I think I forgot to mention that on Tuesday we went and toured the Pioneer test plots and looked at a "fast corn" greenhouse. It was pretty interesting to learn more about their hybrids and how they set up their plots. They have corn varieties from all different parts of the globe in their test plots and arranged in a really cool way so that you could go through everything by continent. The soybean research is not as vast, but they still do quite a bit and are still working on eliminating rusts and molds there. The greenhouse part was pretty darn interesting. They have this couple million dollar greenhouse that is completely automated where they grow corn. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it but you could see the robots moving the potted corn around and on coveyor belts. It was pretty neat. They use the greenhouse to manipulate different growing environments like drought and rain. They can also bring in a machine from the national weather service that manipulates winds and hail. So anyway- that was cool and super interesting although we decided that they definitly weren't telling us the whole story because they said that they just test plants that they think should go on trial in that greenhouse..pretty sure there is more to it than that. As far as names that I couldn't remember...we had a speech from Brian Buckallew from Pioneer- he also stayed with us all week and helped with lagistics. We heard from Chad Gregory from the EPC, then on Tuesday Denny Harding was the man from Iowa Farm Bureau. We heard from Chris Novak at the Iowa Pork Board...he was super into himself and pork (after all he was the CEO). But, I thought his talk was rather obnoxious and then to top it off they made me do the thank you! lol We heard from the North American vice pres. of sales fro Pioneer, Jodd O'Connor and then listened to Jim Wiesmeyer speak on Informal Economics. Debbie Lyons-Blyth was the gal that spoke to us about "agvocating"- she was really good. So here are some fun facts that I wrote down from the above speakers: Chad Gregory tought on some advocation facts and spoke about the poultry industry. In 1976 there were 10,000 egg farms in the US in 87 there were 2500 and in 2010 we only have less than 200! The laying industry is trying to go to a more modernized caging system that allows more room for the hens but it is extremely expensive and groups like HSUS are making this extemely difficult because they don't htink it's good enough- they want free range. This is the most inefficient way of raising layers and has the highest death rate with the dirtiest eggs...Did you know that HSUS had $131 million on reserve and $196 million in assets?? They have 11 million members and 470 employees. They employ 112 lawyers...yes 112 and counting- hence why people think they are so credible. We talked about prop. 2 in Ca that is going to completely abolish their egg industry and and for all those CA folks out there...we (the US) still buys "caged eggs". This proposition is not going to effect how eggs are produced...only where they are produced at. The facilities that HSUS consider healthy cost apptox 10-13mill per farmer. Now that's realistic. Here are a copule random facts he closed with...80% of items on Walmart shelves are produced in China and in 2007 the US became a net importer of food for the first time ever!!! Ahhhhhh!!! Basically, we need to advocate for our industry because "by the time you need friends...it's too late to make them."
Ok- I'll quit ranting- here are some short facts about IA Farm Bureau. 80% of Iowa farmers belong to it and that Iowa is the first in the nation for ethanol and biodiesel production. In addition, it's the second highest in wind production but the 10th windiest state. So in short, nice work Iowa! We didn't get much else out of that guy because he was too political to answer our questions about ethanol efficiency and and sugar cane ethanol...
The pork board shared some info about their checkoff programs Pork Quality Assurance which was made to help ensure farm food safety and help to continue to do so. The folks that went ot the soybean council and beef council shared that 96 percent of farms are still family owned in the use...thought that was interesting as well.
Jim Wiesemeyer talked to us for quite some time and he is a journalist with opinions but what he shared were facts. I won't write much becasue this is taking forever but here are some highlights. We need to up our food output by 50% by 2030 or 70% by 2050 using the same or even fewer resources than today. ...therefore it's not easy. He talked about the emerging business environment and how important it is for us to watch China. He said to check out the book "World after America"- if you want some interesting reading I bet it'll supply it. We discusses what Obama is (more like isn't) doing for our industry and touched briefly on the next farm bill which plans to ax $5.2billion dollars in direct payments. We also discussed how hard it is to pass government regulations anymore- part of this problem is that it takes 2x as long to get a GMO (genecically modified organism) approved than it does to get a non GMO apprved.
Finally, we heard from Debbie Lyons-Blyth. She told us how imporant it was to "Agvocate" and how to actually go about doing that. The problem with us ag folks is that we advocate to one another and don't get out to the general public. 95% of American's actually want to believe farmers and ranchers so it's best we get out there! Check out www.humaewatch.org for some good agvocation info.
