The 2019 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) will have the largest trade show floor ever in the event’s history. IPPE has already surpassed 560,000 square feet of exhibit space and has secured more than 1,100 exhibitors with eight more months to go to the Expo. IPPE is the world’s largest annual feed, meat and poultry trade show of its kind and is one of the 50 largest trade shows in the United States. IPPE is sponsored by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, the American Feed Industry Association and the North American Meat Institute.- The IPPE is pleased to announce its recognition by Trade Show Executive as ranking first in their Fastest 50 listing as the fastest-growing annual trade show in net square feet of exhibit space for 2017. IPPE was honored in the large show category during Trade Show Executive’s Fastest 50 Awards & Summit, held this week in Chicago.
- David Jones, DVM, chairman of Brooke USA, was named the recipient of the 2018 Equine Industry Vision Award. Zoetis, in partnership with American Horse Publications, presented the award to Dr. Jones during the AHP Equine Media Conference in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Zoetis established and sponsors the annual Equine Industry Vision Award, which showcases an individual’s innovation and commitment toward making positive impact on the equine industry.
Allgaier Wins NASCAR Iowa 250 presented by Enogen
It has been a hot day in Iowa, especially on the track at Iowa Speedway. Winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen is Justin Allgaier, JR Motorsports. Here’s the Syngenta Enogen team in victory lane with Justin, his wife and daughter and the car.
After all the victory lane festivities Justin came over to the media center for a short press conference. I asked him to give a shout out to all the farm dads here at the track today, especially those corn farmers in the stands, many of whom grow Enogen corn.
Listen to my question/answer with Justin here: Enogen Race Winner Justin Allgaier
I have a lot of pre, during and post race day photos for your viewing/sharing pleasure. I hope you enjoy them.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen Photo Album
Ready for NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen is tomorrow at 4pm central. I’m in early to get myself settled in at the media center. I’ve always enjoyed this track and have had the opportunity to visit many times.
Once again this year I’m working with Enogen, Syngenta’s Corn for Ethanol. I have some interviews scheduled and will be taking photos as the opportunity presents itself. In fact, I’m about to do a walk around to see what I can find.
For the sixth consecutive year, Syngenta is sponsoring NASCAR® racing at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.
This year’s featured event is the Iowa 250 presented by Enogen, a 250-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race, on Sunday, June 17. Enogen® corn helps to enhance ethanol production and provides corn growers the opportunity to be enzyme suppliers for their local ethanol plant. This year, Enogen premiums-to-date paid to Enogen corn growers are expected to surpass $100 million.
If you’d like to hear more about what Enogen is all about then listen in to my interview earlier this week at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop with Jeff Oestmann, Bio-fuels Operations head, Enogen at Syngenta.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen Photo Album
Enogen Corn is a Win Win Win
Enogen® is a win for corn growers, ethanol plants and rural communities, and its footprint just keeps growing.
Syngenta now has agreements with more than 30 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of approximately 3 billion gallons. As new plants come on board, Syngenta expects ethanol produced with Enogen® corn enzyme technology to be approximately 2.5 billion gallons this year alone.
“Across a growing number of ethanol plants, Enogen corn is helping to fuel enzyme innovation,” said Jeff Oestmann, Bio-fuels Operations head, Enogen at Syngenta.
Oestmann says Enogen was generating a lot of interest at the Fuel Ethanol Conference in Omaha this week. “We’re getting a lot of people here talking to us about the value of Enogen and what it does for their plants,” he said.
“The end game is to increase their margins, and that’s what we’re doing here.”
And speaking of winning, Syngenta is sponsoring NASCAR® racing at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa this weekend for the sixth year in a row. This year’s featured event is the Iowa 250 presented by Enogen, a 250-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race, on Sunday, June 17.
Learn more about Enogen’s growth in this interview from FEW – Interview with Jeff Oestmann, Enogen
2018 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Photos
Fuel Ethanol Conference content sponsored by
Zimfo Bytes 6/15
With over 653,000 student members belonging to over 8,500 FFA chapters, FFA is the largest student-run organization in the United States. This year the Culver’s FFA Essay Contest focused on this idea by asking members to write about the 2017 National FFA Convention theme, “I can. We will.” FFA members were asked to share what the theme means to them and how they’ll apply it to their future career. The winners’ chapters listed below received a total of $15,000 from Culver’s to help fund educational experiences, like a trip to the 2018 National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, Oct. 24–27. First place ($7,500) went to Luke J.’s Felicity-Franklin FFA Chapter in Ohio. Second place ($5,000) was awarded to Kaitlyn H.’s Mt. Vernon FFA Chapter in Illinois. Third place ($2,500) went to Clayton B.’s Burley FFA Chapter in Idaho.- The Upper Midwest Listening Session for the project, What’s on the Horizon for E-Connectivity in Rural America, will be Tuesday, June 19, 2018, at the Rice County Fairgrounds, Faribault, Minn. This is the second in a series of listening sessions planned across the nation to gather insights into the tools that are needed to improve e-connectivity in rural America. This event will focus on hearing from rural stakeholders about the need for, and solutions for obtaining, quality broadband services for the economic health of rural America.
- The new website, Crop Insurance In My State, offers an interactive map that provides visitors with access to state-specific information such as: number of crop insurance policies, acres insured, value of insurance protection, how much farmers paid for coverage, how much insurers paid to cover losses, and hail protection coverage. The website was recently unveiled by National Crop Insurance Services.
- Salford Group, manufacturer of tillage, seeding and fertilizer application equipment and attachments, has selected Charleston|Orwig, Inc. as its marketing communications partner.
Profitability Begins with Nutrition
Pork producers visiting the World Pork Expo each year are often looking for new innovations and technologies that can help them to be more profitable.
