Here’s a new website to look at. The Canadian Belgian Blue Association is now online. It’s simple and has a unique multi-lingual functionality. When you visit the home page text is in English on the left and French on the right. So you’ve basically got a bi-lingual mirrored website. Nicely done folks. Lots of pictures. Loads fast. There is one little animated title thing but I can take that. Otherwise it has information in short chunks that are easy to navigate to.
Newly elected President Mark Hodges, a Manitoba-based Belgian Blue Beef (BBB) breeder, is “thrilled to see the Canadian BBB industry reach the point where we can have our own portal on the web. We’ve at a crossroads where production from current BBB breeders in Canada just can’t keep up with demand for our double-muscled cattle genetics and naturally lean meat products for consumers. Our three Carcass wins at the Canadian Western Agribition had a big impact on the demand for BBB.” The bilingual website reflects the large number of BBB breeders in the province of Quebec. Members and non-members can post cattle for sale on the site, a first for a BBB association in North America.
John Deere Fans Blog at Rungreen.com
Rungreen.com just sent out a news release that says:
“Rungreen.com has announced the winners of its very first photo contest.
The contest was launched in February to allow proud parents of both children and tractors to show off their best photos- with their green and yellow, of course. Voters were allowed to choose their favorites, and these were put into a “playoff mode”, and voting reopened. A surprising number of pictures were entered, with the site finally cutting off new entries after sorting through hundreds.
Among the entries were “The John Deere Car”, John Deere tattoos, and even John Deere pets. There is no end to the lengths that the green-and-yellow crazy will go to collect, own, and discuss their piece of Americana.
For some reason the release doesn’t mention “the winners.” I’ve read it 3 times and I don’t see them. However, there is an attached picture with a caption that says, “Winning Picture.” There’s no other information.
They are blogging, a new feature that they started this year. Here’s where you can find the “John Deere Fans” Blog.
Ottawa Urged to Make Bilateral and Regional Free Trade Agreements a Priority
With the Americans signing more Free Trade agreements all the time, Canada needs to do the same.
A coalition of nine Canadian agricultural commodity groups and companies is encouraging the federal government to put a higher priority on bilateral and regional free trade agreements. The coalition has forwarded a letter to International Trade Minister David Emerson urging him to recognize the importance of free trade agreements.
Canadian Pork Council Executive Director Martin Rice says, although multilateral negotiations through the WTO are important, there is a concern that Canada is not giving sufficient attention to bilateral and regional free trade agreement possibilities. “We certainly want to see the government follow through on those negotiations that are officially started such as Korea, the Central American four, such as the European free trade agreement areas,” said Rice. “Some of these negotiations have been going on for several years and we should get those finished up. On the other hand we would like to see the government focus on the possibility of free trade agreements with China, Japan, some the Andean countries which the US is just recently announcing deals with, India and Morocco.”
While some of these markets are more important to the pork sector, but Morocco would be of more importance to the pulse and the cereals industry. “We’re not suggesting shifting resources away from WTO negotiations but we could find ourselves at a disadvantage relative to our major competitors in terms of having inferior access conditions to some of our major pork export markets,” he said. Rice points out we’ve seen our major competitors, including the U.S, Chile, Brazil and even China enter into a number of free trade agreements.
Follow The Moo-Town Bloggers
This story is pretty cool so I had to share it beyond World Dairy Diary. Are you a fan of the Cow Parade? Here’s a cool way to keep up with the artists who are busy working on new cows. Some of them have their own blogs. Well, they’re mostly sort of blogs. My favorite is Rosemaling, the bottom one. The latest Moo-Town Moosletter lists the following:
“Animal Magnetism”
Artist: Jenny M. Steinman Heyden
Blog: http://www.madison.com/post/blogs/cowart
Sponsor: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
“Driftless in WisCOWsin”
Artist: Sue Medaris, Mt. Horeb, Wis.
Blog: http://svmedaris.com
Sponsor: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
“Milky Whey”
Artist: Katherine Steichen Rosing, Madison, Wis.
Blog: http://www.studioksr.com/CowParade.htm
Sponsor: Wisconsin FFA Foundation in cooperation
with the Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade
and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
“The Road Home”
Artist: Kirill Negoda, Dodgeville, Wis.
Blog: http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticboy/95874422/
Sponsor: Capital Newspapers
“Rosemooled Cow”
Blog: http://rosemaler.blogspot.com/
Artist: Jan Norsetter, Verona, Wis.
Sponsor: Wisconsin Department of Ag,
Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
PETA Survey Lacks Credibility – News Flash
I’m sure you’ve heard of PETA. Not the people eating tasty animals folks but the other one. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculous they are I just found out about their latest scam. You can read about it here.
