Preview of CIRB Annual Mtg.

Chuck Zimmerman February 5, 2015

The Executive Vice President for the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau is Mike Torrey, pictured here on the right with new Chair Sheri Bane and just past Chair Greg Mills. Prior to our opening reception last night I visited with Mike to learn more about CIRB and what will take place during this annual meeting.

By the time I interviewed Mike the organization had already held it’s annual member meeting at which they discussed priorities for the year. One of those is how to reach out to younger people with the start of a leadership program.

During the next couple days we’ll have presentations on legislation, climate change, legal challenges and other trends like big data. Of course there will be plenty of time for networking and talking about the challenges facing agriculture this year.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: Interview with Mike Torrey

2015 Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting Photo Album

Coverage of the Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Audio, CIRB, Insurance

Salmonella Testing at Roka BioScience

Jamie Johansen February 5, 2015

Salmonella threshold testing was the hot topic in the Roka BioScience booth at the 2015 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE). I stopped by to talk with Ted Andrew, Director of Marketing and Product Development about their new approach to bacteria detection and other new opportunities they are offering the industry.

“It’s a different way to look at pathogen testing. Dr. Evan Chaney gave a presentation here on it that was very well attended and it has driven a lot of traffic back to the booth. They wanted to learn more about it and how it could be implemented into the poultry process.”

The session discussed results from a comparative study evaluating Salmonella enterica detection platforms using ground poultry and carcass rinse data from five poultry producers. The study showed if a testing platform includes integrated target capture steps when compared to PCR and culture confirmation, detection is more precise.

Ted goes on to share the value of this for their customers in terms of increasing production and enabling better efficient processing. It is already out in the marketplace and they have received lots of great feed back.

“Our current platform is still new to the industry but the adoption has been spectacular. We are seeing growth in our current pathogen detection platform, but coming down the road we are looking at a smaller version as well as different assays.”

Learn more about the Roka BioScience research and product line in my complete interview with Ted: Interview with Ted Andrew, Roka BioScience

Photos from the event can be found here:
2015 International Production and Processing Expo Photos

Coverage of the International Production and Processing Expo is sponsored by

Agribusiness, Audio, Biotech, IPPE, Poultry

Live Video Streaming from 2015 World Ag Expo

Jamie Johansen February 5, 2015

Multi Ag Media, LLC in partnership with Ad-Venture Video Productions, will broadcast live Feb. 10-12 from the 2015 World Ag Expo grounds in Tulare. Viewers will be able to tune in at WAE.TV starting February 10th to see interviews from industry leaders, new technologies from exhibitors, show activities and sponsored advertising. Live streaming will be available all three days of the show.

“We will be streaming live every day on WAE.TV from the World Ag Expo Broadcast Center, located on the show grounds. This will greatly increase exposure for World Ag Expo and the exhibitors,” said Joel Hastings, Multi Ag Media Partner. ” Viewers from around the world will be able to participate in the show through the lenses of our WAE.TV cameras.”

WAE.TV will make this high quality news-style broadcast available to millions of potential viewers. Sponsors and exhibitors will have a unique opportunity to reach a larger global audience. With live programming, WAE.TV offers many long term benefits further confirming World Ag Expo as the largest and most influential farm show in the world.

Ag Groups

The Novus Enzyme Portfolio

Jamie Johansen February 5, 2015

Ajay Bhoyar is the Global Poultry Marketing Manager for Novus International and I got to chat with him during last week’s International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta. Enzymes were at the forefront of the Novus experience when you walked through their booth on the expo floor. Ajay talked about the importance of their presence at the event and what we can see coming through their enzyme portfolio in the near future.

“IPPE is a global event and we get to interact with customer from all over the world. Novus, being a global company, we have a presence in almost all of the leading countries world-wide. It is very important for us to convey the sustainable solutions effectively to our customers.”

Novus is a emerging leader in the feed enzyme market and Ajay also shared more about Cibenza DP100 and where it fits in their marketplace. “It is a protease that helps improve the digestibility of proteins in the animal feedstuffs.”

Learn more about the Novus enzyme lineup in my complete interview with Ajay: Interview with Ajay Bhoyar, Novus International

Photos from the event can be found here:
2015 International Production and Processing Expo Photos

Coverage of the International Production and Processing Expo is sponsored by

Agribusiness, IPPE, Novus International, Nutrition, Poultry

CIRB Annual Meeting Underway

Chuck Zimmerman February 4, 2015

The 2015 Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting is underway in Bonita Springs, FL. That’s where you hold a meeting this time of year! I grew up about 2 hours north of here.

So, registration is underway, the board is meeting and we have the opening reception is coming up soon. This is my first time attending and we’re going to be learning a lot together.

I’d like to thank Rural Community Insurance Service for sponsoring my coverage of this year’s meeting. We’ll have lots of photos and interviews in the next few days!

Follow the hashtag #CIRB2015 for those who will be tweeting!

