I’m sure you’re tired of IFAJ news and information by now so it’s on to other things. For example, COLT Technologies(TM), a Salt Lake City-based developer of wireless agricultural technologies, has appointed D. Bret Smith as its new chief executive officer. Smith replaces Tali Haleua who has assumed the role of executive vice president of sales and business development and will remain with COLT as chairman of the board.
It never ceases to amaze me that people don’t think agriculture is a high tech business. It is and what these folks are doing is just one example. With all the food safety concerns companies like this one are rapidly developing new products to provide the service the consumer is demanding.
“Everyone in the beef and dairy industries recognizes that it’s inevitable that the USDA will hand down more stringent tracking, tracing, monitoring and certifying requirements for beef and dairy products, and COLT’s revolutionary TekVet System is ready to meet that challenge today,” Smith said. “I look forward to introducing these industries to a new paradigm and consider it my responsibility and obligation to lead the beef and dairy industries into the 21st century.”
In case you’re wondering what this TekVet system does, read on:
The TekVet System is a wireless radio frequency (RF) solution designed to track, trace and monitor the health and core temperatures of beef cattle, one of the key indicators of feeder animal health. The TekVet System immediately identifies unhealthy animals by monitoring core body temperature via the TekVet SmartSensor(TM), a small wireless device attached to a feeder animal’s ear that monitors temperature through a thermistor inserted into the animal’s ear canal. When the body temperature drops below (or climbs above) specific temperature thresholds, producers/feedlot workers/researchers are notified immediately via a wireless alert (through cell phone, pager or COLT Technologies’ console management software) about the change in the animal’s core body temperature.
I just found out that there’s already a website for the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists 2006 Congress in Norway. Of course their theme is “
AgWired reports on IFAJ Congress 2005 are sponsored by 
We’re at the end of my posts on the 
singing with part of the Quasimojo band (Mike Wilson and Owen Roberts)! Here you have IFAJ president David Markey singing along!!!
On the IFAJ Dinner Cruise awards were given including IFAJ medallions. These were presented to numerous people who put in a lot of hard work on this event. Some of them are pictured here below the balcony which was lined with people. I don’t have all the names and why’s and wherefore’s though.
Here’s what the medallion looks like. 
The last event of the IFAJ Congress was a Lake Thun dinner cruise. The “Berner Oberland” is a beautiful boat and we had a wonderful evening. As we got on the boat we were greeted with gifts (Swiss watches) and some kind of a fruity concoction that I didn’t get a name for. It was kind of like a strawberry/fruit juice with a sparkling wine in it.
Our onboard entertainment was a New Orleans Jazz Band. Talk about surrealistic when all the news we’d been seeing was on the tragedy in New Orleans! They were good though.
This was just sent out from the 
As I just mentioned in my last post about CornTalk, you podcast subscribers to the MBIC Report should have received it earlier this week. But now it’s also posted for those of you who just like to click and listen.
We’ve had this week’s CornTalk from the 
September is food safety month and the 
The farm where we ate lunch on the final day of the IFAJ Congress is owned by Fritz and Maria Santschi-Schiefer in Sigriswil. I interviewed Maria and her daughter Martina who talked about their family farm operation and the challenges they face.