Rest in Peace Dr. Pearse Lyons

Chuck Zimmerman

Right now I am saddened and in shock after learning of the passing of Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech. There is so much I can say about this man and what he meant to me personally. I considered him a friend, teacher and supporter.

Some thoughts that come to mind include:

I’ve met many successful people but Pearse has to be one of the best entrepreneurial salesmen I ever met. Pearse always took time to visit with me even when I knew his schedule was tight and other people were waiting. He had a fantastic memory for details and would ask me about my family and business and offer suggestions if I asked him. He always seemed to be looking beyond the current moment but that moment was also very important to him. He was genuine and I believed what he said and meant and that he did too.

He was a perfectionist (which could annoy people in the hall outside of the general session at his symposium who were waiting to get in while he perfected the program). He enjoyed good whiskey, beer and bourbon so he bought a brewery and built a distillery. He was a leader with endless energy. He had a great sense of humor and could sing better than I ever could or will. He taught me that good marketing was done through education.

Several years ago I sat down with Pearse for my favorite interview with him during which we talk about his 30 years of building a company one of the finest company customer events I’ve ever attended. Perhaps you will enjoy hearing it today: ZimmCast with Dr. Pearse Lyons

You can learn more about the life of Dr. Pearse Lyons, including arrangements, in this page put together by his company, Alltech.

I have taken lots of photos of Dr. Lyons, along with Jamie and Cindy too. You can find many of them in our Alltech event albums online here.

Alltech, Audio

DowDuPont™ Ag Division to Become Corteva Agriscience™

Cindy Zimmerman

The Agriculture Division of DowDuPont™ will someday become a stand-alone company under restructuring and the name was revealed during last week’s Commodity Classic to be Corteva Agriscience™ (kohr-‘teh-vah), which is derived from a combination of words meaning “heart” and “nature.”

Vice President of Public Policy and Chief Sustainability Officer Krysta Harden said during the general session that it took months to come up with the name. “We wanted a name that means something,” she said. “So the name means heart of the earth, or heart of nature.”

The division will be called Corteva – the ag division of DowDuPont until the intended company is spun-off, which is expected to happen by June 1, 2019.

Listen to Harden’s comments here:
Krysta Harden, Corteva, at Commodity Classic

2018 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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FMC Expands Portfolio & In Hiring Mode

Jamie Johansen

No doubt the FMC team is excited about the aquciaiton of the DuPont product line. Strong brands were brought over in insecticies, fungicides and herbicides. FMC Regional Business Manager, Chris Reats, shared more on the growth of the FMC portfolio at the recent Mid-South Farm & Gin Show.

“It’s been a great transition. We just got into this last November and we are through the hard parts. Here in March 2018, we feel like we are a long way along the way. We have a really great company this year,” Reats said.

As the business side of FMC expands, so do options for growers. “We hope it will be a positive thing they will experience. Traditionally, FMC has been a pretty lean company as far as representation. This new acquisition has allowed us to be right staffed. We have more people in the geographies to help us serve. You will see more of us in the field. The people we have brought on are super and we are actually in a hiring mode,” Reats said.

Learn more about the growing FMC portfolio and expansion here: Interview with Chris Reats, FMC

View and download photos from the event here: 2018 Farm & Gin Show Photo Album

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USFRA Launches engAGe App to Help Advocate Online

Jamie Johansen

In in a proactive effort to bring farmers and ranchers into the mainstream conversation about food and ag-related issues, U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA) has launched engAGe – a new app to give farmers, ranchers and advocates a turnkey tool in sharing their story on social media.

This platform allows users to easily stay abreast of current news in agriculture and broadens relevant content to their social media channels with a simple click. It’s easy to download and integrates with social media accounts to strengthen agriculturalists’ voices and share a united message.

