15 Millon Rea$on$ Not to Give to HSUS

Chuck Zimmerman

HumaneWatch AdI don’t need 15 million reasons not to give money to HSUS. However, I saw the HumaneWatch.org ad in USA Today and was glad they could do it. Hope it helps. The pic here is a portion of that ad. If you want to support your local animal shelter donate your money directly to them. You’ll help a lot more animals than HSUS does.

Here are the details from their news release.

Today, HumaneWatch.org, a project of the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, is running a full-page ad in USA Today calling out the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other co-defendants who last week settled a federal racketeering lawsuit brought by Feld Entertainment, parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, for $15.75 million. The ad specifically focuses on HSUS and its CEO Wayne Pacelle, who were involved in an alleged illegal witness payment scheme to pursue malicious litigation against the circus.

The case originally stemmed from a complaint filed under the Endangered Species Act in 2000, alleging misconduct by Feld toward its Asian elephants. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ultimately ruled the case was “frivolous,” “vexatious,” and “groundless and unreasonable from its inception.” Another animal rights organization – the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) – settled for an additional $9.3 million in December 2012.

The ad is viewable here.

The ad is headlined, “15 MILLION REA$ON$ Not to Give to the Humane Society of the United States,” and features a picture of Pacelle and an image of the actual check he personally signed as part of the alleged witness payment scheme. The ad then explains, “Last week HSUS and others paid over $15 million to settle a racketeering lawsuit that involved witness bribery and obstruction of justice. Support your local humane society, not HSUS.”

“This historic case has exposed the despicable tactics of the Humane Society of the United States and other animal rights fanatics,” said Will Coggin, CCF’s senior research analyst. “Americans should think twice before donating any money to HSUS. It’s likely not being spent on dogs and cats as HSUS’s ads lead people to believe.”

Wackos

BIVI Celebrates 20 Years of PRRS Solutions

Joanna Schroeder

wpx14-bivi-reidBoehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) celebrated 20 years of PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) solutions during this year’s World Pork Expo. Reid Philips, DVM, technical manager for PRRS vaccines and BIVI outlined how far the swine industry has come in the last two decades in controlling the virus.

Interestingly, Reid explained that in the 1980s when PRRS was first showing up in herds, it was known as the devastating “mystery swine disease”. Today not only is it a much less of a mystery but a virus that through collaborative research efforts between the industry, academia and producer organizations, the disease can be controlled.

Over the past 20 years, Reid said that they had to begin the process of finding solutions to PRRS by asking critical questions and then searching out the answers. The more answers they discovered, better tools and strategies emerged.

For 13 years BIVI has had a dedicated PRRS program and through the company’s continuous and innovative developments have identified five important manageable areas that will have the greatest impact on the disease: pig flow management; measurement and surveillance; immunity management; biosecurity; and  communication, coordination and collaboration through area regional control programs.

Reid expanded on the key areas by noting some critical discoveries and management strategies:

  1. Research has shown that herd closure and partial or total depopulation can have a major impact on controlling PRRS infections in the herd.
  2. Research has enabled BIVI to develop more accurate PCR and ELISA diagnostics to test for PRRS virus in through various means including oral fluids, semen, aerosol and the environment.
  3. Developments in immunity management of the breeding herd and growing pigs and research shows vaccination with modified live virus vaccines are effective, such as Ingelvac PRRS MLV.
  4. Biosecurity and the development of the PRRS Risk Assessment of the system or farm is one of the first steps to identifying holes or potential disease problem areas.
  5. In terms of communication, one successful method is through Area Regional Control Programs or ARC.

“The Key to effective PRRS control today,” said Reid, ” comes down to reducing transmission and improving immunity.”

To learn more about the 20 year history of how far the industry has come in controlling PRRS, listen to Cindy Zimmerman’s interview with Dr. Reid Philips.

BIVI Celebrates 20 Years PRRS Solutions

Check out the 2014 World Pork Expo photo album.

wpx-bivi-tag

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, NPPC, Pork, Swine, World Pork Expo

Panelist for USFRA Food Dialogues Chicago

Chuck Zimmerman

Food Dialogues ChicagoOne guess where I’ll be next week. The USFRA Food Dialogues in Chicago. That’s where. Here’s the latest information on the discussion next week.

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) today announce the list of panelists participating in the upcoming Food Dialogues: Chicago. Integrity in Food Marketing event, on June 10 at the InterContinental Hotel. Thirteen-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, author and Dr. OZ consumer and investigative correspondent, Elisabeth Leamy (elisabethleamy.com/home), will moderate an expert group of farmers and ranchers, food industry executives, marketing ethics academia and consumer representatives, all well-known in their respective fields for their expertise in how food is marketed. Panelists include:

Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change
Mike Donahue, former CCO of McDonald’s, now owner and brand architect of LYFE Kitchen
Alan Moskowitz, Director, Communispace
Connie Tipton, CEO, International Dairy Foods Association
Dawn Caldwell, family farmer from Edgar, Neb.; Communications Manager for the Aurora Cooperative; Lady of Ag blogger
Clarke Caywood, professor and tenured member of the Integrated Marketing Communications Department, Northwestern University
Emily Paster, food writer, West of the Loop
Chuck Wirtz, Iowa pork producer from Whittemore, Iowa

Where: Hotel Intercontinental on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue
When: Tuesday, June 10 from 10-11:30 a.m.
Why: You’ll hear from experts and be able to frame your own thoughts on how to tell your own food production story

The event will be streamed live on the Food Dialogues website.

