Industry Groups Support Tech Hub LIVE
“This meeting is the single best place I go to learn about what’s new in the industry,” said Daren Coppock, Agricultural Retailers Association President and CEO. “The location here in Des Moines is ideal and it continues to grow and get more momentum.”
Ag retailers make up a large portion of THL attendees, so it’s a great place for Coppock to meet up with his members and hear about their concerns, which includes everything from lack of a new farm bill, to labor and financial issues, to regulatory uncertainties.
2024 THL Daren Coppock, ARA 3:46
AgGateway Portfolio Manager Ben Craker joined a panel at THL to discuss the ADAPT Standard 1.0 which was just released in June. Also on the panel with him was Ann Vande Lune with Key Cooperative in Central Iowa who has been actively involved in the development of that standard.
2024 THL Jeremy Wilson, Ag Gateway 4:56Ag Media Summit in Full Swing
During the weekend attendees were able to participate in Saturday tours and on Sunday the associations held their board meeting, followed by the 1st Timer Reception and then the Welcome Party with a Roaring 20’s theme. Here’s an example of just a few photos from there.
So, now we’re starting with a breakfast, sponsored by Rabobank, and a session on “Managing Risk and Creating Resiliency in Animal Health.” I have it being recorded and will add it to this post later.
Update:
Managing Risk & Resiliency in Animal Health – Mitch Blanding, Zoetis, Lance Zimmerman, Rabobank and Greg Henderson
Managing Risk & Resiliency in Animal Health
So, beside the link to the photo album that you can find here and on AgNewsWire, I also have QR code for it if that make’s it easy for you.
25th Ag Media Summit Underway in KC
It was 25 years ago that the Ag Media Summit began, first as the Ag Publications Summit in 1999, and it is still the largest gathering of the agriculture industry’s top writers, editors, photographers, publishers and strategic communicators in the U.S. A joint effort of the Livestock Publications Council (LPC), the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN), and the Connectiv Ag Media Council, AMS is celebrating its silver anniversary this week in Kansas City.
The event became known as Ag Media Summit in 2005, which was when our photo album collection begins. If you want to take a long walk down memory lane, go through all 18 albums with over 8,200 photos. For a shorter stroll, you can check out the Ag Media Summit Through the Years Album from 2020, with less than 900 photos.
And more are being added into the latest album this week. Happy Anniversary AMS!
2024 Ag Media Summit Photo Album
AgriTalk Celebrates 30 Years
It was 30 years ago this month that the nation’s first and only radio talk show focused entirely on agriculture and rural America debuted.
It was, and still is, called simply “AgriTalk,” starting Aug. 1, 1994 as a one hour program hosted by Ken Root first, then Mike Adams until 2018 when it expanded to a two hour format with current host Chip Flory.
To celebrate the anniversary, Flory hosted a special edition of “AgriTalk” featuring former hosts Ken Root and Mike Adams, long-time producer and industry veteran John Herath, along with “AgriTalk” news reporter Davis Michaelsen.
“Thirty years of anything in farm radio is worth celebrating, but when we are talking about the nation’s go-to farm talk show, we definitely need to celebrate,” Flory said. “I was thrilled and honored to have Ken, Mike and John on the show to talk about the history of the show and to get their takes on the historic events we are living through and talking about each day on ‘AgriTalk.’”It was fun to take a walk down memory lane with Ken and Mike and John, especially when they talked about the “road warrior” era. AgWired and AgriTalk followed each other around to meetings all over the country for over a third of that 30 years, from Farm Bureau and cattle, to biodiesel and ethanol, on through to the seed industry convention in Chicago every December. Those were the days!
“AgriTalk” airs live each morning at 10 a.m. Central and each afternoon at 2 p.m. Central on more than 100 affiliates in 19 states. “AgriTalk” AM airs daily on Rural Radio/SiriusXM and both hours are available on-demand at www.agritalk.com and on all major podcast platforms.
Tech Hub LIVE Farmer Panel Provides Insight from the Field
Farm4Profit podcast host and Iowa farmer Tanner Winterhof moderated the panel, which included his co-host and 4th generation farmer Corey Hillebo; Scott Henry, partner in LongView Farms in Nevada, IA; “Iowa Farm Mama” Rachel Fishback, People of Ag; and Brad McDonald, McDonald Farm and Continuum Ag. All five are row crop and livestock producers who are leaders in adopting new technology in many different ways.
Fishback farms with her brother in Washington County, Iowa and is known on TikTok and Facebook as Iowa Farm Mama. She also started a media marketing company called People of Ag. “I think technology is growing with the times and keeping farming current with all of other industries that are out there, especially with social media and telling our stories via video,” she said. “I’ve got my brother on camera. We talk about our farming on social media a lot.”
