Brownfield

Celebrating Beef Month

May was Beef Month, and Joe Milledge, President and General Manager of KIIC-FM, Thunder Country Radio at Albia, Iowa knows how to celebrate it. Joe teamed up with the Iowa Cattleman’s Association and the Monroe County Beef Producers to serve over 400 burgers to truck drivers dumping corn at the Cargill Grain Processing facility in Eddyville, Iowa.

Joe issued an invite to Brownfield to be a part of the event. So I jumped in the SUV and traveled to Eddyville, not really sure what to expect. But never one to turn down a great burger I arrived at the plant with camera and appetite in hand. WOW, about 475 trucks were expected through the probe station that day. The truckers loved it, some just took their burger and continued through the station, while others dumped their corn and came back to relax at the tables and visit.

KIIC a Brownfield affiliate had speakers set up at the site and truckers were able to listen to many of the Brownfield programs KIIC carries. Milledge carries nearly every program Brownfield offers and had high praise for the programming.

Thanks Joe, I will be back next year.

-Jerry Passer

The Grain Board Blog

The U.S. Grains Council communications department recently launched a new blog.  “The Grain Board”  was created to serve as an open forum to discuss the latest trade developments, U.S. agriculture, Council happenings and whatever else comes to mind.

Check it out: http://www.thegrainboard.com/.

Tales from Texas

I had a great time in Austin, Texas, covering one of the USDA’s NAIS listening sessions.  This was the third of several meetings where anyone with an opinion on the National Animal Identification System could voice their concerns and suggestions.  It was a diverse group, from the small farmer who direct markets his beef to the medium-sized hog farmer to the large-scale rancher and feedlot operator.  Everyone had a chance to speak and their comments will be transcribed by the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) as part of the official record.  Once all the NAIS listening sessions are held, and USDA tells me more are being planned, all comments will be combined and given to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack for his consideration.

I had the good fortune to be able to stay with relatives while in Austin and get an up-close look at this awesome capital city.  My cousins, Erick and Trevor Allen, who grew up in Austin, showed me the sights.  I also got to see Trevor’s nine-year-old daughter Katie play two volleyball games and Erick’s son Foster play the trumpet in the middle school band concert.  Let me tell you - Trevor, Amy, Langley, Katie, Erick, Marshall, Foster, and Riley - these are good people!  

-Julie Harker

 

Alice in Dairyland

Alice in Dairyland?  Don't you mean Alice in Wonderland?  No.  If you are a Wisconsin, you know that Alice is one of the most recognizable spokespersons of Wisconsin agriculture.  Alice in Dairyland is a public relations professional working for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. She travels throughout the state, nation and world to promote Wisconsin products to audiences of all ages, educating the media, youth and civic groups about the many facets of the state's agricultural industry. 

Brownfield's Bob Meyer has worked with the Alice program for many years.  When Wisconsin selected a new Alice in Dairyland last week, Bob Meyer was there.  I asked him to tell us a little bit about his involvement over the years:

I have been involved with the Alice in Dairyland program for a long time.  Over the years, I have interviewed “Alice” on numerous occasions.  I have been on the preliminary selection panel once and the final selection panel once.  I have emceed the finale program twice.  Counties bid to host the finals so it moves around the state each year.  This year we were in Racine County, next year it will be in Rock County.

In 1993 we decided to do our morning “Daybreak” program live from the Alice in Dairyland finals and feature the then-ten finalists.  Starting at 5 a.m., the candidates sat down to the microphone to talk about themselves and why they wanted to be “Alice”.   That first broadcast originated from the headquarters hotel on Friday morning of the finals and the judges listened to the live broadcast in their hotel rooms.  In 1998, the broadcast was moved to Thursday morning to accommodate an on-the-farm dairy breakfast scheduled for Friday morning.  Over the years, the broadcast originated from hotels, radio stations and even the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture one time.  Because of some logistics problems in 2006, the interviews were pre-recorded on Wednesday for airing on Thursday morning of the finals.  With the end of the “Daybreak” program in June of 2008,  this year the interviews were recorded on Wednesday and posted on the Brownfield website.