Ag Groups, Food, USFRA

New Holland Donation to Fisher House Foundation

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland Fisher HouseNew Holland, an AgWired sponsor, just presented another check to the Fisher House Foundation – $57,800! This check was presented on June 3 during a groundbreaking ceremony for the newest Fisher House, which will open on the grounds of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. In the photo you can see Paul Wade, New Holland Construction Marketing Manager (center), Fisher House Foundation Chairman/CEO Ken Fisher (left), and President David Coker (right).

The check represented the donation for Fisher House Foundation accrued from New Holland’s 2013 True Blue Salute program. New Holland will continue the tradition of honoring military heroes during its 2014 True Blue Salute. From Memorial Day, May 26, 2014, and continuing through the celebration of Independence Day on July 5, 2014, New Holland will again make charitable donations to the Fisher House Foundation and extend a special equipment offer to active, reserve and retired military, first responders, and their immediate family members. Since January 2012, New Holland has raised over $1.2 million for the Fisher House Foundation through True Blue Salute programs.

Agribusiness, New Holland

TOPIGS & Norsvin Announce Merger During WPX14

Joanna Schroeder

A major announcement was made during this year’s 2014 World Pork Expo: TOPIGS International and Norsvin International have merged into one company: Topigs Norsvin. The merger will create a global swine breeding company with annual revenues in excess of US $179 million. The newly merged company’s headquarters will be located in Vught, the Netherlands. TOPIGS Nederland, Varkens K.I. Nederland and Norsvin SA were not part of the merger. Both companies are farmer owned and focus on genetic progress from applied research and development. Minority shareholders include farmer-owned meat processors and a feed supplier.

Mike Terrell Topigs NorsvinMoving forward TOPIGS Norsvin will align their R&D activities to create smarter investments to accelerate the genetic process and develop new products. Previously, the two companies partnered on many projects. Now, the combination of high-throughput phenotyping, large-scale computer tomography of boars, global nucleus breeding, massive gathering of production data and genomic selection will accelerate genetic progress and add value to the entire production chain.

“Results from new, combined products are so promising that we can see that these will have a global benefit,” said Bjarne Holm, Chief Development Officer of Topigs Norsvin. “Topigs Norsvin’s strategy involves excellent support through local presence based on individual customer needs. Together we have the people, products and knowledge to offer this better than anyone else.”

With a production of more than 1.55 million crossbred gilts and over 8 million doses of semen per year, Topigs Norsvin is one of the biggest swine genetics suppliers in the world. Each year more than 90 million slaughter pigs are produced with Topigs Norsvin genetics.

“TOPIGS and Norsvin is a perfect match,” added CEO Martin Bijl of Topigs Norsvin. “We are both R&D driven and have complimentary portfolios. TOPIGS brings robust, easy to manage lines providing the best total feed efficiency. Norsvin brings extremely productive, lean and efficient lines. Also the market position is complementary with TOPIGS’ global presence and Norsvin’s solid presence in Scandinavia, the U.S. and the Baltic region.”

Listen to the full press conference announcing TOPIGS Norsvin here: TOPIGS Norsvin Press Conference

2014 World Pork Expo photo album

wpx-bivi-tag

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, International, Pork, Swine, World Pork Expo

Teach Your Children Well

Melissa Sandfort

MowerToday Aunt Jeanette writes:

I was looking forward to spending most of today outside. Our lawn, which is about the size of a football field, desperately needed mowing. There are always weeds to pull. I had flowers to plant. The tomato plants that froze a couple of weeks ago needed to be pulled and new ones planted in their places. There is just something about working outside in the sunshine with a little breeze blowing that does my body and soul good!

First on the list was mowing the lawn. Well, I had gone around the edge of the lawn twice and was ready to mow in my diagonal pattern, when I heard a sound I hadn’t heard before. I went a little farther and then smelled something like burned rubber. Not a good smell! I immediately turned the mower off, hopped down from the seat, and saw pieces of a broken belt lying in the grass. Of course nobody was around to help because everyone was out getting pivots ready so we can begin irrigating.

Fortunately, our middle son happened to drive in and see my predicament. He helped me get the mower out to the shop and he started dismantling it. I was upset and knew he was busy with other things, so I told him to leave it and get back to his more important work. I was saying things such as, “Everyone is too busy to mess with my lawn mower now. I should have mowed yesterday when someone was around to help. Why do things like this always happen at the most inconvenient times?”

