2024 Ag Media Summit Awards
A big part of the Ag Media Summit are the awards. There are many of them from each organization represented including Livestock Publication Council, The Ag Communicators Network, and National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. There are photos of all of them in the online summit photo album.
I want to highlight two of our best friends that received awards starting with Cindy Cunningham, Public Relations Managing Supervisor at Woodruff. Cindy received the LPC Ed Bible Distinguished Service Award. Like a lot of these awards it can be very emotional not only for the recipient but also many, many of us in attendance.
Also, receiving an award is Kelly Schwalbe, Retired PR Professional. Kelly received the Ag Communicators Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cindy (Zimmerman) and I have made so many friends over the years and we’re very blessed for that. We’ve not only worked with these two professionals but we’ve spent lots of other social time from trips to the Lake of the Ozarks to pheasant hunting in South Dakota. Congratulations to them and all who have received awards.
You will be able to find the full lists of winners on the organizational websites.
Talking Retirement at Ag Media Summit
During this year’s Ag Media Summit I talked to a variety of folks about retirement. This included members who have retired, members who retired and went back to work, people who are considering retiring (asking me, “When are you going to retire?”), and one of our keynote speakers, Dr. Chris Kuehl, Armada Corporate Intelligence. He is an economist who not only had great information but a sense of humor that kept us laughing. I would recommend him as a speaker anywhere.
I picked out an excerpt of his talk since it was about extending retirement. He says, “If we use the same demographics that we used in the 1930’s when we set 65 as retirement age, the retirement age now would be 85.” Yeow!
You can listen to him here:
Dr. Chris Kuehl Excerpt on Retirement
The Greg and Gregg Show at AMS
Greg Henderson and Gregg Hillyer at AMS
Henderson says AMS basically began when the ag publishers got together and decided not to send their editors to two separate meetings. “They were going to the Ag Editors meeting in October, and they were going to the Livestock Publications Council meeting in July. And so the idea was, let’s bring these two together,” and it became his job to make that happen.
Hillyer says it was a little tricky to start. “Even though we had some cross membership between the two organizations, we both kind of had different viewpoints in terms of sponsorships and code of ethics and things of that sort, so there was really a lot of originally disagreement in those earlier discussions,” he said.
Listen here:
Gregg and Greg Show - Look back over the years of Ag Media Summit
Alltech Honors Young Leaders at Ag Media Summit
(right to left) Breanna Selsor, Iowa State; Hannah Hudgens, Texas Tech; Allie Herring, Texas Tech; and Ryan Hess, Texas Tech; with Jenn Norrie (far left), Alltech
“Alltech is proud to support the next generation of agricultural communicators as the ambassadors and voice of our industry,” said Jenn Norrie, Alltech’s communications manager for North America and Europe. “These young leaders are playing an instrumental role in sharing stories of farmers and ranchers and are helping to educate the urban population on where and by whom their food is produced.”
Three of the four finalists for this year’s Forrest Bassford Student Award, presented by the LPC, were from Texas Tech University – Allie Herring, Ryan Hess, and Hannah Hudgens – with the fourth, Breanna Selsor, from Iowa State University.
Following a competitive application and interview process, the award was presented to Herring, a senior studying agricultural communications and agri-business at Texas Tech.
The Forrest Bassford Student Award was established in 1992 to honor Bassford’s contributions to the Livestock Publications Council and his passion for supporting young people in the field of agricultural communications.
Feedstock Management Group Debuts at Tech Hub LIVE
The North American Bioeconomy Data Alliance (NABDA) is a new working group focused on feedstock management that debuted at the recent Tech Hub LIVE event in Des Moines.
Spearheading the group are Joyce Hunter with Mission Critical and Kathleen Glass with AquaSpy, who also led a Roundtable Discussion on the topic at THL. NABDA is engaging industry partners help the U.S. and Canada improve data literacy and standardization to optimize the production, processing, and utilization of biological feedstocks.
“It’s looking at all of the feedstock that’s available and how we are going to compensate farmers for what they are growing,” said Hunter. “We’re looking for input from farmers, producers, technology companies…we want all voices included.”
