Brownfield

Traveling with CSIF

I've been quite busy with the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers "Doing it Right Farm Tour."  Instead of blogging here, I've been focusing my energies on that project.  Check it out! 

NAFB staff visits our newsroom

We (Brownfield Ag News) are hosting a National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Regional "Grow Your Business" Seminar tomorrow.  A few of the NAFB staff and Marketing & Promotions Advisory Board stopped by this afternoon for some set-up work.  They posed for a photo with the hard-working Brownfield Ag News staff.

Pictured L-R:  Katie Allen, Brownfield; Tom Steever, Brownfield; Cyndi Young, Brownfield;  Jeremy Povenmire, NAFB Member Services Manager; Mike Parry, NAFB Marketing Specialist; Kyle Bauer, Chariman NAFB Marketing & Promotion Advisory Board; Bill O'Neill, NAFB Executive Director; John Perkins, Brownfield; Julie Harker, Brownfield. 

Start your engines

Dave Russell is spending an awful lot of time at the track this week.  The racetrack, that is.  The Fastest Rookie Lunch, hosted by the American Dairy Association of Indiana and Hoosier Dairy Farm Families, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the place to be Tuesday. 

This year's Fastest Rookie Award was presented to Hideki Mutoh, who Dave interviewed and wrote about on the Brownfield Ag News website.

Earlier today, Dave sent an email to the rest of the Brownfield Ag News team.  It said:

I'm heading to the Speedway to see if I can still qualify for the race on Sunday.  I'm thinking it woudl be good exposure for Brownfield to be in the race.  I'll probably be in the back row and expect to get lapped several times the first lap.  But hey, the fans will be able to read the Brownfeild logo when I fly down teh front straight at 80 mph.

Thanks Dave.  You're always willing to go the extra mile (or should I say lap?)

The 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 is coming up Sunday.  It's a tradition at the racetrack for the winner to drink milk. 

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.

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.

KMMO Ag Day Celebration

Each of the past 23 years, anyone who listens to KMMO is invited to lunch on an area farm to celebrate National Agriculture Day.  This year's event was held at the Larry and Beverly Holland and Daughters Farm near Marshall, Missouri.  The youngest daughter, Lynn Thompson, farms with her parents, growing row crops - corn and soybeans - and backgrounding cattle. 

The 23rd Annual KMMO Agriculture Day Celebration was a huge success.  I LOVE this event.  Brian Sowers, Farm Director at Brownfield affiliate KMMO is a true ambassador for the ag industry and serves his listeners very well year-round.   Huge crowds show up.  They are fed well and hear from a top-notch line up of speakers. (Brian always invites me to speak, too, which is an honor.)

This year, the keynote speaker was Missouri Director of Agriculture Katie Smith.  The execs for Missouri's state pork, cattlemen, corn and soybean associations spoke as did several local dignitaries. 

The Holland's posed for a picture with the speakers immediately following the event.

NASCAR and Iowa Corn

Two time Indy 500 champion and television’s Dancing with the Stars winner Helio Castroneves along with NASCAR great and designer of the Iowa Speedway at Newton, Rusty Wallace, made a three stop flying tour of the Midwest on Wednesday. The two were promoting the Iowa Speedway 2008 schedule. Castroneves is scheduled to racing the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 22 at Newton.

Representatives of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board joined the duo for the Des Moines appearance. Wallace told Brownfield’s Jerry Passer at the Cedar Rapidsstop they enjoyed a great relationship with the commodity group’s involvement in the Speedway.

Both Wallace and Castrovenes said they were very pleased with the performance of ethanol in the Indy series cars, and Wallace said he hopes NASCAR will also use the fuel in the future.

Celebrating with Missouri Corn Growers

Julie Harker had a working/celebration lunch today.  She and Tom Steever attended a 30th anniversary luncheon for Missouri Corn Growers Association.  They interviewed several key industry leaders and dignitaries, including Gary Marshall, CEO of MCGA.

Corn is Missouri's second largest crop in production, producing nearly 300 bushels of corn annually.  There are some neat/fun corn facts featured on the Missouri Corn Growers website:

From a bushel of corn you can make . . .

• 32 pounds of starch, OR
• 33 pounds of sweetener, OR
• 2.8 gallons of ethanol fuel AND
  11.4 pounds of gluten feed AND
  3 pounds of gluten meal AND
  1.6 pounds of corn oil.

Corn, making the products we love better!  In the average supermarket, more than 4,200 products contain corn.  It is difficult to go through a day without having corn involved in some part of your day's activities.   Some of the many products produced using corn include:  ethanol, livestock feed, clothing, detergents, shoe polish, paint, ink, glue, batteries, fireworks, crayons, paper, lotion, aspirin, toothpaste, alcohol, licorice, canned goods, marshmallows, and soda.

Covering ag events

Whew.  We have been B-U-S-Y.  Dave Russell (pictured here editing audio for a Brownfield agribusiness news report) and I were busy covering Commodity Classic in Nashville Tuesday - Saturday of last week.  This was one for the record books.  Record farmer attendance, record number of trade show exhibits and record media attending.  Next year will be even bigger as they add National Grain Sorghum Producers to the mix of national commodity groups participating (along with corn, soybean and wheat groups.) I sure hope you have had the chance to check out our online coverage at BrownfieldAgNews.com.  It's pretty extensive!

Pete Shinn was in Las Vegas to report from the National Farmers Union meeting and is now attening the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) being held at the U.S. Capitol.  There are delegates from 150 countries attending.

Tom Steever is headed to St. Louis later this week to cover National Pork Industry Forum.

Be sure to tune in to your local Brownfield affiliate radio station to listen to our coverage from these and a gazillion more events!