“Agriculture has an opportunity to come together and proactively elevate the voices of farmers, ranchers and agriculturalists on social media,” says Brad Greenway, USFRA Chairman and South Dakota diversified crop and animal farmer. “We know through USFRA research that consumers are interested in how their food is grown and raised. It’s our responsibility to take 5-10 minutes a day to join the dialogue on social media and share our story while we’re in the fields and in our barns.”

The news feed within the app allows users to publish stories and posts to their own social media networks. engAGe also encourages farmers, ranchers and advocates to network with others, so if someone has a video, photo, link or story they want to share, it can be posted and distributed to the entire engAGe community.

How to download engAGe:
– To join, search “Dynamic Signal” in either iTunes or Google Play and download the free app.
– Once you download and open the app, enter the engAGe community code: ENGAGE (not case sensitive).
– Once you type in the community code, you will be able to create an engAGe account.
– For further instructions, or to download a manual, visit fooddialogues.com/engAGe

Listen to the audio tutorial and watch the video below with USFRA Digital Marketing Manager Liz Ireland below: engAGe App Tutorial

2018 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Soybean Leader Hoping to Replace Bill Northey

Cindy Zimmerman

ASA President John Heisdorffer (left) presents Ray Gaesser with the Distinguished Leadership Award. Photo credit: Joe Murphy

Now that Bill Northey is officially heading to his new job at USDA, Iowa soybean farmer Ray Gaesser can now officially get on with his campaign to be the next Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.

Last week at Commodity Classic, the former American Soybean Association (ASA) president from Corning, Iowa received the organization’s Distinguished Leadership Award for his years of service to the industry on the state and national level. Gaesser also participated in a grower perspective panel at the Bayer AgVocacy Forum, where he talked about the importance of advocating for agriculture. “One of the ways is to really share what we’re doing on the farm,” he said. “Folks want to know more about their food and how we grow it.”

Gaesser shared the panel with farmers Kyle Tom of Indiana; Nancy Kavazanjian from Wisconsin; Jacob Wagers, Golden Grain Farms in Colorado; Vince Restucci with R.D. Offutt Company in North Dakota; and Meagan Kaiser, PAL Farm Management LLC, Missouri.

During an interview at the forum, Gaesser talked about why he is running for Iowa agriculture secretary. “I’m really passionate about agriculture, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” said Gaesser. “I just want to be able to give back from all the benefits I’ve had as a farmer for 40 years in Iowa.” Gaesser has been on some 50 trade missions to help promote agricultural exports, which are vitally important for Iowa farmers. “Those relationships that you build are really important in these times when there’s lots of competition.”

Listen to that interview here: Interview with Ray Gaesser, Iowa farmer

Listen to the panel from the Agvocacy forum here: Grower Perspectives Panel

2018 Bayer AgVocacy and Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Aptimmune Shares Vaccine Success

Carrie Muehling

Aptimune Biologics is fighting swine disease with vaccines formulated especially for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus and influenza. In 2017, the company introduced the BARRICADE formulation technology. A recent symposium in San Diego gave veterinarians who have been conducting field trials with that mucosal vaccine to share how the product is performing.

“The reality is that we’ve got to know more about our product than anybody, and it doesn’t always work so it’s important for us to distinguish when it’s appropriate to use and when it doesn’t work as well so we can educate people when they’re making product choices,” said Aaron Gilbertie, Aptimune CEO.

Gilbertie reported about an 85 percent success rate for the BARRICADE vaccine, with more trials in progress.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Aaron here: Interview with Aaron Gilbertie, Aptimmune

2018 Aptimmune Scientific Symposium Photo Album

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Farmers Slightly Optimistic About 2018

Carrie Muehling

After a couple of tough years, farmers attending this year’s Commodity Classic in Anaheim were hopeful of better days ahead when it comes to the economics of their operations.