Then I just laughed out loud when his reply was, “Don’t you remember? The only time nothing happens is when you don’t do anything!” As our three sons were growing up and learning how to fix the things they had broken, they had heard those words of wisdom from their dad many times. I guess it proved to be one of life’s valuable lessons.

The lawn mower is still out in the shop. Maybe it will be fixed tomorrow, maybe not. However, I did manage to spend the day outside pulling weeds, planting flowers, and replanting tomato plants. Meanwhile, the grass is growing!

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Innovation Galore At World Pork Expo

Joanna Schroeder

Each year people from around the world come to World Pork Expo (WPX) and ask the question: what new things will I find there? So I asked Dr. Howard Hill, National Pork Producer Council (NPPC) president, veterinarian and Iowa pork producer, that question and his answer: a lot. A few highlights he mentioned included all the press conferences and seminars around PEDv (Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus), the Junior National with record breaking entries, great new products and technologies and of course, all the pork you can eat. This was Tuesday night when we had a discussion of what to expect and true to his word, I stumbled across this great lighting innovation from Energyficient this afternoon (story video coming soon.)

NPPC president Howard HillThe 2014 WPX is breaking several records including nearly 20,000 pork producers and related professionals from 32 countries along with an ever expanding expo that now includes more than 400 booths.

I also asked Hill about some of the work NPPC has been doing on behalf of their producers and the swine industry. Of note is the Water of the United States or WOTUS, a proposed regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as accompanying agriculture exemptions rules related to changes in the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). Hill said several of these exemptions could negatively affect farmers and ranchers because the rule would redefine “waters of the United States” to include  intermittent and ephemeral streams. This could potentially affect agriculture in various ways including application of manure on lands near such streams, for example, could be considered a discharge and require a CWA permit.

Another hot topic is the TPP or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending trade agreement between 12 countries including United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which account for nearly 40 percent of global GDP.

However, Hill said Japan is asking for special concessions including keeping tariffs in tact, and that the U.S. will not budge on their proposed trade agreement. Should this TPP come to fruition, the legacy trade agreement will open the doors for trade agreements with other countries including the European Union. At this time, other countries in the proposed TPP have joined the U.S. in putting pressure on Japan to reduce their demands. Hill said at this time, while they would really like Japan to remain part of the trade agreement, they could drop out and join back in at a later time.

Now back to things new. This is the first year that USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack will be speaking at WPX and while Hill is not certain about what he will be addressing, he believes he will discuss mandatory requiring of the PEDv virus as well as the status of the TPP.

Listen to my interview with Hill to learn more about all of the issues mentioned above. In addition, there will be more stories coming soon specifically related to all of the issues Hill mentioned.

Innovation Galore at World Pork Expo

Check out the 2014 World Pork Expo photo album.

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Audio, NPPC, Pork, Swine, Trade, World Pork Expo

Verdicts in on the Co-existence of Organic & GMO Crops

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Can organic & GMO crops co-exist?”

It’s clear everyone has their own opinion on this topic. And it’s important that farmers are able to voice their opinions and farm the way they see fit. Many pollers believe that organic and GMO crops can live harmoniously on the same or neighboring farms. But cross pollination is still a fear of many. Believe what you want, but let’s not put farmers against farmers.

Our poll results:

  • Yes – without legal regulation – 25%
  • Yes – with legal regulation – 7%
  • Yes – farmers choice to grow – 26%
  • No – due to cross pollination – 30%
  • No – it’s one or the other – 3%
  • Don’t know – 3%
  • Don’t care – 2%
  • Other – 4%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What do you think about the new AgWired look?”

As you can tell the ZimmComm Team has been busy changing things up a bit. Don’t worry, we are still covering everything agriculture. AgWired.com has just undergone a complete transformation on the back end and now incorporates WorldDairyDiary.com as Animal.AgWired.com and PrecisionPays.com as Precision.AgWired.com. And new features including a built in mobile app that you create on your device when you browse to AgWired.com.

ZimmPoll

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • Meredian Inc., a privately held biopolymer manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), is pleased to announce the launching of their new website, meredianinc.com.
  • The USDA announced the 15 members of the 2014 class of the E. Kika De La Garza Fellowship Program.
  • Kubota Tractor Corporation has introduced three new models to its B50-Series compact tractors, adding the newly designed B2650 and B3350 ROPS tractors and the new B3350SU Special Utility tractor to its lineup.
  • Bigham Ag announced the appointment of Norm Burgeson to the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing.
Zimfo Bytes

View IFAJ Photo Contest Entries

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJIf you like farm photography then check out the entries in this year’s International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Star Photography competition.

Entries to the IFAJ Star Prize for Photography, sponsored by DeLaval, are now posted on this IFAJ website. This year, we had 86 entries – 32 in the Production category; 28 in the People category and 26 in the Nature-Landscape category.

The entries are now in the hands of three judges from IFAJ member countries — Canada, Germany and Australia — and winners will be announced at the IFAJ Congress in Scotland in September. In the meantime, you can check out the entries for yourself here.

I’m looking forward to seeing the winners announced later this year!

IFAJ, International, Media