The national Common Ground conference took place in Washington D.C. last weekend. The event, sponsored by the United Soybean Board and the National Corn Growers Association, was created to help farm women learn how to better communicate with urban women about the safety and security of their food. “The ideas is that women are the primary grocery shoppers in the …
Ethanol, Media & RFS Focus of Ethanol Report
With the Iowa caucuses coming up February 1, the Hawkeye State has been inundated with both candidates and reporters, and ethanol has become a topic for mainstream media to report about, often inaccurately. In this Ethanol Report, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen discusses the inaccurate terms being used to describe the RFS, urges the media and …
A Zippy 500th ZimmCast
We wanted our 500th ZimmCast to be something special so we felt it appropriate to spotlight the new president of the American Farm Bureau Federation who has a name that is sure to be unforgettable – Zippy Duvall of Georgia. Duvall, who served as president of Georgia Farm Bureau for nine years, was elected as AFBF’s 12th president at the …
#SHPsummit16
The 2016 Soil Health Summit was held in Indianapolis January 21-22. The Soil Health Partnership, is a National Corn Growers Association Initiative, with Initial Support From Monsanto and The Walton Family Foundation and with technical support from The Nature Conservancy. SHP has a goal to learn more about soil health and share the information with farmers. 2016 Soil Health Summit …
Happy N Month
Nitrogen is one of the most important inputs for growers so with the new year and preparing for the coming growing season GROWMARK has proclaimed right now N-Month. GROWMARK Director of Strategic Agronomy Marketing Lance Ruppert says this is a good time of the year for particularly corn farmers to take some time to consider strategic ways to manage nitrogen …
ZimmCast All About Spuds & Politics
In this week’s program we meet John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council who speaks about policy issues and Blair Richardson, President & CEO of the United States Potato Board, who unveiled the Spud Nation Food Truck. Chuck Zimmerman met both of these guys while covering the Potato Expo last week for his first time. Listen to this week’s …
Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit 2016
The 10th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit took place January 19 in Altoona, Iowa with record crowds. The day was kicked off by USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. Other notable speakers included Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) who gave the keynote as well as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds. Of note, during …
Isreal Reopens for US Beef Imports
This week’s audio report from the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) discusses Israel’s recent decision to reopen to US beef. This will be the first time the country has allow US beef imports since December 2003, when the first confirmed case of BSE in the United States led many countries, including Israel, to suspend imports of U.S. beef. Israel is …
Real Growers Discuss Experiences with Liberty Link
If you listen to farm radio you probably have heard spots for Bayer’s LibertyLink system. Last fall they included promotion for the RealYield game which ended December 31, 2015. Those commercials, moderated by Cindy, came from real interviews with real growers like Reid Atha from northwest Missouri. Here is a full interview instead of just a sixty second spot. Cindy …
Barnstorm Helps Growers Share Their Stories
What does reputation have to do with farming and ranching? Actually, a lot! The folks at Osborn Barr truly believe it and have launched Barnstorm, a site solely dedicated to helping farmers and ranchers share their story, build their brand and establish a trusted reputation. Karen Pfautsch, Director of Barnstorm, sat down with cattle producers during the recent Missouri Cattlemen’s …
Vilsack Talks Trade, Climate & SOTU
USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack held a press call yesterday to discuss President Obama’s last State of the Union (SOTU) address. Vilsack, who has served in the capacity of Ag Secretary throughout Obama’s Administration, said he is very proud to have been part of an administration that has basically taken the country from a brink of an economic collapse to …
Dairy Strong 2016
The second annual Dairy Strong conference, held in Madison, Wisconsin, began its first full day with an opening address from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker’s speech highlighted the value of Wisconsin’s dairy industry, which represents over half of the state’s 80 billion dollar agriculture sector. Walker also addressed a worrisome trend that many agriculture professionals know too well: The demand …
#PotatoExpo 2016
It is potato time in Las Vegas: Potato Expo 2016. The annual event features world class experts in potato production, research and marketing. The goal is to discover new ideas and share business solutions with growers from across the globe. One of the first events was the SPUD NATION THROWDOWN COOK-OFF. The live competition features the top three finalists of …
NCBA Pre #BeefMeet Webinar
Join National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for their “Know Before You Go” pre-convention webinar to learn about meetings and events you don’t want to miss during the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. Get oriented to the location, hear meeting highlights, learn about “new” events for 2016 and more. This is a great resource for you to get answers to questions …
US Beef, Pork Exports Remain Strong
This week’s United States Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Audio Report discusses a few highlights from the November 2015 export results for U.S. pork and beef. November was a very strong month for pork muscle cut volume and combined pork/pork variety meat exports were also up. U.S. beef exports were down slightly from November 2014, but also posted their largest volume, …