“I think what we’re hearing here is some slight optimism,” said Tom Sloma, Jr., Senior Vice President of Financial Services at Farm Credit Mid-America. “The last three years have been a challenge, I think, for lots of operations. They had the low commodity prices, and what does that mean to their operation? How do we come out of some of the very best years we’ve had about five or six years ago and adjust the operations appropriately so that we can make sure we have staying power for the next three to five years? And as things cycle in agriculture, we’ll come out of this and then look at how to grow those operations either for ourselves or for the next generation that comes into farming.”

Sloma said now is the time for farmers to plan their financial forecasts for the next year. He encouraged them to get that meeting on the calendar and then revisit the plan quarterly to ensure the business strategy they have in place is viable for the long term.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Tom here: Interview with Tom Sloma, Jr., Farm Credit Mid-America

Farm Credit at 2018 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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2018 National Farm Machinery Show Sets Records

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2018 National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS) saw an increase in attendance and ticket sales and a record number of new exhibitors and exhibit sales.

Over 314,000 attendees packed the Kentucky Exposition Center for the four-day event that celebrated 53 years of providing the agricultural industry’s latest and most comprehensive display of equipment, services and technology. With the largest number of exhibitors in its history, NFMS spanned more than 1.3 million square feet filling 920 booths, for an increase of 40 exhibitors.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Championship Tractor Pull attendance was the largest number in recent history. Over 67,000 tickets were sold to the five performances in Freedom Hall. During the Saturday night finals, a ceremony honored past participants and the organizers of the first tractor pull. In a half-century of growth, the invitation-only tractor pull now draws the nation’s top drivers competing for the title of Grand Champion and more than $200,000 in prize money.

In case you missed it, you can find photos, audio and video in the NFMS18 virtual newsroom, sponsored by FMC and John Deere.

2018 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

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AMVAC Plans for Growth

Carrie Muehling

AMVAC is working to bring more solutions for farmers to the market. While consolidation continues within the agriculture industry, many larger companies are focused on finding new active ingredients. But AMVAC is concentrating on existing products that can continue to bring value to its farmer customers.

“They want to make a crop. They want to make a yield. They want to make money. They want to solve a problem. So our job is to bring solutions to those problems,” said Neil DeStefano, Director, Portfolio and Marketing/eCommunications Management.

The company has an aggressive business plan for growth in the agriculture industry, with traction in the corn and soybean markets, southern row crops, and technology. DeStefano said the mood during this year’s Commodity Classic was upbeat as farmers anticipate a new growing season.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Neil here: Interview with Neil DeStefano, AMVAC

2018 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Study Shows Impact of RIN Price Cap on Corn Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

A new analysis from the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University shows that any action to artificially cap Renewable Identification Number (RIN) prices in exchange for a waiver allowing year-round sale of E15 would result in reduced ethanol consumption, a drop in corn prices, and an effective cut of 5% to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) conventional renewable fuel requirement.

During meetings with RFS stakeholders last week at the White House, a proposal to lower RIN prices for oil refiners was made that would cap RIN prices at 10 cents in exchange for a Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waiver for E15.

“The study confirms imposing a price cap on RINs would abrogate the potential benefit of RVP parity for E15. Fundamentally, a RIN price cap and E15 RVP parity work at cross purposes. One is intended to grow demand for biofuels; the other is intended to reduce demand. The net result would be an effective cut to the RFS, lower ethanol production, lower corn prices, and higher consumer gasoline prices,” said Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen.

National Corn Growers Association President Kevin Skunes said, “This economic analysis backs up what corn farmers have been telling the Administration – that manipulating the RIN market mechanism would reduce ethanol blending and impact corn prices. A drop of 25 cents per bushel in corn prices, as CARD economists project from a RIN price cap, would devastate farmers and stagger rural communities.”

Both corn and ethanol interests are standing strong on the option of capping RIN prices. “Not on any proposal that would reduce demand,” said Dinneen. “The message is simple, this program is not broken. It is working as it is intended.”

Dinneen discusses the RIN price issue in the latest edition of The Ethanol Report. Listen to it here: Ethanol Report on RINs in the White House

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