Alltech Scientists Speaking Out

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Becky TimmonsThe agricultural media covering the Alltech Symposium this week heard from several key scientists during a lunch session. This provided an opportunity to meet them and ask them questions in an informal setting outside of their on stage presentations.

First up was Becky Timmons, Alltech Global Director of Applications Research and Quality. Becky loves to talk about algae and the opportunities it provides. She also did a fascinating presentation on bees and microbes which I will be doing a separate post on.

Comments from Becky Timmons

Alltech Robbie WalkerOur next speaker, Robbie Walker, is General Manager for Alltech Crop Sciences.

Robbie did a presentation during the Symposium on the five biggest threats to plant growth and yields. This is a growing area of business for Alltech and you will be interested to hear what he’s working on.

Comments from Robbie Walker

Alltech Dr. Alex YiannikourisMoving right along, we heard from Dr. Alex Yiannikouris who is Alltech Global Mycosorb and Analytical Research Director.

Alex along with our next speaker talked in the area of Life Sciences. His Symposium presentation focus was on “Detecting and mitigating the agents in air, water and food that lead to precocious puberty, male infertility and mid-life crises.”

Comments from Dr. Alex Yiannikouris

Alltech Dr. Ronan PowerThe Vice President of Life Sciences for Alltech is Dr. Ronan Power.

His focus was on the work Alltech is doing in regarding the metabolic basis of disease such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

Comments from Dr. Ronan Power

2014 Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Animal Health, Audio

Best Ways to Market to Millennials

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What is the best way to market to millennials? “

I think we all could have guessed that marketing online to millennials is used most often. Digital forms of media are easily in our grasp with smartphones, tablets and computers. However, I was surprised that radio beat TV.

Our poll results:

  • Online – 52%
  • Print – 7%
  • Television – 11%
  • Radio – 16%
  • Other – 14%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What features of MyNewHolland.com do you like?”

On April 22 New Holland North America launched MyNewHolland.com, an online destination for all things New Holland and open to all farmers. Current features include the ability to create an inventory of your equipment, a section on Precision Land Management, a Configurator tool to let you design your own configuration of new equipment you’d like to order, a topical discussion on ethanol which you are invited to read and comment on and more. More features will be rolled out in the future as the community grows. As the sponsor of our weekly ZimmPoll we’d like to get your feedback for New Holland on their newest announcement.

ZimmPoll

Register Now for the Ag Industry’s Premier HR Event

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2014-05-22 at 2.56.12 PMThe early bird registration discount ends June 13 for the AgCareers.com 12th Annual North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable. The event brings together human resource professionals, senior leaders, college/university career services and faculty, and association representatives to discuss recruitment and retention within agriculture and food.

This year’s Roundtable is August 5-7 in Minneapolis, MN., presented by AgCareers.com and hosted by CHS. Some of this year’s topics include agvocacy, recruiting and retaining talent in rural areas, strategic HR for multiple locations, reward and retention and overcoming challenges of connecting on campus.

The Ag & Food HR Roundtable is the premier North American event for HR and educational professionals that provides relevant content examining recruitment and retention specifically within the ag and food industry. The combination of HR and educational professionals provides a unique and rewarding networking experience found nowhere else.

AgCareers, Education, Events

School Lunch Food Fight

Cindy Zimmerman

schoolA school lunch food fight is underway between House Republicans and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee FY 2015 bill approved this week would establish a waiver program for schools having trouble with provisions of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) says the program is resulting in rising costs for schools and wasted food. “While we are concerned about the national problems brought on by childhood obesity, we also have to be sensitive to the challenges of local school districts,” he said.

Earlier this month, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) spearheaded a bipartisan letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack outlining concerns with the program. “The new rules and regulations are costing (school districts) upwards of $100,000 more a year,” said Davis. “What that means is that they can’t hire two teachers to teach classes … they’re asking for flexibility.” Rep. Rodney Davis comments on school nutrition program

Secretary Vilsack fired back today with a media call featuring retired military leaders to say that undermining the childhood nutrition standards would impact military readiness. He also refuted claims by members of Congress and others that the program is causing food waste, reduced school meal participation, and financial hardship for schools. “Bottom line, I don’t think that politics and politicians should trump good policy established by experts when it comes to the future of our children,” said Vilsack. Also on the call was a school food service director who talked about the success of the program in her district.

