It’s certainly no surprise that crops are cultivated in Germany, but some of the country’s farms, equipment and practices held a few surprises. Both the German Agricultural Society and John Deere hosted a visit to the BASF Gutsbetrieb Rehhütte, or the BASF Deer’s Den Farm, in Limburgerhof, Germany left a couple reporters from our group incredulous at how clean a farm could be. Stone tiles paved a courtyard of sorts between equipment garages, sheds and farms silos. Some not-so-familiar looking equipment also prompted some curiously raised eyebrows. Though, I must admit, we all recognized the three John Deere tractors in Albert’s shed and he was very excited to show them off. The history of the farm was also an attribute that’s rather atypical for an American farm. The Limfburg Estate was first documented in 1035. BASF took over the land and began farming it in 1899.
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World Soybean Champ at NAFB
I waited until NAFB to get a one-on-one interview with the world soybean yield record-breaker Kip Cullers of Missouri. He is a great spokesperson for the ag industry as a whole, not to mention the products that helped him achieve the world record yield of 154.7 bushels per acre in his contest plot.
“I’m a lot more proud of our overall yield on our double crop soybeans,” Kip said. “We just took what we learned in our contest field and applied it to our normal acres. All we did was plant (Pioneer) 94M80s and we used six ounces of Headline and three ounces of Respect and we averaged 74 bushels across the board.”
Kip noted that he gets lots of advice and consultation with BASF and Pioneer experts, as well as state extension and university specialists – and he recommends that all growers take advantage of those resources to improve their profitability.
Kip left the family back at home when he headed to Kansas City after the official press conference announcing his record yield in Jefferson City on Tuesday. But, his adorable sons Noah and Naaman were on hand to charm the media at the press event, proudly sporting BASF Headline fungicide shirts!
Listen to my interview with Kip here:
nafb-kip-basf.mp3Can You Say Pamwich?
At the NAFB Annual Member meeting which is taking place right now, Randy Koenen got placed in a Pam Sandwich.
That would be between Pam Jahnke, WTDY, NAFB vice president and Pam Fretwell, WTAD, current NAFB President. Randy, Red River Farm Network, is incoming NAFB President.
At the meeting they’re getting a presentation on the new NAFB 5 Year Strategic Plan and will vote for a new Vice President before breaking up into regional and council meetings. Then it’s reception and banquet time.
What Trade Talk Participants Think
To find out why companies and organizations participate in the NAFB Trade Talk I asked a few of them as things were winding down. Included are comments from Monsanto, EPIC, New Holland, FMC and Dairy Farmers of America.
I pieced together an audio clip of their answers to the question, “Why do you participate in Trade Talk?”
Listen to their response here: nafb-07-trade-talk.mp3
You can also download the interview here: 
Trade Talk Participants (3 min MP3)
Rosenthal Presents a Supply Chain Education
One of the presenters at the NAMA Agribusiness Forum was Mary Rosenthal and the agriblogging folks at Paulsen AgriBranding have produced another interview for us:
“Creating a Supply Chain for a ‘New to the World’ Food Packaging Material”
Mary Rosenthal, NatureWorks LLC
Mary Rosenthal presented a case study of supply chain education to bring NatureWorks Polymer to market in North America and around the world.
Beef Is For Lunch
The Trade Talk Lunch was very good today as usual. It’s a nice working lunch buffet with no program/speakers because many of us use the opportunity for a quick bite and then back to the interviews.
One of the things I liked this year was the fact that we could grab a quick fresh-carved roast beef sandwich in the Trade Talk ballroom even before heading down the escalator to lunch.
Speaking of beef, we have to thank the Cattlemen’s Beef Board for making sure we had some nutritious product on hand.
NCGA Is All Ears
The National Corn Growers Association is one of the Trade Talk exhibitors and a NAFB convention sponsor. Last night at our opening reception they were all “ears.”
During Trade Talk I had a chance to conduct a series of video interviews which we’ll be using on their Corn Commentary website. This new media world means that we have multiple options of what and how we use content like interviews and images. For those of you who wonder what happens with all the interviews we do here this would be one example.
AgriTalk on AgWired
I’ve already been asked what’s been taking me so long to get my AgriTalk picture on AgWired. Well here it is.
Like a lot of us Mike and John are set up in the BASF-sponsored Broadcast Service Center. We’ve got some of the fastest internet access I’ve used in a while which is making uploading pictures and other files a joy.
Right now we’ve got a lot of that NAFB fellowship going on in here. This is where the serious work takes place though.
New Member Orientation Breakfast
If you’re a new member of an organization you rarely get a chance to get oriented to things like who’s who and what’s what. Here at the NAFB convention you get your opportunity right away at the new member orientation breakfast.
It’s a great chance to interact with some “old timers” and have a full meal deal breakfast too.
NAFB Trade Talk
If you’ve never attended an NAFB Convention and experienced Trade Talk then you haven’t seen a whole lot of interviewing going on simultaneously. It’s an interview marathon going on here in Kansas City. To see what it’s like I did a short walk through video: