2025 Tech Hub Live

Season’s Greetings from Alltech

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Season's GreetingsWe wish you and your family a healthy, happy holiday season.

Please enjoy this musical gift, featuring winners of the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition performing Christmas classics.

May the new year bring you peace, joy and all that makes your heart sing!

Click here for some world class holiday music.

Since 2006, the Alltech Celebration of Song, along with Dr. Everett McCorvey and the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, has brought the magic of holiday music to downtown Lexington, Kentucky. The uplifting renditions of Christmas classics feature winners of the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition, which helps talented singers pursue their musical dreams. The celebration also features special guest performances by renowned musical artists. We hope you enjoy this collection of some of our favorite performances from over the years.

Alltech

Holiday Greetings from IFAJ

Chuck Zimmerman

Happy Holidays from IFAJHere are a couple of excerpts from International Federation of Agricultural Journalists President, Lena Johansson. She shares the news that the Denmark IFAJ Congress 2021 will be virtual like this year and we all hope we can meet in person in 2022! Here’s the caption from the photo: “Winter in Sweden: Rudolph with friends, no doubt on their way to Father Christmas. Photo by: Gunnar Andersson”

It’s been a long time since we had the opportunity to meet in person. And I’m afraid it’s going to be a while. Our colleagues in Denmark have really done everything to be able to arrange a congress in 2021 but came to the conclusion that travellers and sponsors still won’t be ready for an in-person meeting by next summer. Sadly, that means that we won’t have the opportunity to meet at a congress next year either and we are now trying to adjust the schedule of future congresses according to the new circumstances.

In the beginning of 2021, we will also start to plan for another e-congress and we are very eager for input to make it a great event. If you have any ideas about how we can make it both professionally useful and personally enjoyable, please don’t hesitate to contact someone in the Presidium or at the Global Office. Maybe you have connections to someone who could be an interesting speaker at a webinar? Or you know someone who might be interested in sponsoring our digital event? Would you like to help organize a session or two?

I also want to thank you all for my first six months as IFAJ President. It has been inspirational and gratifying, and IFAJ has been a real glimmer of light for me during this year. As difficult as this year has been around the world, so many people from IFAJ have brought people together, shared news and insights and been examples of hope to each other.

I wish you all a Better New Year 2021 and hope to meet you digitally or personally soon again!

IFAJ, Media

Precision Ag News 12/23

Carrie Muehling

  • John Deere has entered into an allied distribution agreement with Smart Guided Systems to sell and support its Smart-Apply Intelligent Control System through the John Deere dealer channel in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
  • For much of the past century, the invasive pink bollworm wreaked havoc in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico – inflicting tens of millions of dollars in damage annually to cotton on both sides of the border. A multifaceted strategy combining genetically engineered cotton with classical pest control tactics eradicated the pink bollworm from cotton-producing areas of the continental U.S. and Mexico, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a significant step in modernizing regulations of agricultural animals modified or produced by genetic engineering. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be moving forward with an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit public input and feedback on a contemplated regulatory framework that would modernize our system into a scientifically-sound, risk-based, and predictable process that facilitates the development and use of these technologies for U.S. farmers and ranchers under USDA’s authorities. This initiative follows President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on agricultural biotechnology that called upon federal agencies to make regulatory improvements to rectify some of the long-standing barriers to innovation for U.S. agriculture.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

Happy Holidays – Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute

Chuck Zimmerman

Happy holidays from all of us at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute!

As we come to the end of 2020, we reflect on an unprecedented year in many ways — with a new set of challenges, but also some unexpected opportunities. With the help of our board, staff, faculty fellows, students and partners, we saw measurable progress in our mission to improve water and food security, despite moving most of our work remote.

We have our many partners — within the University, locally and around the globe — to thank for our continued success in a trying year and hope to reconnect with many of you in person in 2021 or beyond.

Please enjoy a special message from Executive Director Peter G. McCornick by clicking the video link above. Best wishes for a peaceful holiday season and a new year filled with health and happiness.


Water for Food

Happy Holidays from NAMA

Chuck Zimmerman

Happy Holidays from NAMA

The NAMA staff wishes you a safe and happy holiday season! Thank you for being part of the NAMA community. In the coming year we will continue to connect you to the people, tools and programs you need to position yourself and your organization for success.

Please note the NAMA office is closed and will re-open on January 4. We will be checking email over the break.

Sincerely,

Jenny Pickett
Sherry Pfaff
Janae Prewitt
Debbie Brummel

NAMA

Evaluating 2020 to Prepare for 2021

Carrie Muehling

Longer residual control from products like Miravis and Trivapro will help growers fight disease in 2021.

“We’re protecting that plant longer and that’s what’s adding that extra ROI and benefit because we have maximized that photosynthetic area to put into that ear to get that yield and that’s where that benefit is coming from,” said Dean Grossnickle, Syngenta Agronomic Service Representative from Central Iowa.

Grossnickle said these products provide 40-45 days of residual control, covering the corn crop from pollination through grain fill and almost to black layer. He said it is important to consider several factors when choosing products, including what crop was planted the previous season and whether or not diseases were present in the field last year. Grossnickle participated in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting virtual Trade Talk event.

