Brownfield

Lunch with our founder

The Brownfield team has gathered in Jefferson City, Missouri for the Annual Retreat.  We take this time together to retool, bond, learn some new skills - and eat.  Today, Clyde Lear hosted a lunch for our team at the Jefferson City Country Club.  We posed for a quick picture before heading back to Learfield World Headquarters for our afternoon sessions.

Clyde started this company 35 years ago.  One of the group's favorite parts of the annual get-together is the opportunity to spend time with Clyde.

Pictured left to right:  Dave Russell, Kari McKinney, Tom Steever, Mike Cady, John Perkins, Bob Meyer, Jerry Passer, Julie Harker, Cyndi Young and Clyde Lear.

Brownfield is inside the Beltway

During the BASF Media Summit in Washington, D.C. Tom Steever has been busy getting the latest on products and technology coming from BASF.  Last night, political analyst Charlie Cook spoke to the group.  Thanks to Chuck Zimmerman for this pic of Tom hard at work interviewing Mr. Cook.

Tom is heading back west today to gear up for the Annual Brownfield Retreat which kicks off in Jefferson City, Missouri tomorrow at noon.

Tom's turn to head east

It is Tom Steever's turn to head east.  For the past three weeks, a member of the Brownfield team has been in the Washington D.C. area.  First Pete, for NAFB Washington Watch, then me for the Cross Species Emergency Preparedness Media Event at APHIS, and now Tom for the BASF media summit "Innovate 08, From Research to Reality."  Along with several key BASFers, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Bruce Knight, will be addressing the group of journalists participating in the event. 

Tom was in D.C. last month with Missouri Farm Bureau.

Learning together; eating together

Emergency preparedness sure builds an appetite!  A group of us who participated in the Cross Species Emergency Preparedness Media Day at APHIS Emergency Operations Center in Riverdale, Maryland enjoyed dinner at the Elkridge Furnace Inn, nestled on the Patapsco River.  The Inn was first established as a tavern in 1744.  An iron smelting furnace was added around 1750.   

Pictured left to right:  Joe Roybal, BEEF; Joe Vansickle, National Hog Farmer;  Dr. John Maas, IUC-Davis and beef producer; Cathy Maas;  Don Wick, Red River Farm Network; Pam Jahnke, WTDY Radio; Cindy Cunningham, Assistant Vice President of Communications, National Pork Board; Cyndi Young, BROWNFIELD AG NEWS;  JoDee George, Director Safety Public Relations, National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Emergency preparedness

What happens if a foreign animal disease such as Foot and Mouth appears in the U.S.?  For the past 7 years, representatives from the beef, pork and dairy industries have teamed up with USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to prepare for just such an emergency.

I had an amazing opportunity this week to visit USDA's APHIS Emergency Operations Center in Riverdale, Maryland.  The Cross Species Emergency Preparedness Team invited a select group of media in to the Center for an inside look at what would happen behind the scenes in the event of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD.) 

One of the highlights came in the afternoon when we participated in a unique table top exercise (the table top is pictured here) to get a better understanding of what would happen in the case of an actual confirmed outbreak of FMD.  We took a walk in the shoes of producers and first responders, making the decisions that affect the outcome of an outbreak scenario. 

 

Pete near the Potomac

I hope you were able to listen to some of Pete Shinn's reports from Washington, D.C. this week.  Each year, the National Association of Farm Broadcasters holds a Washington Watch event.  Over the course of a couple of days, broadcasters meet with various newsmakers in the D.C. area to get the most recent news on issues of interest to farmers and other listeners.  Pete filed I don't know how many reports from D.C.

Thanks to NAFB Executive Director Bill O'Neill for sending along some photos of our Pete in action!

Good timing for D.C. trip

The timing could not have been better for Pete's trip to our nation's capital as part of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Washington Watch.  Friday's news from Washington, D.C. that key funding issues in the 2008 farm bill had been resolved in a break-through between House and Senate conferees sets the stage for an interesting few days in D.C. for Pete and ultimately for our Brownfield Ag News listeners and viewers. 

Stay tuned for Pete's reports this week!

