says they don’t just sponsor media rooms at events like this just to get a microphone or reporter in front of their representatives. He says that many of their staff are farmers or come from farms and so they feel a need to do what they can to help get information out from meetings like Commodity Classic. He says that the company’s sponsorships help them keep in touch with the media and through them to help keep their customers up to date with what’s happening in the industry.
At some of these events he says they even provide staff like himself to help manage the media rooms. We’ve all seen Gene making coffee and bringing in the donuts at Farm Progress Show for example.
Listen to my interview with Gene here: cc-08-hemphill.mp3
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
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There aren’t too many people in agricultural marketing who don’t know Gene Hemphill, Industry Affairs, New Holland. You probably know that we honored him at the media reception at Commodity Classic. This week’s program expands on that theme. Gene is a friend as well as a client and beloved by all of us in the media who have worked with him for so long. For all the attention he’s getting for “partially retiring” I can’t wait to see what happens when he really retires!
Kip Cullers of Missouri is not only a great corn and soybean grower, he has become one heck of an entertaining speaker. He’s really fun to be around, but he is totally serious about helping other growers meet their optimum potential for yields.
Kip says with prices where they are today, growers should make every effort to maximize soybean yields. “Soybeans now are $15, so – my gosh – you can spend a little and make a bunch. It’s simple economics.”
Besides hearing from a researcher and a farmer we also heard from Commodity Classic Learning Center sponsor Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager, 
I think growers appreciate hearing from other growers, even if they also sell Garst Seed. At the Commodity Classic Learning Center session on Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn, north central Iowa grower Mike Missman talked about his experience with corn on corn.
There were 145 media representatives covering Commodity Classic. Here’s some of them at the Sec. of Ag Schafer press conference. We all have significant needs for things like internet access, phone lines, work spaces, convenient food/beverages, privacy, a meeting place, secure room for equipment and help finding our way around. That’s why it is so important and appreciated to have companies like New Holland sponsor a media/press conference room at events like Commodity Classic.
If you haven’t heard Dr. Fred Below, Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Illinois, speak then you’re missing something. He was part of a panel discussion on Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn that filled the room. The Learning Center session was sponsored by 
BASF congratulated the country’s leading corn growers and their families for their leadership in embracing innovation at the National Corn Growers Association’s National Corn Yield Contest banquet at the 2008 Commodity Classic. Markus Heldt, head of the BASF North American crop protection division, joined NCGA president Ron Litterer to honor the winners.
“How can it be possible for some growers to double the U.S. corn yield average?” he asked rhetorically, pointing to the national yield champions as examples of success. “At BASF, we believe that the gap is information and innovation, and we’re taking action to fill both those gaps by supporting education through scholarship programs and by building on our 143-year history of R&D investment, now totaling $450 million per year in crop protection.” 
I didn’t get to spend any time with Whitney Wallace at Commodity Classic but I got to follow her via her Monsanto Student Blogger blog –