In England they think Pigs Are Worth It. Would you agree? I think this is absolutely hilarious and serious. Apparently British pig farmers are losing their you know whats and they’re asking consumers to help out.
Due to price pressure from supermarkets, farmers are now being paid around £1.10 per kg for a pig that now costs them £1.44 per kg to produce.
For every pig a farmer rears and sells, he is likely to lose over £20. This can’t go on. Today, we’re launching our campaign to press the supermarkets to ensure that pig farmers are paid a fair and sustainable price. Continual pressure on the price of pork, bacon and ham will squeeze the life out of pig farming.
We need the supermarkets to pay an extra 34p per kg to help preserve British pig farming. If this price rise were passed on to shoppers, it would only mean between 7p and 17p on the pack price of typical pork products. We think it is a small price worth paying and we’re asking British consumers to back us.
To help you understand what’s going on they’ve recorded “Stand By Your Ham.” Listen to it or watch the video and sing along with the lyrics. Here’s an excerpt:
Right now it’s hard to make a living
Rearing all your pigs for pork and Ham
Supermarkets make all the money
We don’t make any money
And that’s quite hard to understand
But if they gave us a little more money
Gave us farmers, a fairer share.
Coz we take good care of our pigs
We’re so proud of them
To us they’re more than pork and ham
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.
and 
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.”