Time For the #RealYield Game

Chuck Zimmerman October 5, 2015

Want to take a break from harvest? How about playing some Liberty Link Real Yield game?

Here’s how you play:

Visit www.realyieldgame.com and click on the promotion link.
1. Complete all fields in the registration or log-in process.
2. Select five fields in the game area to spray Liberty® to reveal incremental bushels of soybeans.
3. Look at the total number of incremental bushels of soybeans for all five fields in the silo and determine the prize won.

Limit three game plays per person – one game play for complete registration, one game play for completion of LibertyLink® Ratings/Reviews/Attributes, one game play for social sharing through the promotion website.

In the real world, missed weeds compromise real yield. The LibertyLink® system is simply a better solution that ensures you don’t lose yield from missed weeds. Choose LibertyLink® and Liberty® to maximize real yields with high-performing genetics and better weed control.

Monty Henderson from Indiana has had good results using the Liberty Link system:

Keep an Eye on Ceva Animal Health

Cindy Zimmerman October 5, 2015

Ceva Animal Health is set on becoming a major player in the swine industry within the next five years. The global company was just created in 2000 in France, and the North American operations started in only 2005, but already Ceva has experienced a five fold growth increase.

Craig Wallace, Ceva CEO and North American Zone Director, says growth in his area – which also includes Australia and New Zealand – has been tremendous in the past decade. “We started in 2005 as we acquired a company called Biomune, a poultry company,” he said during a swine media event last week at Ceva’s North American headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas. “There have been multiple acquisitions since that point that have put us into multiple segments, primarily focused on poultry, swine and companion animals.”

Ceva is launching a major expansion into the swine health business. “Globally, of strategic interest and import, is moving into the poultry and swine business because of the ability for us to impact the world’s food sources and help producers deliver high quality, low cost proteins,” said Wallace.

The company has already developed a healthy market share of the poultry health business, with the expectation of being number one in vaccines by the end of next year. “Our plan moving into the swine business is to have the same sort of success,” Wallace added.

Learn more about Ceva in this interview: Interview with Craig Wallace, Ceva Animal Health

Ceva Animal Health Swine Media Event photos

Animal Health, Audio, Swine

New Ad Exposes Chipotle’s “Burrito Disguise”

Kelly Marshall October 5, 2015

A full-page ad ran in the New York Post last week highlighting the Center for Consumer Freedom‘s Chubby Chipotle campaign. The ad exposes Chipotle’s “healthy” burritos as 1,500 calorie meals. The ad also points out that in addition to their Burrito Disguise, Chipotle is also facing a class-action lawsuit for alleged violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

“Chipotle promotes a local farm profile and is critical of big processing food suppliers, but its food is processed in large factories and the company shares a distribution chain with McDonald’s and Taco Bell,” Will Coggin, director of research at the Center for Consumer Freedom, said. “Chipotle’s marketing spins a false narrative that its food is healthier and more ethical, but consumers should know Chipotle is pretending to be something it isn’t, and deceiving them in order to sell 1,500-calorie burritos.”

Recently Chipotle ran a new advertising campaign, announcing that their food is free of GMOs. This claim is untrue of the soda served in the restaurant as well as the meat, which comes from livestock fed GMOs up to the day they are processed for food. Additionally, Chipotle claims their meat is from animals that are antibiotic free. This policy has recently seen a sift as well, with the company allowing a new European supplier to treat sick animals– although the change has never been advertised. Hormones are yet another hot topic, with Chipotle advertising beef as free of added hormones, even though beef is naturally low in hormones with lower rates than pinto beans and tofu.

“There’s no problem with genetically modified foods or hormones present in foods (according to scientists), or giving antibiotics to animals to keep them healthy,” reports the Center for Consumer Freedom. “But there is a problem with Chipotle pretending to be something it isn’t and deceiving consumers in order to sell its high-calorie burritos.”

The ad is the third in a highly successful campaign that has been covered by CBS This Morning, Washington Post, Reuters, New York Post and the Daily Mail. The previous Chubby Chipotle ads can be found here.

Advertising, Ag Groups, Animal Health, Food, GMO, Sustainability

Sustainability & Farming

Jamie Johansen October 2, 2015

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What does sustainability mean to today’s farmers?”

We may not have an easy definition of sustainability, but it is clear most of us agree that it encompasses economics, the environment and social aspects.

Here are the poll results:

Economics – 6%
Environmental – 11%
Social – 0%
All of the above – 82%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, Where or how do you hunt?

Fall is in the air and for much of rural America it means hunting season. Guns are being cleaned and the camo is coming out. Do you hunt on your own property, with a group, on your own or not at all. Tell us in our latest ZimmPoll.

ZimmPoll

Beef Excellence in Canada

Chuck Zimmerman October 2, 2015

Beef is what was for lunch during one of my tour stops at the Canadian Farm Writers Federation Annual Meeting. Excellent beef. Beef from the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence to be precise.

This center opened earlier this year and is a Canadian beef and veal innovation, training, education and culinary marvel. The key areas are a presentation room, meat lab and fully stocked cafeteria with state of the art cooking appliances. Our tour guides included Marty Carpenter, Abe Van Melle and James Bradbury. Watch them in the video below.

Canada Beef is an independent national organization representing the research, marketing and promotion of the Canadian cattle and beef industry worldwide. Its efforts to maximize demand for Canadian beef and optimize the value of Canadian beef products is funded by cattle producers and the National Beef Check-Off, which in turn makes it possible to access beef industry market development funds provided by the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta.

2015 CFWF Annual Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation 2015 Conference is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Beef, Food, International, Video

#WDE15 Book Celebrates Show’s Founder

Jamie Johansen October 2, 2015

The World Dairy Expo is kickstarting a year long celebration of it’s 50th anniversary in 2016 with the publishing of We Need A Show, a commemorative book on the prestigious show’s history. Among the many contributors to the book’s content is Roy Hetts, son of World Dairy Expo Founder Alan Hetts.

Alan Hetts’ was a lifelong Wisconsin Dairyman, and his vision for hosting an expo on such a large scale stemmed from his genuine love of showing dairy cattle: “Dad loved showing cows, and he showed at the National Holstein Show in Waterloo, Iowa since he was a young man,” said his son following a press conference on the book, “He loved the show life.”

Roy Hetts remembers the first Dairy Expo in 1967: it was ten days long, and a humble beginning for the show. Most of the attendees hailed from the Midwest, it would be a few years until the expo became the top quality dairy show it is today.

Hetts is proud of the event his dad’s grand idea has become and of all that it does for the industry, as both a cow show and an international forum that facilitates professional collaboration among the global dairy industry.

“What World Dairy Expo has done is so much more than a cow show,” he says, “People in all areas of the dairy business plan meetings around it. That’s the biggest impact of the show: It is where all of the dairy people of the world come together to meet.”

We Need A Show is available at this week’s expo, and will be available online following the show’s completion.

Listen to my interview with Roy here:Interview With Roy Hetts, Crescent Beauty Farm

View and download photos from the event here: 2015 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

Coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Audio, Dairy, Education, World Dairy Expo

Dairy Policy Talks at #WDE15

Jamie Johansen October 2, 2015

Policies concerning our nation’s dairy industry were just a few of the topics Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection, Ben Brancel, discussed while attending the 2015 World Dairy Expo.

“Today I think price in most all commodities are issues whether you are talking milk or grain prices. Of course low grain prices help that dairy farmer out when purchasing product, but milk prices is the thing that is on the mind of our dairy farmers.”

Sec. Brancel said Wisconsin had decent signups for the Margin Protection Program, but farmers are very leery of it and are not overly excited to participate in it. They don’t believe the program will in the end, create a floor under risk management.

On the trade front the Secretary said, “The Trans Pacific Partnership has huge value for Europe and the United States…but we are very concerned about the geographic indicator language.” This for example, causes problems in naming cheeses. “I think there are methods going forward, but we should not impose new rules on people who have been doing the same thing for 60 years and accepted by the international community.”

Beyond policy issues, Sec. Brancel also discussed the positive impact the World Dairy Expo has on the state of Wisconsin. Listen to my complete interview here: Interview with Wisconsin Sec. of Ag Ben Brancel

View and download photos from the event here: 2015 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

Coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Audio, Dairy, Trade, World Dairy Expo

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes October 2, 2015

The Yara Prize 2015 is being awarded to Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Director for Africa, IFPRI, and Mr. Eric Kaduru, Founder and CEO, KadAfrica.
Six members of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) Spinners Committee visited various U.S. cotton operations and research facilities, on September 13-18, following the ITMF’s Annual Conference on September 10-12 in San Francisco.
The University of Illinois is asking farmers and land owners to participate in a survey about their decision-making for the 2014 farm programs and provide feedback on the tools and resources available during that process.
Verdesian Life Sciences expands its team to include Jake Underwood as executive vice president of nutritionals and John “Sam” Wilson, Ph.D. as vice president of technology development.

Zimfo Bytes

ARC Annual Meeting and Scholarship

Kelly Marshall October 2, 2015

The Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) is pleased to announce a scholarship program for college students studying agriculture communications. One $1,500 scholarship will be granted for the 2016-2017 school year.

ARC conducted a scholarship program up until about 10 years ago, then reinstated it last year. Through the financial contributions of 2014 Hall of Fame recipients Richard Howell and Gary Myers, along with pledges from several others in the organization, ARC is now back in the scholarship business.

The deadline to submit an application is March 1, 2016. For more information you can contact the ARC office at arc@gandgcomm.com, phone: 952/758-5811.

ARC is also announcing it’s 2016 Meeting, set for June 21-23 in St. Paul so mark your calendars now. So far the schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, June 21 – Board meeting and dinner. (Any members are allowed to attend board meeting.)

Wednesday, June 22 – Registration at 8:30 a.m., with the meeting beginning at 9 a.m. Meetings will run throughout the day. ARC business meeting will be held at lunch this day. The Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Fame banquet will be Wednesday evening.

Thursday, June 23 – Twin City-area farm/ranch/agribusiness tours. Upon returning from the tours, the evening banquet will feature the Golden ARC Awards presentation.

Professional development workshops are being planned.

ARC, Education, Events

NFU President Pens Huffington Editorial

John Davis October 2, 2015

The National Farmers Union (NFU) wants Congress to take action on currency manipulation. In a Huffington Post guest column, NFU President Roger Johnson makes the case there needs to be enforceable language against the practice in all trade deals moving forward, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“Currency manipulation has become our trade competitors’ favorite maneuver for skirting massive trade deals as soon as they sign them, and it’s about to happen again,” notes Johnson. “Before these trade deals become effective, some of our trading partners devalue their currency, immediately reducing the cost of their goods to us and everyone else, and increasing the cost of our goods to them.”

Johnson explains that while politicians on both sides of the aisle rally behind trade agreements because of claims that they will reduce or remove tariffs and export subsidies, large regional pacts, like the TPP, are also about setting fair rules for trade.

A significant portion of the TPP, for example, pertains to non-tariff barriers and includes chapters on the environment, labor rights and intellectual property. “Currency manipulation should be included as its own chapter since it is one of the most fundamental non-tariff barriers to trade. Unfortunately for the TPP, that is not the case,” he says.

Johnson said currency manipulation in past trade deals is keeping the U.S. from getting a fair shake in these deals. He pointed specifically to the case of Vietnam – one of the participating countries in TPP – which devalued its currency in response to a major devaluation by China earlier this summer. He said others are doing it as well, and there’s nothing to stop even more countries from doing the same.

International

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