Those participating in the media call with Vilsack were William S. Wallace, General, U.S. Army (Retired), James A. “Jamie” Barnett, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired) and School Food Service Director Donna Martin of Burke County, Ga.
USDA School Nutrition media call

Audio, Food, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • Legend Seeds, Inc. announces completion of an internal restructuring designed to enhance efficiency of the organization’s corporate structure and to better align the company’s talent to their aggressive goals for 2015 and beyond.
  • Charting an important new course for the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA), Theo Camps has been designated inaugural chair of the organization’s first European Chapter.
  • In the fifty-fifth year of the program, 53 college students are exploring career opportunities as GROWMARK summer interns.
  • DuPont Advisory Committee on Agricultural Innovation & Productivity issued an updated progress report on the global food and nutrition landscape.
Zimfo Bytes

Corn Dogs Americans’ Regional Favorite Hot Dog

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2014-05-22 at 12.40.30 PMIn a new survey, corn dogs were the top dog at 46% among consumers who said they have a favorite regional hot dog. New York hot dogs topped with mustard and onions were the second choice at 38% beating out the well-dressed Chicago dog, which were tops among 26% of Americans with a favorite. Chicago dogs feature mustard, onions, relish, tomato slices, a dill pickle spear, a sport pepper and celery salt on a poppy seed bun.

The survey was conducted online in April 2014 among over 2,100 U.S. adults ages 18 and older by Harris Poll for the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC).

“Americans have long loved corn dogs at county and state fairs where they first emerged, but their national popularity surprised us. Historically, they faced tough competition from the hometown favorites in New York and Chicago,” said Janet Riley, NHDSC President and ‘Queen of Wien.’ “We clearly underestimated the allure of the deep fried corn meal batter combined with the snap of the hot dog.”

The difference might be generational, as polling found that among those that have a favorite, corn dogs were the clear favorite amongst 18-34 year olds, with 55 percent choosing corn dogs while for Americans between 55-64 years of age, New York hot dogs remained the favorite.

No matter the age or regional preference, hot dogs will be a popular choice for Americans this summer. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans are expected to eat seven billion hot dogs. Consumption peaks over the Independence Day holiday, when Americans are expected to eat 150 million hot dogs.

Agribusiness, Food, Pork

Alltech Young Scientist Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

Gillian JohnsonThis year over 8,500 students competed in the Alltech Young Scientist competition. That field was narrowed to eight who traveled to the Symposium to present their research papers to a panel of judges.

On stage today, Dr. Mark Lyons and Dr. Inge Russell presented the global undergraduate and graduate awards.

The undergraduate winner is Gillian Johnson, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research is on Novel β-Defensin Gene Cluster in Horses. She received a check for $5,000.

Lei WangOur global graduate is Lei Wang, West Virginia University, USA.

Here research was a molecular study of egg development in fish. She received a check for $10,000.

All the finalists received a trip to the Symposium and an iPad and trophy. The Twitter hashtag for the Symposium is #AgFuture. That’s very appropriate for this moment when we see Alltech supporting young scientists from all over the world!

2014 Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Education, University

Sky Drone Studios

Chuck Zimmerman

Sky Drone StudiosOne of my favorite lines from the Alltech Symposium presentations so far was said by Dr. Pearse Lyons on stage Monday when he asked if a drone could deliver him a beer. That did not happen but he was using it as an example of how we’re learning ways to use new technology like UAV’s to do tasks for us.

During Symposium I met Jeb Smith, Sky Drone Studios, who was displaying and demonstrating his drones and services. Jeb says he’s mainly been working with real estate projects but has also started doing more work with farms. He will take his equipment out to a property and fly it with high definition cameras charging a half day or full day rate. He will provide you with the raw data or edit it into a video presentation for you. He builds his own vehicles too.

I talked with him and got him to demonstrate one of his drones as you will see in the video below, taken with ZimmGlass.

2014 Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Uncategorized

Alltech Precision Agriculture Philosophy and Vision

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Karl DawsonChief Scientific Officer for Alltech, Dr. Karl Dawson, caught my attention with his presentation at the Alltech Symposium titled, “What if we put true precision in “Precision Agriculture?” The focus was on animal agriculture, something most people don’t associate with the term precision agriculture. But as you’ll hear him say in an interview I conducted with him it is a very alive and well term in the animal sector too.

Dr. Dawson says the idea behind precision agriculture “is to put together systems that are reproducible and very predictable so that you take a lot of the variability out of agricultural production.” At Alltech he says they’re putting this into practice in the area of feed evaluation. This includes looking at the whole process from crop to ingredients and mixes and what species the feed is intended for.

His vision of the future uses the “What If?” theme of the Symposium. What if you use this material, what will it look like at the end of the day. It’s all about predictive models based on enormous amounts of data processed by computers.

Interview with Dr. Karl Dawson

2014 Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Animal Agriculture, Audio

Alltech International Species Forums

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech International Species ForumsDo you have a favorite species? Aqua, Beef, Dairy, Equine, Pet, Poultry or Pig? At the Alltech Symposium this afternoon we have separate moderated forums taking place on each of these topics and one on Agribusiness.

These forums provide an opportunity for attendees to discuss issues with each other which makes for a more interactive experience than just listening to long form presentations. As an example, in the first part of the equine session before a scheduled break the discussion dealt with just one issue – selling high performance feed.

I’ve collected nearly 300 photos from this year’s Symposium and have several more interviews from today to share. The conference closes about mid day tomorrow. You can watch the closing session live starting at 8:30 am. It will feature the Alltech Young Scientist Awards.

2014 Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Animal Agriculture