Coverage of the Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting is sponsored by

Ag Groups, CIRB, Insurance

Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Phillip Seng

Leah Guffey February 4, 2015

Agri-Pulse interviewed Philip Seng, President and CEO USMEF on Open Mic this week:

International trade can be a “gold mine” for beef and pork producers as well as the grain growers they rely on for feed. However, U.S. red meat exports are challenged from lower domestic production and the rising value of the U.S. dollar. In this week’s Open Mic in-depth interview, Philip Seng, President and CEO of the US Meat Export Federation, says the value, quality and consistency of the US product has helped the industry maintain and expand its place in the globe – despite tough competition from places like Australia and the European Union. Seng says over the next decade Asia will be home to 65 percent of the world’s middle class and that’s another reason to concentrate on global trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Click here to listen to Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Phillip Seng, President and CEO USMEF.

Agri-Pulse, Audio, Exports, Food, Markets, Meat

20 Best College Farms in America

Jamie Johansen February 4, 2015

Best College Reviews has published a ranking of the 20 Best College Farms in America. Best College Reviews is an editorially independent college review website focusing on college rankings, reviews of college features, and thought leadership on helping students find their place in the higher education landscape. I am excited to see a Missouri school on the list that is right in my back yard.

From small student-run organic farms, to large agribusiness training centers and entrepreneurial programs, farming plays a central role in many American higher ed institutions. Best College Reviews realizes that a university farm can mean a number of things, so as they reviewed 50 universities from across the country, they kept the following criteria in mind: Farm Size, Integration with the Main Campus, Sustainability, Are courses taught at the farm?, Do students use the farm?, and Integration with the Community.

Here are the top 5 on their list:
1. Warren Wilson College – Asheville, North Carolina
2. College of the Ozarks – Point Lookout, Missouri
3. Deep Spring College – Big Pine, California
4. Hampshire College – Amherst, Massachusetts
5. Butte College – Oroville, California

Ag Groups, Education, Farming

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes February 4, 2015

Valent U.S.A. Corporation announced that Presidio® Fungicide has been registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use on tobacco.
CropLife America announces that it has joined the North American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance, an alliance with the mission to generate dialogue and greater understanding within the agriculture and forestry sectors of the impacts of climate change and the steps they can take to meet the challenges.
Purina Animal Nutrition announces the hiring of Dr. Kevin Herrick, Ph.D., as the senior manager to the dairy and livestock technical support team.
GROWMARK employees were recognized at the Region IV Best of NAMA awards ceremony, a communications contest sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).

Zimfo Bytes

Soil Health Partners Work Together

Cindy Zimmerman February 4, 2015

The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) was launched just shy of a year ago with seed funding in part from Monsanto and technical support from The Nature Conservancy (TNC). That may seem like a case of strange bedfellows, but everyone has the same goal of healthier soils.

At the first Soil Health Summit last week in St. Louis, Monsanto Sustainability Business Development Lead Kevin Coffman said having partners in the environmental community is very helpful to the effort. “They’ve certainly thought about this a very long time,” said Coffman about the role of TNC and the Environmental Defense Fund in the partnership. “So, it was a natural partnership to bring them together.”

Coffman was pleased with the summit and the progress of the SHP to date. “This was really our first chance to get the cooperating farmers face to face to share more about they’re doing,” he said. Interview with Kevin Coffman, Monsanto

Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, who is Director of the Western Lake Erie Basin Project for The Nature Conservancy, is also a farmer and she says the partnership is helping her learn a lot about her own farm. “(We’re) taking a closer look at the management of what we’re doing with cover crops versus no cover crops,” she said, adding that they ultimately hope to learn what the benefits are for the soil. “Really that can change the game for agriculture…it’s not just yield that we’re talking about.” Interview with Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, The Nature Conservancy

2015 Soil Health Summit Photo Album

Audio, Conservation, Environment, Soil

Iteris and BASF Join in Precision Ag Weather Agreement

Cindy Zimmerman February 4, 2015

Iteris and BASF have entered into an agreement to leverage Iteris’ ClearAg high-resolution field level weather information.

Under this agreement, Iteris’ ClearAg™ high-resolution, precision hail information will be integrated into BASF’s suite of precision agronomy sales and customer support tools. BASF sales and customer support staff will have access to Iteris’ field-level hail information, including descriptions of hail events by state, county, township, or zip code; hail amounts; and graphic maps of hail events in most U.S. states with the goal of being able to quickly notify U.S. corn and soybean growers in time for precise crop protection response to potential crop damage or other hail-related issues.

“It’s important for corn and soybean growers to quickly assess and respond to hail-related crop damage before fungus or other diseases have time to set in and cause further damage,” said Gary Fellows, Ph.D., BASF Tech Service Fungicide and Seed Treatment Manager. “By leveraging Iteris’ ClearAg hail data, we can send a notification to growers on how to treat or respond to hail-damaged crops for improved execution in the field.”

“By delivering our high-resolution ClearAg hail data to BASF, we are empowering their sales and support staff, as well as their U.S. Crop Protection customers, with actionable information for more proactive field response,” said Abbas Mohaddes, President and CEO of Iteris. “We look forward to working with the world’s largest chemical company and their efforts to bring high-value, decision-support services to their grower customer base in the U.S.”