“When they look at production, they want sows that have good litters, healthy litters,” said Lori Stevemer, species marketing manager with Hubbard Feeds. “They want pigs to get going in the nursery, to grow well, grow efficient. And then when those pigs get into the finisher they want them to grow well, have low mortality, and then really reach full value.”
Stevemer said Hubbard Feeds provides nutrition programs and technical information to help producers reach those goals. In addition, the fact that new innovations have been tested in research facilities provides a low risk situation for producers.
Listen to Jamie’s interview with Lori here: Interview with Lori Stevemer, Hubbard
2018 World Pork Expo Photo Album
Coverage of World Pork Expo is sponsored by 
Show-Rite Feeds Champions
Show-Rite® Show Feeds has made winning a habit for its customers and, as part of the Alltech Feed Division and Hubbard Feeds, the company is part of an even bigger winning team.
“Our team is second to none and in some way all of our specialists are tied to the industry,” says Show-Rite regional representative Mari Palacio. “Then the opportunities Alltech opens for us with their products and innovations – we incorporate that into our feed line.”
Palacio spent a lot of time at World Pork Expo last week visiting with participants in the Junior Nationals, like 6-year-old Grady Poliska, who took the title of Champion Overall Team Purebred Gilt.
Click here to watch her interview with Grady.
Learn more in this interview: Interview with Mari Palacio, Show-Rite
2018 World Pork Expo photo album
Coverage of World Pork Expo is sponsored by
Analyzing Mycotoxin Levels in Swine Feed
The results of the 2017 harvest analysis with regard to mycotoxin levels show that the 2017 crop was similar to the 2016 crop, and levels were possibly a bit less than in 2015.
Alltech‘s Dr. Max Hawkins said analysis is important as swine producers try to mitigate the risk of mycotoxin exposure in feed.
“We need to get an idea of what risk is present in the corn, present in the feed from mycotoxins,” said Hawkins, who was at the 2018 World Pork Expo. “Then once we know what that risk is, we can look at adjusting formulations, we can look at monitoring storage, and we can look at employing a more total mycotoxin management program to mitigate the most amount of risk possible to the pigs.”
Hawkins said one way to do that is with the Alltech RAPIREAD program, which provides not only the necessary testing, but also the ability to look at diet formulations and evaluate potential risk to the animals.
Listen to Jamie’s interview with Dr. Hawkins here: Interview with Dr. Max Hawkins, Alltech
2018 World Pork Expo Photo Album
Coverage of World Pork Expo is sponsored by
Senate Agriculture Committee Passes Farm Bill
By a vote of 20 to 1, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Wednesday
“The Senate Agriculture Committee’s bipartisan Farm Bill process is a reminder of how things should work in Washington – listening to the folks back home, working through issues with the other side of the aisle, then writing a good bill,” said Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). “Today marks another important step in the road to getting an on-time Farm Bill enacted into law. We urge our colleagues to support this bill.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was the sole dissenting vote, continuing his long-time crusade for payment limitations.
“Setting sound, enforceable limits to farm safety net payments is a straightforward way to exercise fiscal responsibility and close loopholes that exploit the intent of farm programs that allow some non-farmers to game the system and take resources away from real, working farmers,” said Grassley in a statement after the vote. “I’ve been an advocate for making these reforms for more than a decade, so you can imagine my disappointment that they weren’t included in the committee’s legislation. I intend to offer an amendment on the Senate floor to include commonsense payment limits in the 2018 Farm Bill.”
Grassley was the first to make his comments during the mark-up. Here are his remarks.
Sen. Grassley comments on Senate farm bill
Grassley also opposed including the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the farm bill. The legislation to remove federal roadblocks to industrial hemp was included. “By securing my hemp provision in the Farm Bill, we are building upon the successes of the hemp pilot programs and encouraging the great potential of this versatile crop,” said McConnell.
Listen to McConnell’s comments here:
Sen. McConnell comments on hemp legislation in farm bill
EPA Administrator Gets an Earful from Corn Farmers
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been on a tour of farm country this week, meeting with corn farmers and ethanol producers in Kansas and South Dakota already and next to Nebraska.
At the East Kansas Agri-Energy ethanol plant in Garnett, Kansas, Pruitt sat down with a roomful of farmers and ethanol supporters who told him they were “mad as hell” about EPA efforts they believe undermine the RFS law.
Kansas Corn Growers Association President Ken McCauley says the group pressed Pruitt on EPA’s granting of small refinery exemptions which Pruitt claims he must do for refineries who claim financial hardship. “We asked him what constituted financial hardship and I can’t say we got an answer,” McCauley said.
The corn farmers also pointed out to the administrator that they were experiencing financial hardship themselves right now and EPA is making it worse for them. “I told him that EPA’s attacks on ethanol don’t just hurt ethanol plants, they hurt farmers, rural communities and American consumers who benefit from ethanol with lower prices and cleaner air,” said McCauley.
Farmers and ethanol producers in South Dakota held a good old fashioned tractor rally in Sioux Falls as Administrator Pruitt met with farmers in Reliance about 200 miles west. “Corn prices right now are at breakeven or below and we’ve lost 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol to exemptions that EPA has granted to refiners,” said South Dakota Corn Growers president Troy Knecht. “That equals about 570 million bushels of corn.”
American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings says they just want Administrator Pruitt to do his job. “He needs to uphold the RFS as the law of the land and stop the secret waivers and he needs to make good on the president’s promise to allow E15 use year round,” said Jennings.
Click on the audio files below for interviews with McCauley and Jennings and Knecht’s remarks at the rally:
Interview with Ken McCauley, KS Corn president Remarks by Troy Knecht, SD Corn president Interview with American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings