Brownfield

Lunching and learning

Katie Allen and Julie Harker attended an event at Echlemire Dairy Farm near Fulton, Missouri today.  This was the second in a series of "Lunch and Learn" sessions that will be held across the state this summer to give policymakers and community members the opportunity to learn about production agriculture.

The Big Pig Gig

Years ago, a group of us covering World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa dubbed it "The Big Pig Gig," so that is how I fondly refer to the largest pork-related event held in the U.S.A.

Tom Steever and Pete Shinn are reporting from WPX  on line at a special events page on our website, in addition to reporting for the Brownfield Ag News radio network. 

One of our good affiliates, KGRN in Grinnell, Iowa is represented at the event by Ed Clayton.  Tom caught up with Ed in the media room at Expo where both were editing audio from interviews they had conducted earlier. 

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days around the corner

Marshfield, Wisconsin-based Brownfield Ag News team member Bob Meyer was among a group of Badger-state media to attend Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Media Day Tuesday.  Here's what he had to say about it:

Wisconsin media got a little preview of the 2008 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days on Tuesday.  It was media day at Country Aire Farms just outside Greenleaf in southern Brown County.  One of the nicest aspects of WFTD is that the shwo moves around each year giving us a chance to see agriculture in different parts of the state.

Bud and Ione Gerrits and their family are hosts this year.  Bud's grandfather purchased the original farm just west of Greenleaf in the 1930's and milked 18 cows.  Bud and Ione purchased it in the late 1960's and pushed the herd to 70 cows, then expanded to 200 in the early 1970s.  Eldest son Tom returned from college in the early 80's and joined the farm, expanding to 400 milk cows.  Son Mike is also in on the operation today that milks nearly 2,000 head and runs 3,600 acres.  What is really impressive is that this is kind of an "average" farm in the area.  Within a 5 to 6 mile radius there are more than 15,000 dairy cows.  All state-of-the-art, well-kept operations.

What really makes this unique is this is an area where population growth and urban sprawl are prominent, just south of Green Bay and just east of Appleton.  Yet it seems the urban areas have realized the importance of agriculture.  Both the Brown County Executive and the Mayor of Green Bay were at today's event, voicing their support for Country Aire Farms, their farmer neighbors and Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.  The show runs Jully 15, 16 and 17 and if today is any indication, it is going to be a good one.   

Farm Radio stronger than ever

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting Summer 2008 Regional Seminar wrapped up a few minutes ago at Brownfield Ag News headquarters in Jefferson City, Missouri.  Mike Parry, NAFB Consultant, Sterling-Krystel LLC, presenter and facilitator for the day, reviewed Waves 1 and 2 of the NAFB 2008 National Producer Media-Use Study.  The study, conducted by AMR was quite positive for farm radio.

According to the study:

• Farm Radio is stronger than ever.  In this age of information, farm radio has emerged as the primary source of informaiton with growth in all leading categories
• Farm Radio is the medium of the future.  Younger, high-income, Internet-savvy producers are using farm radio at higher levels than older farmers.  These young producers also rely more on their farm broadcaster for information than older farmers do.  Younger farmers are reading less and spending more time with radio and internet.

There's a lot more information, but I thought those were 2 good takeaways from Waves 1 and 2.  Wave 3 data will be released later this year.

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. 

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.

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!