Henry focuses primarily on business development and growth for his family’s 10,000-acre farm and considers technology a path towards better insights on the farm “We’ve truly tried to adopt and be at the cutting edge as much as we can…we hope to be better farmers and better stewards by doing so.”McDonald takes the view of an economist when it comes to technology. “So the definition of the economy would be the allocation of limited resources. To me, technology is the enhancement of that allocation. So in layman’s terms, getting more with less is really how I view technology.”
One of the advantages Hillebo likes to see when he adopts new technology is in the decision making process. “I think some of the best tech that really helps our farm helps take the emotion out of the decisions,” Hillebo says. “We’ve even got into artificial intelligence when it comes to grain marketing.”
There was a good deal of discussion on the panel about incentives for adopting regenerative agriculture practices such as cover crops and no till to lower carbon intensity scores for farmers who sell grain to ethanol plants. McDonald serves as Chief Operating Officer of Continuum Ag, a company that has been helping farmers adopt these practices that, starting in 2025, could generate a new revenue stream.
“So us as farmers can help the ethanol industry lower their CI score by producing a low CI grain. How do we do it? By using cover crops, no-till, and manure instead of synthetics. If you do those three things, that’s the trifecta to lower your score,” McDonald explained. “And now I’m providing a brand new value to the ethanol industry that I should be compensated for. So at the end of the day it it’s all tied to what is your actual score of the practices that you’re implementing on your farm.”
To sum it up, Winterhof said, “Technology for us needs to be able to help us direct the narrative and tell our story. It needs to be able to help remove emotion, needs to be able to help us increase productivity, save time, reduce costs, and it needs to come with a positive user experience.”
Industry Ag News 8/2
ZimmCast 733 – Farm Bill and AMS
Although Cindy and I got a little break from the agriblogging highway things got busy again. In this episode I’m going to share a few interviews that have a focus on a new Farm Bill. What do you think? Is it still possible this year or will it be sometime in 2025? You will hear different thoughts from Ted McKinney, NASDA, Sonny Perdue, University of Georgia Chancellor, Representative Austin Scott, (R-GA) and Representative Frank Lucas, (R-OK). These interviews were conducted at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and Tech Hub Live.
After these interviews I’ll provide you with a preview of this year’s Ag Media Summit which will start August 3 through the 6th. This is the 25th AMS and it will be held in Kansas City, Missouri. I’ll be taking lots of photos so keep your eye out for them throughout the event and feel free to download and share.
That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
Listen to the episode here:
ZimmCast 733 - Farm Bill and Ag Media Summit (29:04)
That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening.
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2024 Apple Grower of the Year Announced
Tim Welsh of Wenatchee, WA, has been named the 2024 American Fruit GrowerSM Apple Grower of the Year. The award is presented by American Fruit Grower® magazine, published by Meister Media Worldwide.
Welsh started picking apples as a kid, became a field man, then just kept working his way up. Today he is Chief Orchardist, Columbia Orchard Management.
“Columbia Fruit Packers was bought out by a private equity group in 2022, so my job transitioned. A job I’d had for 34 years at the time transitioned to a new job, a new company, new people, and so it’s been a unique change,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve been in this industry that long, sort of in the same sort of evolving role, with my feet on the ground first as a field man, and then moving into orchard management, and then finally overseeing orchards for all of my company.”
Welsh, who will be featured on the cover of the Aug/Sept issue of American Fruit Grower magazine, will receive the Apple Grower of the Year Award in his hometown of Wenatchee in front of family and friends, which is appropriate for the affable Welsh.
Welsh is the 36th recipient of the award, sponsored by Valent USA, which honors individuals who influence the apple industry within the orchard and outside of it.
2024 Sunbelt Expo Announces Southeastern Farmers of the Year
The Sunbelt Ag Expo has announced Southeastern Farmer of the Year state winners for 2024. The Farmer of the Year Program selects one farmer from each of the participating states for recognition at the Sunbelt Ag Expo, where the overall winner is announced.
State winners for 2024 include:
Joel Sirmon | Alabama Farmer of the Year 2024
Ted Huneycutt | Arkansas Farmer of the Year 2024
Jason Watts | Florida Farmer of the Year 2024
Bruce Allen Redmond| Georgia Farmer of the Year 2024
Faylene Whitaker | North Carolina Farmer of the Year 2024
Ty Woodard | South Carolina Farmer of the Year 2024
George McDonald | Tennessee Farmer of the Year 2024
Walter Bass, Jr. | Virginia Farmer of the Year 2024
In 2023, the Sunbelt Ag Expo launched the Friends of the Farmers of the Year (FOFOY) Fund to ensure the award program continues for years to come.