But anyway, I left off at Wednesday:
We got up and ate and headed to Pioneer. Our first speaker was Becky Harstad from South Dakota (past state officer) and she spoke about commodities. Some of the kids were way ahead of her and others were way behind so it was hard to do, but she got the point accross. She basically focused on the importance of understanding futures and options trading and why we do it. I understand most of it after taking a marketing class and really actually enjoyed the review from her talk. I would definitly consider hedging some commodities someday- as long as you understand the risk and know what you're doing you can minimize a lot of issues. Then, after a short break we heard from John Buck. He is a farmer from Ohio that spoke about sustainability and the leadership that we need to continue to be the grassroots group that we are. He had some great stories and super fun information. Check out youtube.com and put in "shift happens". It's just a really interesting video on statistics that I have seen a couple times- it's not just ag, it's a general one that is super fun and interesting! I enjoyed his talk but the day moved on. We did some small group work and thought about our vision statments. I finally had a chance to brainstorm and actually write down what I envisioned that farm as eventually. So, we got a small start on that and then went on to eat lunch at Pioneer and left for some operational tours.
We had two groups. One group went to Barilla Pasta and Louis Dryfus (ethanol plant) and my group went to Ag Leader Technoly and Bridgestone/Firestone tire plant.
We had a super cool tour at Bridgeston/Firestone. They had us put on safety glasses, ear plugs, steel toe things that go over your shoes, and then we got a cool radio thing so we could hear them give the tour through the plant. We went through the plant and learned all sorts of things about how tires are made. The plant was 40 acres big and yes, that is huge! We saw everything from the liquid hot rubber with the poly and wire that get's pancaked between sheets of rubber and went all the way through to the final tire cooling and warehouse. So the dies and casts that they put the final wrapped tire product in before it gets molded costs about $300,000
to $500,000 depending on size. They can only produce like 5-12 of the huge size implement tires per day because it takes that long for them to be molded and cooled. Hence, why tires are so expensive. I now undestand. It was a pretty cool process to see and very impressive how they wrapped the bead with so many layers of rubber before it got put back into the mold of the tire. Fun fact, those little tiny "nipples" or spiky things that are on your tires when you first get them- they are only there because there are tiny little holes in the mold for air to get through. As a result, you get these little spikes. I just thought that was super ridiculous and funny since I never did know what the point was. After that tour we went to Ag Leader Technoloy and learned all about all of the up and coming precision technology offered to agriculturists. That was really interesting to me because I have no experience with the gps monitors for planting and harvesting or the EZ steer controls.
Finally, we left Ag Leader and went to a farm on the outskirts of town where the Case IH implement dealership had brought out a ton of new equipment and tractors! Woo HOo! Talk about heaven on earth. I'm pretty sure I will never sit in that new of a tractor ever again. First, we ate pork chops and tasty HyVee catering sponsored by Case IH. They split us up into three groups and we spent some time at one spot talking to a guy about input costs and how to lower them with new technology and row spacing. The next station was all about their new tillage and planting systems and we went through a couple that they had there. Finally, we got to ride around on Scouts with Agri-GPS's hooked up to them. We plotted out some fields and they showed us how you can determine yeild and all sorts of fun things. I really like learning about that. One of the guys in my group actually knew more about the GpS stuff than the guy driving did so it was hillarious to watch them interact! Then, our last stop was at the combine where we pretty much listened to a combine expert tell us all the ins and outs...awesome. After we rotated through we all sat down and did a final talk with them. I did the big thank you to them in like a split second. They gave me the gift to give them and before I could even think they gave us teh option to either run around and play with tractors or sit and listen to them for another 10 mins. Of course, we picked that tractors so I just did it off the cuff. lol- it tured out just fine. We finally boareded up the bus and went back to the hotel. That night, I went out with some people to a bar connected to the Quality Inn. If you can imagine the quality of a bar that has kareoke every night... yeah. It was fun none the less. We sang some kareoke and I made sure they all got back ok. I don't drink, but sometimes it's just fun to go out and watch people and their ridiculousness. So, I finally got back into the room and got stuff ready for the next day and headed to bed. I was obviously tired, but it was an awesome day and I learned sooo much! PS. we got loads of free stuff! the Firestone people gave us mouse pads and paper, pens, and super awesome hats! We tried to get some tires from them but no luck! haha!! Then, the Case IH people gave us awesome draw string bags full of awesomeness...a cup, pen, pin, hat, t-shirt, 1/16th scale combine, license plate cover, lanyard, and a bunch of other stuff! O so cool.
Ok- it's time to finish this!
"By the time you need friends...it's too late to make them."
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