Brownfield

Fastest Rookie

Dave Russell was drinking milk and having lunch with Indy 500 rookies Tuesday at the Brickyard!

For the 35th year, the American Dairy Association of Indiana honored the Fastest Rookie in the Indianapolis 500 during at lunch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year’s fastest rookie is a 27-year old Brazilian, Raphael Matos. Raphael’s 4-lap average speed was 223.429 mph. As the fastest rookie, Raphael received a check for $5000 and his name on a trophy that will be displayed at the Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum.

In addition to the Fastest Rookie award, the American Dairy Association of Indiana, represented by dairy farmers and Milk Promotions Services of Indiana Board members Sam Schwoeppe and Franklin Weaver, will again this year be in Victory Lane to hand the winner of the Indianapolis 500 a cold bottle of milk, at tradition that goes back over 50 years.

Visiting Indiana Farm Bureau

I 'm spending the week in Indiana with Brownfield's resident Hoosier, Dave Russell.  We spent some time today at Indiana Farm Bureau offices in Indianapolis where we visited with Public Relations Team Leader Andy Dietrick.  We also stopped in to see Mike Baise, Director of Issues Management for IFB. 

Mike is an old friend to both Dave and me.  He was the Assistant Director of Agriculture in Illinois from 1986 to 1994, serving with Directors Larry Werries, Jack Rundquist and Becky Doyle.  I was farm director at WJIL in Jacksonville and later at WTAX in Springfield during Mike's tenure at Illinois Department of Ag.

Mike and I both grew up on family farms in neighboring counties in west central Illinois.

Pork managers in Florida

 I am in southwest Florida this week for the 2009 Pork Management Conference.  About 100 pork industry folks are here to participate in what has so far been an excellent program.  Presenters yesterday included Kirk Ferrell, VP of Policy for the National Pork Producers Council; Lee Fuchs, VP Capital Markets for FCS Financial; Chris Hodges, Sr. VP, Fresh Pork, with Farmland Foods; and Steve Meyer, Ph.D., President of Paragon Economics, Inc.

It should come as no surprise that one of the topics of discussion here is H1N1 virus and its economic impact on the industry.  Kirk Ferrell told attendees yesterday that he gives the Obama Administration an A+ for the manner in which it handled getting the message out that pork is safe to eat and there are no cases of  this strain of flu in pigs in the United States.

The conference continues through noon tomorrow.  I am scheduled to speak to the group late Friday morning.

One of the perks of my job is the opportunity to witness such glorious sights as this sunset over Sanibel Harbour near Ft. Meyers, Florida, from my hotel room window. 

-Cyndi Young

They call the thing rodeo

I've interviewed presidents, congressman, foreign dignitaries, country music stars and famous athletes.  Today, I interviewed my first professional bull rider!

The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) Built Ford Tough Series tour heads to Iowa’s Wells Fargo Arena May 8 and 9.  The 2009 Genuity Invitational marks stop no. 21 on the PBR’s elite tour.  For two action-packed performances, the top 40 bull riders in the world will take on their animal counterparts.

I caught up with J.B. Mauney (pronounced Moo-ney) on his way to the airport headed for western Massachusetts.  J.B. just happens to be ranked 3rd in the series and is PBR's version of a rock star.  The 22-year old from Mooresville, North Carolina confessed that his mom still covers her eyes when she watches him ride.  He's been riding pro for 4 years but had his first riding experience on a sheep when he was 3 years old.  Although his dad didn't ride bulls, he did rodeo.

J.B. is a left-handed rider. His first season was in 2006 where he finished 25th in the world standings and also won the Daisy Rookie of the Year award. He finished in 3rd place in the 2007 BFTS World Standings. Mauney received the highest score in the Championship Round of the PBR World Finals, scoring 92.75 on the bull “Copperhead Slinger."

Mauney finished the 2008 season in second place, riding 59% of his bulls for the season and winning nearly $500,000.

I also caught up with Dion McBay, U.S. Traits Marketing Lead for Monsanto, to get an update on Genuity, to talk PBR and to learn why Genuity and PBR are a good fit.

-Cyndi Young

Cyndi Young's interview with J.B. Mauney (9:14 min., mp3)

 
Cyndi Young's interview with Dion McBay (8:41 min., mp3)

All a-twitter

Twitter, FaceBook, blogging, podcasting, texting and a whole lot of other topics were part of a discussion at National AgriMarketing Conference in Atlanta, Georgia Friday morning. 