Basically, they are surveying “200 of the top meat, restaurant, and grocery companies, including Tyson Foods, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart” about “more than 20 animal-related topics, such as farmed-animal welfare, rodent control, and availability of vegetarian products.” They want to rate them on a compassion quotient.
Guess how much attention the media will give that. According to the person who brought it to my attention the surveys have showed up and claim that unanswered questions will be filled out by PETA “to the best of our knowledge.” What a crock.
Phone “Broadcast” of Ag Day Program
The term “broadcast” has a lot of meanings these days. It could mean over the air transmission, satellite feed, internet streaming, podasting or a dial-in phone feed. That last one is what the Agriculture Council of America is doing for Ag Day.
Attention NAMA Members! Can’t make it to Washington, DC for this year’s National Ag Day celebrations? No problem, you can attend the official Ag Day luncheon right in your own office via an audio broadcast.
The audio broadcast will take place on Thursday, March 16 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. (EST). This year’s luncheon keynote speaker will be the Honorable Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Senator Chambliss will address the opportunities and challenges facing American agriculture. Former USDA Secretary John Block of Olssen, Frank & Weeda, and Orion Samuelson, WGN Radio/RFDTV, will serve as the Masters of Ceremony. In addition, the national winner of the Ag Day Essay Contest, “Growing Our Energy,” will be honored.
There is no charge to participate in the audio broadcast. To participate, simply complete the registration form at http://www.agday.org/broadcast.htm and we’ll e-mail you the phone number and passcode to call-in. We are limited to how many phone lines are available so get your registration in now!
Rhea & Kaiser Winning Awards Again
It’s NAMA awards time and it looks like Rhea & Kaiser are doing fine. I didn’t make it to any awards programs so far. But there’s still the big one in April.
In the Chicago region, Rhea & Kaiser dominated with 26 awards, including Best of Show for the Caterpillar Chopper Premier and Tour public relations campaign. Nine first place awards in advertising were presented to Rhea & Kaiser in Raleigh for work on Bayer CropScience, including Best of Show for the public relations campaign “Rust Never Sleeps. Neither Do We.” Rhea & Kaiser also received nine first place awards in the New York region for Pfizer Animal Health campaigns and two first place awards for Bayer CropScience campaigns on the West Coast. (Full Release)
Zimfo Bites
A Zimfo bite is a short bit of zimmformation. I’m going to get better at this I promise. I just think calling them news bites or quick links is too boring.
We are exporting a lot of farm machinery – $6 billion worth last year, up 15%.
Ag hedging does not involve the use of clippers.
Biomaxx Systems Gets a Biotechnologist.
American Seeds (Monsanto) acquires Gold Country Seeds and Heritage Seeds.
Tractorhouse wants you to subscribe.
The press release is now “fully web enabled.”
NAFB Foundation Internship Grant Recipients
The NAFB Foundation is a great program because it’s all about the future and helping the young people who will be a part of that future. It’s the kind of program I wish all organizations had. We have always supported it. Here’s who will be receiving grants from the foundation to help with their internships this year.
Three of the Nation’s best Farm Radio Stations have just been named by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Foundation to receive the Foundation’s Farm Broadcast Student Internship Grants. Stations WMBD/WIRL, Peoria, Illinois; KRVN, Lexington, Nebraska; and KKOW, Pittsburg, Kansas, will each receive a grant of $1,000 to further develop their Farm Broadcast internship programs.
The program started in 1997 by the NAFB Foundation provides financial assistance to stations or networks that desire to hire and train a student intern in the profession of Farm Broadcasting. In addition to the $1,000 grant, NAFB Foundation will pay the intern registration fee to the 2006 Annual NAFB Convention in November for each of the winning stations and networks.
Canadian Live Hog Prices will Remain Volatile
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food says a combination of factors will keep hog prices volatile with some strengthening as we move toward spring. Brad Marceniuk said while live hog prices have continued to fluctuate, they have improved since the beginning of February when higher U.S. slaughter numbers and higher volumes of chicken and pork in cold storage pushed prices down.
“The key factors are U.S. hog slaughter numbers, the demand for pork, U.S. meat in cold storage and the Canadian dollar,” said Marceniuk. “Lower hog slaughter numbers in the United States over the last few weeks have been positive on US hog prices. The demand for pork in the U.S. has been weakening over the last few months which have been negative for hog prices.”
With chicken in cold storage up 46 percent year over year and pork stocks up 23 percent from December, increased meat supplies have put pressure on prices. In Canada, the strengthening Canadian dollar has been negative for local prices and will continue to put downward pressure on hog prices if the dollar continues to get stronger compared to the US dollar.
Marceniuk notes February Statistics Canada figures show the total inventory of hogs in Canada as of January 1, 2006 fell slightly from one year earlier. Canadian production has levelled off, remaining relatively flat in 2005, with little growth expected in 2006 and shouldn’t be a major influencing factor on prices.