2020 NAFB Interview with Dean Grossnickle, Syngenta agronomic services 7:50

Audio, Fungicide, NAFB, Syngenta

Industry Ag News 12/22

Carrie Muehling

  • Richard Rominger, fifth-generation California farmer who served as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton from 1993 to 2001, died Sunday of a heart attack at the age of 93.
  • Building on its legacy of support for FFA, John Deere announced this week that it is donating $1 million in 2021 to help support the National FFA Organization’s mission to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
  • The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board has honored Mike Kruger as the 2020 recipient of the Richard E. Lyng Award for his contributions and distinguished service to dairy promotion.
  • The Alabama-Florida Peanut Trade Show scheduled for Feb. 4, 2021 in Dothan has been postponed until February 2022. The Alabama Peanut Producers Association and Florida Peanut Producers Association made the decision after the Alabama COVID-19 Safer at Home order was extended until Jan. 22, 2021. Should the mandate be extended past Jan. 22, the trade show staff would not be able to regulate social distancing and mask guidelines for attendees to enjoy the trade show safely.
  • The Georgia Peanut Farm Show and Conference, originally scheduled for Jan. 20-21, 2021 at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center, has been postponed until January 2022.
  • Frenchman Valley Farmers Cooperative, Inc. announces the launch of a strategic new partnership, VantagePoint™.
  • Wounded Warrior Project® expanded partnerships to include 12 new and existing veteran and military service organizations to help meet the needs of our nation’s wounded, ill, and injured veterans and their families. Farmer Veteran Coalition was one of the dozen awarded.
  • A belief in transparency, a core value at CLUTCH, and putting people first, were among the ingredients in the mix that enabled the firm to add eight new clients in 2020. Among the new CLUTCH clients spanning the agribusiness, food business and construction categories heading into 2021: Heartland Ag Systems, the largest Case IH Application distributor in North America; Real American Hardwood Coalition; the Sod Industry Checkoff; genetics company Benson Hill; the Ag Climate Partnership, led by U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and the World Farmers Organisation; and crop nutrition company AdvanSix.
  • The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol welcomes its first ten U.S. cotton textile manufacturers – Buhler Quality Yarns, Cap Yarns, CCW, Contempora Fabrics, Cotswold Industries Inc., Frontier Yarns, Hamrick Mills, Inman Mills, Parkdale Inc., Swisstex Direct as members. U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol membership enables these mills and manufacturers to prove that they are an approved supply chain partner for brands and retailers who are sourcing more sustainably grown cotton.
  • Growth Energy announced the return of Dave Vander Griend to the association’s Board of Directors during its December 2020 board meeting in a move to further unify the industry and develop winning strategies on clean fuels, air quality, and climate goals.
  • The American Gelbvieh Association is excited to announce the addition of Laura Handke to the AGA publications team, serving as editorial contractor.
Zimfo Bytes

Merry Christmas from the Livestock Publications Council

Chuck Zimmerman

LPC Holidays

As we approach the end of 2020, we wish you and your a blessed Christmas holiday! We appreciate your continued support of the Livestock Publications Council and its programs, and we are looking forward to reaching new heights in livestock communications next year.

May you be happy, healthy and prosperous in 2021!

LPC

COVID Relief Bill Passes with Help for Agriculture

Cindy Zimmerman

Agricultural groups and farm state lawmakers are pleased that the new COVID relief package passed by Congress last night includes help for producers excluded from previous aid legislation.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) says relief includes the Paycheck Protection Program for Producers Act. “The bill also includes funding to allow the Department of Agriculture to provide additional assistance to ag producers who were dealing with a tough economy before the pandemic hit,” said Thune.

Audio – Sen. John Thune (R-SD) on COVID relief for agriculture :58

Many farmers and ranchers who were previously left out will now qualify for assistance, including livestock and poultry producers who were forced to euthanize animals during the initial wave of the pandemic. They will receive 80% reimbursement for losses due to premature euthanization or canceled orders. Nearly $1 billion will support a dairy donation program and supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage payments for small and medium-sized producers. More help will be made available to specialty and non-specialty crop growers, and biofuels producers are now explicitly eligible for USDA assistance, at the discretion of the secretary. The bill also includes aid for the cotton industry in the form of payments to domestic users of upland cotton and extra-long staple cotton.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is pleased the deal includes additional Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) support for cattle producers, expanded resources for state-inspected meat processors through inclusion of the Requiring Assistance to Meat Processors for Upgrading Plants (RAMP UP) Act, certainty that cattle producers can recoup payment losses by establishing a dealer trust, funding for agriculture quarantine inspection services and an extension of Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR).

Audio, Biofuels, Dairy, Ethanol, Farming, Food, NCBA, Poultry

NAMA Moves 2021 Agri-Marketing Conference to July

Chuck Zimmerman

2021 Agri-Marketing ConferenceThe National Agri-Marketing Association has announced that the 2021 Agri-Marketing Conference will be rescheduled for July 20-22, 2021.

“This decision was made after much discussion with leadership and our host hotel,” said Jenny Pickett, CEO, National Agri-Marketing Association. “We feel this is the best option to host the conference safely.”

The conference will include the usual NAMA favorites, including top-notch keynote presentations and the Best of NAMA awards. The event takes place at the Sheraton Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City.

“The Conference Committee is working to put together a terrific NAMA experience,” continued Pickett.

Watch www.nama.org for program details.

Marketing, NAMA