2018 CUTC Opens with Industry Panel

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference kicked off late yesterday with an industry panel and trade show reception. The panel discussion was very interactive with attendees, allowing for lots of questions and discussion on some very interesting topics.

Here’s the list of folks on the panel: Welcome: Kevin Skunes, President, NCGA; Emcee: Chris Novak, CEO, NCGA; Panelists: Ron Cascone, Nextant, Inc.; Ken Dallmier, Clarkson Grain Company, Inc.; Loren Isom, University of Nebraska; Dennis Maple, NCGA CPQAT Chairman; Maria Oliveria, Iowa State University and Rhea Sammons, Archer Daniel Midland.

You can listen to the panel discussion here: CUTC Industry Panel

2018 CUTC Photo Album

Audio, Corn, CUTC, NCGA, Technology

Bayer Looks Forward to Monsanto Closing This Week

Cindy Zimmerman

Bayer intends to complete the acquisition of Monsanto this Thursday, June 7, following the receipt of all required approvals from regulatory authorities.

“The acquisition of Monsanto is a strategic milestone in strengthening our portfolio of leading businesses in health and nutrition. We will double the size of our agriculture business and create a leading innovation engine in agriculture, positioning us to better serve our customers and unlock the long-term growth potential in the sector,” said Werner Baumann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG.

Bayer will become the sole shareholder of Monsanto on June 7. According to the conditional approval from the United States Department of Justice, the integration of Monsanto into Bayer can take place as soon as the divestments to BASF have been completed. This is expected to be in approximately two months. “We have diligently prepared for the upcoming integration over the past two years. Our extensive experience in integrating other large companies has proven that we can and will be successful,” said Baumann.

Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio.

Baumann and Crop Science president Liam Condon announced the details of the closing in a European press conference Monday, and Condon conducted a call with U.S. journalists.

Bayer's Werner Baumann and Liam Condon opening statements

Bayer U.S. presser on Monsanto closing with Liam Condon
Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Audio, BASF, Bayer

ZimmCast 586 – CCA Institute 2018

Chuck Zimmerman

The gavel has changed hands for the Cooperative Communicators Association.  Here’s a picture of the new board with new President Chellie Phillips seated in the middle.

We are at the CCA Institute 2018 in Ft. Worth, TX and today and tomorrow there will be a variety of professional improvement sessions taking place with a closing banquet and night of honors and awards.

In this week’s program I’m going to share interviews with Nickie Sabo, AMPI, now past president for CCA, Chellie Phillips, Coweta-Fayette EMC, new president of CCA and Matt Wettersten, GROWMARK, meter of CCA.

They will help you understand more about the purpose of the association and what it means to them in their careers and for their cooperative employers.

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 586 - CCA Institute 2018

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here. Use this url in iTunes or your favorite news reader program/app.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by
The ZimmCast podcast is sponsored by GROWMARK
Locally owned, globally strong.
Audio, Cooperatives, ZimmCast

GROWMARK Foundation Announces Scholarship Recipients

Cindy Zimmerman

Fifteen agriculture students have been selected as the second class of recipients of the GROWMARK Foundation scholarship.

More than 170 students from across the United States and Ontario, Canada, applied for the award. Applications were evaluated by a panel of agribusiness professionals, and the funds are available for the fall 2019 semester.

“Each scholarship is worth 1500 dollars,” says Karen Jones, Youth and Young Producer Specialist at GROWMARK. “We’ve awarded some to incoming freshmen but about half are going to students that are sophomore level or above.”

Click here to see the full list of recipients.

In this interview, Jones talks about the Foundation scholarship program and why it’s important to the future of agriculture. Interview with Karen Jones, GROWMARK

Audio, Education, GROWMARK

Farm and Biofuel Groups File 2nd Suit Against EPA

Cindy Zimmerman

A coalition of biofuel and agriculture groups have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to change its regulations to “account for lost volumes of renewable fuel resulting from the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions from Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations recently granted by EPA.” The petitioners are the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Growth Energy (Growth), National Biodiesel Board (NBB), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and National Farmers Union (NFU).

This petition comes days after several ethanol and farm groups challenged three specific small refinery exemptions granted by EPA. While the lawsuit in the Tenth Circuit challenged those exemptions as wrongly decided, this petition to EPA seeks a broader, forward-looking remedy to account for the collective lost volumes caused by the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions.

In this Ethanol Report interview, RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen discusses why the industry is taking this legal action and also comments on what they expect the White House to announce today: Ethanol Report on EPA Lawsuits

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Ag Groups, Audio, Biodiesel, EPA, Ethanol, NCGA

Earning Consumer Trust in Food Production

Carrie Muehling

The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity exists to help the food system earn the trust of consumers. Its U.S. counterpart has been working towards the same thing since 2007.

“To really earn trust, it has to start by doing the right thing – having trusted assurance systems – and then communicating. And you can’t do one pillar on its own without the other,” said Crystal McKay, president of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity. “So, I think where we need to get to in this to really move the bar on trust is showing our hearts first and facts second. The connecting with shared values. If we think about something like environment, for example, or animal welfare, no one cares more about that than farmers. But the public hasn’t heard that yet.”