Food fight

Agriculture feeds the world.  This is not exactly new information, but it has become "news" in recent months for many of the "mainstream" media outlets as well as personal and business blogs.  We're covering the story, as we always have and will.  Bob Meyer's story yesterday focused on some of the factors causing higher food prices. 

Despite what consumer perception might be, not all farmers are profiting from the turning tide in commodity prices.  For livestock producers, feed costs have risen substantially.  Along with higher prices for corn, soybeans, and other commodities, growers are making much more significant financial investments in crop inputs such as seed and fertilizer. 

The Unites States of America still has the cheapest, safest food supply in the world.  Imagine what life would be like if we all had to spend our days hunting for our own food?  I prefer hunting by choice rather than out of neccesity.  I enjoy sitting back and watching the big wild Tom turkey do his dance instead of worrying about how many people the harvested bird will feed. 

End of an era

Derry Brownfield's final talk show from Learfield studios will air next month.  Clyde Lear, who along with Derry, started this company 35 years ago, writes about it in his blog.

Tip of the hat to ag influencers

We are so proud of our friends being honored by the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Alumni Association with the Award of Merit.  They will be recognized this evening during the Funk Awards Gala as well at activities going on throughout the day today.

Lyle Orwig, a 1974 Ag Communications graduate from Wales, Wisconsin, is the CEO of Charleston/Orwig Communications Company. 

Jon Scholl, a 1978 Ag Sciences graduate from Cooksville, Illinois currently serves as Counselor to the Administrator for Agricultural Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Duane Strunk, a 1963 General Ag grad from Champaign, Illinois, is president of Strunk & Associates Incorporated. 

Dr. Guy Johnson graduated in 1971 with a degree in food science and in 1976, with a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences.  The Kalamazoo, Michigan native is principal of Johnson Nutrition LLC.

Dr. Molly Cline, a 1978 plant pathology Masters degree grad, received a Ph.D. in plant pathology in 1980.  Molly is senior director of Global Industry Affairs at Monsanto in St. Louis where she is responsible for sugar industry relations on the emerging Roundup Ready technology for sugarbeets.

Each year, three to five alumni receive the Award of Merit.  Scanning through the list of past recipients, I recognized many who have influenced agriculture not only in the state of Illinois, but across the country and even around the world.

Board building

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting Foundation Board of Directors met in Kansas City, Missouri today.  The Foundation funds scholarships, internships, research, farm broadcasting college curriculum and other projects. 

Gary Baker, Ph.D., Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, Bloch School, UMKC, spent some time helping us get our arms around how we'll implement the new strategic plan we worked very hard and spent several months drawing up.  He liked our plan and had some great suggestions for us.

Gary told us that the roots of philanthropy in America go back to barnraising.  I thought that was a great connection since many of those who listen to us or partner with us in some way are the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren of those orginal philanthropists.

Many of us are here in KC for the annual National Agri-Marketing Association Convention which officially kicks off with "Best of NAMA" awards ceremony this evening.

(The NAFB Foundation Board is pictured here, left to right:  Ken Anderson, Ayres Kahler; Cyndi Young, Brownfield Ag News; Terry Henne, WSGW Radio; Randy Koenen, Red River Farm Network; Taylor Brown, Northern Ag Network; Katherine Trent, Katherine Trent, Ltd., Partnering in Agriculture; Greg Akagi, Kansas Ag Network; Hugh Whaley, Osborn & Barr Communications; George Logan, J/G Enterprises; and Bill O'Neill, NAFB.)

Navigation of website

"Wow, you sure have a lot of content on your website!" 

I hear that from a lot of viewers.  It is a good problem to have, but it can be a problem, because sometimes people have difficulties navigating the site to find the particular page or section for which they are searching. 

If you cannot find what you are looking for on the Brownfield Ag News website, contact me and I'll walk you through it. 

End of an era

This Friday will mark the end of an era.  The South Saint Paul Stockyards will hold its final sale.  Many on the Brownfield Ag News team have reported on livestock markets from that facility over the years.  Jerry Passer, the most senior of our team, shared some thoughts on the yards:

Growing up in Southern Minnesota I was very familiar with the South Saint Paul Stockyards. As a teenager I use to ride along with my cousin Maynard Passer when he delivered butcher hogs and cattle there in the late fifties and early 60s. It was a very busy place in those years. As a farm broadcaster in Austin, Minnesota I used to report the markets from South Saint Paul on a daily basis. I once received a call from a very upset lady because I called them the Saint Paul markets, she lived in St. Paul and said the stockyards were smelly and they were in South Saint Paul and people who lived in other parts of the city didn’t claim the stockyards. The last time I was there was about 30 years ago for the World Auctioneering Championships; Le Roy Van Dyke was there.