The working group plans to gather input over the rest of this year and present findings at the VISION Conference in January.
Hunter, who served in the Obama administration USDA, also spoke to the Women in Ag Tech group which met for the third time at Tech Hub LIVE about the importance of being involved in public policy and government relations.
Learn more in this interview.
2024 THL WiAT speaker Joyce Hunter, Mission Critical 7:04Iowa Economic Development Spurs Sukup Innovations
Megan Brandt, Sukup Innovations, and Renee Hansen, Sukup Mfg., at Tech Hub LIVE
Renee Hansen, Sukup Manufacturing, External Relations Manager, and Megan Brandt, Program Manager, Sukup Innovations, were at Tech Hub LIVE last week to talk about how Iowa and ag tech go together.
“Iowa really is the Silicon Valley of ag tech,” said Hansen. “Sukup Manufacturing is really trying to take that to another level, help with the productivity and efficiency of the producer and we’re at Tech Hub LIVE because we want to be a player in this space.”
Brandt says the first product offering from Sukup Innovations is Synk™, a new bin monitoring solution designed to enhance grain storage management for farmers.
“I think people at first questioned why two very different companies would come together until they figured out why Sukup was trying to bring this technology out to the farm,” said Brandt. “So having two separate powerhouses with not a lot of preconceived ideas of what wouldn’t work and what would work is going to be, I think, powerful.”
In addition to Ramco, Sukup Innovations includes an innovation lab called Maple Studios which brings in early stage manufacturing tech startups and Hansen says the Iowa Economic Development Authority is very helpful in supporting early stage companies. “We have a lot of different funds that come from the federal government and the state government and we have a lot of programs, including Ag Tech focused funds, locally and across the whole state,” she said.
Learn more in this interview from THL.
2024 THL Sukup Manufacturing/Innovations 7:47
Precision Ag News 8/7
4th Tech Hub LIVE is Another Success
Last week’s fourth Tech Hub LIVE 2024 attracted nearly 700 attendees and featured over 70 exhibiting companies, making it another big success for the CropLife Media Group® event. Half of the companies participating this year have already rebooked for Tech Hub LIVE 2025 when the event will return to Des Moines to celebrate its 5th year.
“We are thrilled with the success of Tech Hub LIVE 2024 and the incredible turnout we saw this year,” said Amy Reddington, Show Director of Tech Hub LIVE. “The energy and engagement from attendees, exhibitors, and speakers was outstanding. We’re already looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Des Moines in 2025.”
The dates for 2025 are July 21-23.
BioLumic Partners with Seed Companies for New Traits
BioLumic is partnering with Beck’s Hybrids, Peterson Corn Genetics, Peterson Farms Seed, Breeder Direct and other seed companies to use BioLumic’s Genetic Expression Trait™ light-activated technology on a wide range of inbred and hybrid corn lines aiming to enhance their productivity.
BioLumic is the world’s only company treating seeds with light to activate genetic expression for new crop traits which achieved significant performance milestones in enhancing inbred corn lines that are crucial for producing the world’s high-performing hybrid seeds favored by most farmers. The inbred trials specifically target improved germination, emergence, seedling vigor, yield, and hybrid seed quality.
Agtech startup BioLumic treats corn seed with short-duration exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light that naturally activates new genetic expression
“By activating Genetic Expression Traits in corn parent lines and showing the ability to lock in those traits to hybrid corn progeny without any ensuing treatments, our UV light technology is rewriting the playbook for seed production,” said Steve Sibulkin, BioLumic CEO. “It eliminates years of trait identification and breeding work for driving yield, quality and plant health without the multi-year regulatory process associated with genetic modification.”
BioLumic is set to commercialize Genetic Expression Traits for both inbred and hybrid corn in partnership with Gro Alliance starting next year. Additionally, BioLumic is advancing trait development of soybean parent lines, with initial trials commencing this year.
Learn more in this interview with Sibulkin.
Interview with Steve Sibulkin, BioLumic CEO 6:27