McKay said 93 percent of the population in Canada and the United States knows little to nothing about farming, and it’s difficult to get public attention or engagement until there is a problem. Although agriculture is a technical industry, farmers and other food stakeholders cannot educate their way to public trust. McKay said the food industry needs to collaborate from farmer to processor to retailer and connect with the emotional side of the consumer first, then following with science and factual information. She said the time has never been better to have a conversation about food and agriculture, but noted it needs to start with listening.

McKay said it’s a mindset shift to consider the food business no matter what part of the supply chain one is in. She called it a whole food system business challenge that requires working together, as public trust should be viewed as a base for growth and innovation.

Listen here for Chuck’s interview with Crystal: Interview with Crystal McKay, Canadian Center for Food Integrity

ONE 18: The Alltech Ideas Conference Photo Album

Alltech, Audio, Food

Animal Ag Bites 6/4

Carrie Muehling

  • The National Pork Producers called for a swift resolution of the United States-China trade dispute, paving the way for increased U.S. pork exports to the world’s largest pork-consuming nation. According to Iowa State University Economist Dermot Hayes, U.S. pork producers have lost $2.2 billion on an annualized basis due to events leading up to and following China’s 25 percent punitive tariffs in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel.
  • There’s still time to register for the 2018 World Pork Expo! It’s the 30th year and registration is free to journalists covering the event. Request your official media badge and parking pass now.
  • This June, in honor of National Dairy Month, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy is partnering with nearly 40,000 family farms, processors and dairy brands to spotlight the many people who are devoted to dairy. The month-long celebration will kick off year two of the Undeniably Dairy campaign and will rally communities from coast to coast to salute people’s passion for dairy. Since launching one year ago, the multi-year Undeniably Dairy campaign has sought to reignite consumers’ love for dairy while helping to bring them closer to the farm and to the people behind their favorite dairy foods.
  • The USPOULTRY Foundation research advisory committee met in Atlanta earlier this spring to review the next round of research pre-proposals. At the meeting, three new members were elected to serve on the committee, including Lynn Bagley, Pitman Family Farms; Dr. Roy Brister, Tyson Foods, Inc.; and Dave Townsend, Pilgrim’s Corp. Leaving the committee were Dr. Don McIntyre, Diamond V, and Dr. Tom Frost, DSM Nutritional Products.
AgWired Animal, Animal Bites

CCA Institute 2018

Chuck Zimmerman

Cooperative Communicators Association president Nickie Sabo, AMPI, conducted the new member orientation at the start of this year’s CCA Institute in Fort Worth. The last time I attended this conference was in 2010 but I’m here this year as a new member so I’m learning a lot and will be collecting some interviews to help us all learn more about this organization.

The program is all about professional improvement with many sessions, some fun, and a night of honors. I visited with Nickie to learn more about CCA and the Institute: Interview with Nickie Sabo

I will be collecting photos and sharing here: 2018 CCA Institute Photo Album

Audio, Cooperatives

Alltech Focused on Fish Nutrition, Sustainability

Carrie Muehling

Scientists in the field of aquaculture are working to produce a premium product sustainably, and nutrition is a key part of that goal.

At ONE 18: The Alltech Ideas Conference, Dr. Philip Lyons shared some challenges and successes of the aquaculture industry with participants.

“I think the biggest challenge is that at the moment a vast majority of feeds for carnivorous fish are made up of raw materials that are derived from the wild environment,” said Lyons, research scientist at Coppens International, an Alltech company. “From wild fish stocks, fish meal still makes up a large proportion of aqua feeds. And we really need to think of innovative ways to replace these because it’s not environmentally sustainable to take fish from the sea and put it into formulated diets for farmed fish and it doesn’t make sense to do that.”

Lyons said Alltech has already had some success with removing the fish oil component and replacing that with micro algae to get the same level of performance. But the protein side is still a challenge that the whole industry has to overcome. The company is actively looking at alternatives and conducting trials to see the digestibility of those alternatives in fish. Replacements with potential include insect meal and high protein bacterial meal.

Lyons said the company is also fine tuning mineral nutrition, as mineral requirements published for fish are old and outdated. Phosphorous retention is another focus to be sure there is no excretion of excess phosphorous into the environment. He is also excited about a new project researching gut health in fish.

Listen to Jamie’s interview here: Interview with Dr. Philip Lyons, Coppens International

2018 ONE 18: The Alltech Ideas Conference Photo Album

AgWired Animal, Alltech, Aquaculture, Audio, Nutrition

Preview of the 2018 CUTC

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2018 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference is about to start in St. Louis, MO. This event is held every other year and features technical presentations on various topic related to corn and uses for corn. The theme this year is, “Increasing efficiency across the supply chain to enable new products.”

On the CUTC Planning Committee as Co-Chair is Nathan Danielson, BioCognito. I spoke with him to get a preview of who should attend and what the key topics are for the presentations this year. He also talks about the sponsoring companies and poster presentations which are part of the agenda.

You can still register on-site for the CUTC which is being held beginning Monday morning, June 4 at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel. You can find information on the agenda and location on the CUTC website.

As I have done at past conferences, I will be conducting interviews with presenters to get some key takeaways from their topics and research. That and a lot of photos will be published in a virtual newsroom on AgNewsWire.

Listen in to my conversation with Nathan to learn more: Interview with Nathan Danielson, BioCognito

AgWired Precision, Audio, Corn, CUTC, NCGA, Technology