Painting New Holland Blue On The Barn

Chuck Zimmerman

Michael PetersonHere’s your exclusive first look/listen to a “new” New Holland promotion involving country music star Michael Peterson. It’s just being announced this week at the NAFB Convention. Basically, Michael Peterson is coming out with a new album that New Holland dealers will have the exclusive rights to sell prior to any other retail outlets.

On the album is a song titled, “Down On The Farm,” in which the lyrics contain the phrase, “. . . painting New Holland blue on the barn.” You can hear a clip from the song here: Download MP3 File

Michael will be here in Kansas City this week and I’ll be interviewing him about the new promotion with New Holland and have it for you here on AgWired soon.

Agribusiness, Audio

NAMA Reception Putt Putt Results

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Agribusiness ForumAt the NAMA Agribusiness Forum the evening reception featured putt-putt golf. My team (Monte Reese, Steve Taylor and Judi Lampe) were the Earthly Beef and seen listed here in the winners position. That is until they started this thing about letting people buy points to add to other teams scores. When it was all over with we lost first place. I just think this is unfair. We won it fair and square on the field where it counts! So there. Anyway it was all in fun for a good cause.

I’ll let you figure out why we were called the Earthly Beef. Hint: (Monte & Steve work for beef organizations and Judi works for Mother Earth News).

NAMA

Missouri Sunrise On The Way To KC

Chuck Zimmerman

Missouri SunriseThe sky was on fire this morning looking to the east, toward Kansas City. I thought you might enjoy this picture. It’ll help set the stage for a lot more to come from the NAMA Agribusiness Forum and NAFB Convention.

I’m actually checked in and getting ready to wander around.

NAMA

Farm Policy Developments Center On Congressional Budget Action & Trade Talks

Keith Good

FarmPolicy.comDevelopments in U.S. farm policy this week included important legislative action in Congress, as well as a trip to Latin America by President Bush.

The Senate on Thursday passed a five-year budget reduction bill by a vote of 52 to 47.

The legislation, which is slated to garner budget saving of $35 billion, contained approximately $3 billion in cuts to agricultural programs.

An amendment offered during the debate which sought to cap farm payments from $360,000 to $250,000, was defeated on a procedural motion by a vote of 53-46.

Meanwhile, the House is expected to bring their budget savings plan to a vote on Thursday. Due to stronger political pressure exerted by conservative Republicans, the House plan seeks a more ambitious overall budget savings of $53.9 billion, including a $3.7 billion reduction in agriculture spending.

In addition to differences over spending levels on the food stamp program, the Senate bill contains a provision to extend the Milk Income Contract Loss program while the House measure does not.

In international developments, late last week President Bush traveled to Argentina to participate in the Summit of the Americas and to meet with the President of Argentina.

President Bush set out to promote the Free Trade Area of the America’s (FTAA) Trade Agreement, which according to Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, “would create a unified trade bloc from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina and Chile.”

However the issue of U.S. agricultural subsidies put a frosty chill on the talks.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that, “Representatives of Argentina and Brazil, the continent’s major agricultural producers, insisted that they favored the concept of economic integration. But they said they feared that their products could not easily compete with heavily subsidized U.S. foodstuffs.”

And, according to Monday’s Wall Street Journal, repercussions could spread. “The failure of the Western Hemispheric summit could make it more difficult for the U.S. to gather support for the Doha Round, and could embolden other countries to make more demands in those talks.”

Keith Good writes The FarmPolicy.com News Summary, an Email newsletter containing a summary of news relating to U.S. farm policy which is published most weekdays. To sign up for this FREE publication, just send an Email to this address.

Farm Policy

D&PL Opens New Greenhouse Facility

Chuck Zimmerman

D&PL WintervilleDelta and Pine Land just built some new homes for plants (greenhouses) and it looks like they’ve designed them to manage separation since we wouldn’t want to mix up the whole trait thing. I want to know what “introgression” means though. It’s just a little too early in the morning for me to handle a word that big.

Delta and Pine Land Company, the nation’s leading developer and marketer of cotton seed, announced the completion of new greenhouse facilities. The new greenhouses are located in Winterville, MS – just a few miles from D&PL’s headquarters in Scott.

“We have an aggressive research effort that focuses our 11 breeding programs on making progress in yield and quality,” according to D&PL President and CEO Tom Jagodinski. “These greenhouses will be a part of the introgression effort that couples those superior varieties with new technologies.” The company’s technology strategy includes several suppliers which places a premium on physical separation of traits and plants. D&PL currently works with transgenic technologies from Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow and DeltaMax. DeltaMax is a joint venture with DuPont and its Pioneer subsidiary focusing on the development of herbicide tolerance and insect resistance technology in cotton.

The new houses measure 23,000 square feet and became home to plants for the first time Friday.

Agribusiness

ABG, Inc. & Adayana Announce Merger

Chuck Zimmerman

ABG, Inc.ABG, Inc. agrees to merge with Adayana. The company will provide customized training that’s so badly needed in companies today. I can vouch for that. Even here at ZimmComm, as we grow we know how difficult it’s going to be to find people who have the training needed to deal with the new high tech, agwired world.

ABG, Inc., and the food and agriculture division of Adayana today announced the two companies have finalized an agreement to merge. The combined organization will be known as ABG, an Adayana company.

“With the many advances in technology and the ever-increasing demand for learning to be delivered anytime, any place and in many languages, the merger of ABG and Adayana will allow us to provide clients with a more robust offering of products and services,” says Mike Jackson, CEO and president of ABG. “ABG’s strengths in strategic consulting, market research and training and development are complemented by Adayana’s understanding of and technical expertise in the area of distance and e-Learning.

ABG, an Adayana company, will be headquartered in Indianapolis. Mike Jackson has been named CEO and president. Planning is underway to facilitate a seamless transition for both clients and employees.

Agribusiness

Off To Kansas City For NAMA/NAFB

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s a short posting day here on AgWired. It’s a big week of meetings in Kansas City. I’m heading that way as I know many of you are as well.

Look for articles from both the NAMA Agribusiness Forum and the NAFB Convention. I hope to see you there.

Uncategorized

National Beef Ambassador Announced

Chuck Zimmerman

Beef CheckoffAmanda beat a sharp group of contestants in the Beef Ambassador Competition. This news just came in. Hot off the wire.

Amanda Nolz, Mitchell, S.D., won the title of National Beef Ambassador for 2006 at the National Beef Ambassador Competition Nov. 3-5 in Austin, TX. The competition was established on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the American National CattleWomen, Inc. (ANCW). The ANCW serves as one of the Beef Board’s contractors for checkoff-funded programs.

Twenty-four contestants from throughout the country vied for the national title and for $4,500 in cash prizes distributed among the top three places and three educational scholarships totaling $2,250 from the American National CattleWomen Foundation, Inc. Nolz received $2,500 cash and a $1,000 college scholarship. Second place went to Melissa Green, Arbuckle, Calif., who received $1,200 and a $750 scholarship. Third place winner Peter Scharpe, Arlington, Minn., received $800 and a $500 scholarship. Paul Moya, New Mexico and Amy Berry, Wyoming, received honorable-mention awards.

Ag Groups, Beef