Thanks for stopping by

Thanks to all of you who visit the Brownfield website.  The latest report shows our visitor numbers and the number of times each of you visits, continues to grow each month.  During the month of March, 52,190 unique visitors stopped by the Brownfield website.   We hope you find what you're looking for.  If not, let me know and we'll see what we can do!

In no particular order. . .

In response to the post on this blog where I begged the question, "How many U.S. Agriculture Secretaries has Dave Russell had the opportunity to interview?" 

Dave has answered:  the number is 11.

Earl Butz
Bob Bergland
John Block
Mike Espy
Mike Johanns
Dan Glickman
Richard Lyng
Ed Madigan
Ed Schafer
Ann Veneman
Clayton Yeutter

That's an impressive list, Dave Russell!

Brownfield in action

Dave Russell has been busy covering the National Institute for Animal Agriculture Annual Meeting underway this week in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He said the speaker line-up and topics covered during this meeting are impressive.  You can hear for yourself by tuning in to your favorite local radio station or check for Dave's stories on the Brownfield website. 

Thanks to Ned Arthur with Truffle Media for sending us this picture of Dave Russell interviewing Dr. Ed Pajor, Director of the Center for Animal Welfare at Purdue University.

Dave interviews the Ag Secretary

I wonder how many U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture Dave Russell has interviewed in his tenure as an agricultural communications expert?  Add one more to the list. 

During the National Institute for Animal Agriculture meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, Dave interviewed Ag Secretary Ed Schafer.  The two main topics discussed were Schafer's committment to a voluntary National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and the long-term impact of the recent USDA Prospective Plantings Report. 

Nominated by President George W. Bush in October of last year, Ed Schafer was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture on January 29, 2008, just hours before the President's State of the Union Address.  Schafer is the twenty-ninth secretary of USDA and the third under the current President Bush.

This former governor of North Dakota was sworn in by Vice President Dick Cheney as Schafer's wife, Nancy, held the Bible.

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind

What goes around comes around.  I have no idea who coined that phrase, but it certainly applies to the use of wind power by farmers.

When I was a kid, one of the car games we played while traveling to a cousin's house on a Sunday afternoon was counting windmills.  Over the years there were fewer and fewer windmills dotting the Midwestern landscape and those that we would see were either in a state of great disrepair, or moved to someone's yard as an ornament.  In recent years, we've seen more and more wind turbines pop up across the country.

Bob Meyer, reporting from the WPS Farm Show in OshKosh, Wisconsin this week, did a story for the website featuring a gentleman from Lake Winnebago who is capturing wind energy.

If you click on the energy news category on the Brownfield website and type in wind turbines or wind energy, you will be directed to several stories on the topic as reported by the Brownfield team. 

Diamond Dave

Brownfield is a Diamond Level sponsor of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) Annual Meeting underway now in Indianapolis.  Since Dave Russell, our Indianapolis-based Brownfield Ag News team member is there covering the event and representing us, I thought the nickname "Diamond Dave" might be in order - at least for the week.

I applaud NIAA for daring to ask some basic questions:  What?  So what?  Now what?  Those questions are the focus of this meeting.   You can listen to Dave's coverage of the meeting on your Brownfield affiliate radio station and check for stories on the Brownfield website. 

Teres Lambert with NIAA posed for a picture with Dave Russell beside one of the sponsorship signs at the meeting. 

Brownfield supports animal agriculture

The National Institute for Animal Agriculture, NIAA, is meeting this week in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Dave Russell, our Indiana Farm Director, will be there covering the event and representing Brownfield Ag News.  Steve Kopperud, our Inside D.C. blogger is a featured speaker at the event. 

We are big fans of animal agriculture.  So much so that Brownfield Ag News is a Diamond Level sponsor for the NIAA annual meeting.