David Brazeal, General Manager of Learfield InterAction (part of the Brownfield team) was a panelist during a very insightful session Friday morning at NAMA.  Despite the fact that most people stayed up WAY too late at the Brownfield party the night before, there was not an empty seat in the room and the conversation was engaging. 

Ag marketers rock out with Brownfield

Wow.  What a fun evening the Brownfield advertising sales team along with President and COO Roger Gardner; Chairman of the Board and Founder Clyde Lear; President of Learfield News Stan Koenigsfeld; and I, Cyndi Young, Brownfield Farm Director; had hosting our agrimarketing partners at the annual NAMA Brownfield party!  We had a full house at the Atlanta Hard Rock Cafe.  The band, Party Nation, entertained us and we enjoyed the company.

And the winners are...

The Best of Show announced during Best of NAMA awards program last night include:

• Advertising: AGCO Application Equipment Division; agency: Bigelow Advertising
• Public Relations: Syngenta Crop Protection;  agency: Gibbs & Soell and Martin/Williams
• Specialty: Valent USA; agency archer>malmo

Congratulations to all.

In Atlanta

I arrived safely and with 100% of my luggage (I only checked one small bag, but it still cost $15) in Atlanta this afternoon for the National Agri-Marketing (NAMA) Conference.

Most of the McCormick Company team headed for NAMA was on the flight with me from Kansas City to Atlanta this morning.  We arrived on time and took the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) train from the airport to the Marriott Hotel where the convention is being held.

I registered and ran into several of our marketing partners and other agriculture industry friends, and it looks like a very good crowd is in attendance.

NAMA Conference begins Wednesday in Atlanta

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Conference is this week in Atlanta, Georgia.  Solutions with Sizzle is the the meeting theme.  The conference is designed with the agrimarketer's needs in mind.  Breakout sessions will cover topics such as Creating brands people love, The larger grower's perspective, Performing under pressure, Social media, Powering up your career, What's hot in media research, and Thriving during times of uncertainty.

The conference kicks off Wednesday evening with the Best of NAMA Awards program.  Awards are presented in 61 categories with three Best of Show awards given for advertising, public relations and companion animal/turf & ornamental work. 

Thursday morning during the opening general session, NAMA will recognize an Agribusiness Leader of the Year and NAMA Marketer of the Year.  

NAMA Student Chapter members from colleges across the country participate in a marketing competition.  Each team has developed a comprehensive marketing plan on a specific topic of their choice.  This is a great exercise in marketing and networking.  The student competition finals are held on Thursday afternoon.

For I don't know how many years, Brownfield has hosted a big party at NAMA Conference.  This year's theme is ROCK at NAMA.

Paul Roberts, Roger Gardner, Jeff Moore, Anita Vanderwert, Lauri Bonnot, Stan Koenigsfeld, and me, Cyndi Young, look forward to seeing all of our advertising partners attending NAMA at our annual party Thursday, April 16 at 9pm!

Bayer CropScience continues to grow

With an aquisition announced today, Bayer CropScience will develop new seed treatment solutions for corn, soybeans and cotton as well as soil applied applications for use on fruits and vegetables.

Not even a week after the 2009 Bayer CropScience Herbicide Innovation Tour concluded in Frankfurt, Germany, the company has announced it acquired certain assets and technology related to biological development products of Agrogreen, Ashdod, Israel.  According to a company release:

Through this acquisition Bayer CropScience expands its broad range of crop protection solutions with biocontrol agents which offer further value added for is customers and provide the company with interesting growth opportunities in the seed treatment market. The company also sees good prospects for use of these biocontrol agents by turfgrass professionals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dr. Rüdiger Scheitza, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG and responsible for Portfolio Management, comments: “Bayer CropScience is very well positioned in its core crop protection business. With this acquisition, we further strengthen our portfolio with innovative and unique crop protection solutions to help safeguard harvests and increase yields.” Mr Avraham Kuznitski, Chairman of the Minrav Group, stated: “It is exciting to see this biological technology and the products developed by Minrav being acquired by Bayer CropScience. We are convinced that our technology will be an excellent fit with the Bayer CropScience´s portfolio.”

The acquired assets include products marketed under the brand name BioNem (active ingredient Bacillus firmus), reducing nematode populations and root infestations in the soil, while stimulating increased yields.

BioNem is currently registered in Israel for use in cucumbers, eggplant, pepper, tomato, almond, apricot, olive, peach, plum, pomegranate, major herbs, flowers and garlic. Based on this Bacillus Firmus as a mixing partner, Bayer CropScience