One of the great aspects of this program is these are people who become heavily involved in agriculture  which means in most cases, you will see them often down the road.  Just to give you an idea of where some of the former Alices are now:  Debbie Crave and her family will host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days this year on their farm.  Lisa Behnke runs the media room at World Dairy Expo, Shari Hicken is the P.R. person for Wollersheim Winery, Jill Makovec is an account executive for Learfield we have even sent some to other states in an effort to upgrade the world, Amy Fischer is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

-Bob Meyer

The new Alice in Dairyland is Cheryl O’Brien of Eastman, Wisconsin. 

 

Yellow Top

Driving across Illinois on I-70 last week, I spotted field after field with what I thought I recognized as Wild Mustard weeds growing among last fall's corn stalks.  As I drove further east into Bond County and then on through Effingham County, I almost had myself convinced I was seeing blooming canola fields.  From the Interstate, the thick growth of yellow-flowered plants appeared to be planted in rows. 

But alas, I called a farmer friend from the area and he assured me the yellow "fields" were indeed what many refer to as Yellow Top, or Wild Mustard.

The weeds appeared to be growing in rows because they had come up from seed in no-till corn fields and had grown tall enough that you could not see the buckled corn stalks.  Wet conditions had kept farmers out of the fields so burn down had not yet begun.

I asked my farmer friend about burn down and he said, "Well, we're going to have to look at them for a while because they are a big plant and it takes a while to go down."

I pulled off at the Vandalia, Illinois exit to photograph a field of wild mustard that will - hopefully - be a soybean field later this year.

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.

Go Lady Hounds!

We are so proud of Megan Russell (Brownfield Indiana Dave Russell's daughter.)  The University of Indianapolis Lady Greyhounds played in the Midwest Super Regional (Sweet 16) this past Friday and Saturday.  They played Saginaw Valley State in a  best 2 out of 3 series for the right to advance to the Division II College World Series in Salem, Virginia. Guess what?  THEY WON.  Dave Russell is a proud dad:

The Lady Greyhounds are going to Salem, Virginia. YES! They are in the Division II College World Series. I am so excited for these young ladies!

-Dave

Congratulations from Brownfield Ag News.  We'll be rooting for the Lady Hounds!

Indiana AgriNews visit

Jim Henry, Executive Editor of Illinois AgriNews and Indiana AgriNews along with Whitney Cole and Katie Nickas, Field Editors, welcomed me to the Indianapolis Indiana AgriNews headquarters today. 

I've been writing a column for Illinois AgriNews for almost 7 years now and we see the AgriNews editors out covering many of the same agricultural events that we cover for our listeners and web viewers in Illinois and Indiana.

Stay tuned, there could be another partnership in the works. . .

A visit from the American Soybean Association

We were pleased to get a visit Thursday from American Soybean AssociationPresident Johnny Dodson and ASA Communications Director Bob Callanan.  We showed them around and then talked to Johnny concerning a wide range of soybean industry issues.  The reason he was able to get away is that rain has stalled his field work where he farms north of Memphis, Tennessee.  After getting 400 acres of corn planted, he hasn’t been able to plant the remaining 100 acres.  He’d usually have all his cotton planted, but hasn’t started that nor has he planted any soybeans.

-Tom Steever

College classroom experience

Dr. Paul Walker, Professor of Animal Science at Illinois State University teaches a class on Beef Issues.   The class focuses on the history and major events that have helped shape the beef industry, from the 1970's through today.  Paul invited me to come and speak to his class Friday.  I talked about some beef industry issues that have become "news" for mainstream media to cover, with most of my focus on the animal rights movement.

 Some of the issues covered in the class include:
NAFTA
Obama Policy
Farm Bill
Ethanol
Branded Beef
Captive Supply
NAIS
Premises registration
COOL
Legislative topics
Animal rights/animal welfare