New Holland Agriculture has a new President and CEO. He’s Barry Engle. He starts his job on September 8. That’s the position that was assumed on an interim basis a year ago by CNH President and Chief Executive Officer Harold Boyanovsky.
“Barry Engle has extensive international management experience and an impressive record of results. We are pleased to welcome him,” said Boyanovsky.
Engle has worked in the automotive industry since 1992, holding a variety of positions with Ford Motor Company in North America, Latin America and Asia. Most recently he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ford of Canada.
New media, social media, whatever. On August 6, I participated in the first Aggie Lance Social Media Tele-Seminar. Besides company President, Mark Jewell, I was joined by John Blue, Truffle Media Networks and Liza Markle, National FFA.
We had a lively discussion, talking about using new media in agricultural communications, including why you should be doing it now. You can download and listen to the Tele-Seminar with this link. (wma file) I’ve already discussed making these mp3’s btw.
Perhaps you’re still wondering if your company or organization should be getting involved in new media. One of our recommendations is to start participating yourself (Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, YouTube) to become personally familiar with it. I just saw some interesting new data on how Inc. 500 companies are making use of social media. Here’s a chart comparing their use in 2007 (green) with 2008 (blue). You can click on the image to see a bigger version of it. Research Highlights:
* Four out of five companies in the Inc 500 rate social media technology as important or very important;
* 21% of the companies are podcasting and 39% blogging;
* The number of companies blogging and podcasting has doubled in the last year;
* The Inc. 500 are adopting new media technologies much quicker than Fortune 500 companies.
The research suggests that companies that are using social media & new media technologies are growing faster than other companies.
Liza Teixeira is the new Public Relations Specialist for the California Strawberry Commission.
In her role, Teixeira will provide support for media relations, industry communications and public outreach. Teixeira, a 2008 graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, received her degree in agricultural science with minors in agricultural communications and agricultural business. Born and raised in California’s Central Valley, she is familiar with all aspects of the ag industry. She will use her background to relate with the changing needs of the industry and its members.
Commission marketing & communications director, Mary De Groat said, “Having grown-up surrounded by agriculture, Liza personally understands the challenges farmers face every day. She brings knowledge, communication skills and a built-in instinct for representing the industry that will certainly help achieve the Commission’s goals. We are very happy to have her join our team.”
New Holland’s new line of Discbine® disc mower-conditioners features the latest advances in disc cutterbar technology: the MowMax™ modular cutterbar with the protection of ShockPRO™ disc drive hubs. These features, standard on all H7000 Series Discbine disc mower-conditioners, ensure a cleaner cut, reduced operating costs and less downtime.
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. announces that it has received approval from the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to market the Ingelvac® CircoFLEX-MycoFLEXTM combination package to protect pigs against both porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers announces the latest winners of its annual Student Engineering and Mechanization Awards. The awards recognize outstanding initiative and accomplishment in university student branch activities of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Click here for the full list of winners.
Syngenta Crop Protection announced that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation approved Platinum® 75SG insecticide for use on brassica vegetables, bushberries, cucurbit vegetables, fruiting vegetables, grapes, leafy vegetables, potatoes, root vegetables, strawberries, tobacco, and tuberous and corm vegetables. Platinum 75SG controls more than 30 sucking and chewing pests with minimal impact on beneficial insects.
One of the key people involved with the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Seminar was Gary Robertson. He’s the brand manager for Ingelvac MycoFLEX. You can actually see him sitting in the back left part of this picture during the presentations.
Gary says they’ve been very fortunate to obtain CircoFLEX in ‘06, MycoFLEX in ‘07 and just recently, Ingelvac CircoFLEX-MycoFLEX in ‘08.
Since this “combo package” is brand new I asked him what makes it possible. It’s all in the adjuvant which is also part of the FLEX platform. It’s called IMPRAN FLEX. Gary says this is an aqueous-based polymer adjuvant which is very safe and easy to use. He says it’s been very successful and refreshing to the industry to have a safe product for two problem diseases. He also says they’re working on new FLEX products, so I’m sure we’ll hear more about that in the future.
You can listen to my interview with Gary here:
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A very important component of a swine herd management plan is nutrition. Boehringer Ingelheim’s Swine Health Seminar featured nutritional consultant, David Funderburke. He and his wife have their own business, working with large producers domestically and internationally.
In his presentation, David said that producers need to apply the technology that’s available and “push the limits” so they can capture as much value from feed as possible. Since his clients have different commodity positions and are different in the types of risks they’ll take, he says he tries to fine tune their feeding programs to fit both their personality and what’s going on inside their operation as far as costs and budgets.
Looking forward he says the cost of energy to produce a pig is going up so he says we need to find more ways to release energy from feed. He encourages producers to look at alternative energy sources.
You can listen to my interview with David here:
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You know that any company with national sales/technical support services looks at their folks as all “on the team.” According to Doug Nold (left), Boehringer Ingelheim has been team building.
Doug has 32 years experience in agribusiness and joined the BI team recently. One of the reasons he says is because he likes their commitment to the industry which he thinks is “outstanding.”
He says that BI has tripled the sales force they have in the field while also adding to the veterinarian group. Many of those people are experienced talent from within the field. Doug says they all have a common “passion to succeed, which mirrors BI’s intent.” This growth in their team, he says, has allowed them to do more work one on one and establish relationships with customers and their businesses.
You can listen to my interview with Doug here:
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Dr. John Kolb is a professional services veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim. He was on the program to talk about Ingelvac MycoFLEX.
John says it’s a unique product designed to be a single dose member of the FLEX family. Because it’s part of the FLEX platform, he says it’s easy to combine with another product like CircoFLEX. This is due to the special adjuvant used by the platform.
He says that this product provides producers with a good single dose option to treat mycoplasma hyopneumoniae while allowing other treatment options to be included if needed.
You can listen to my interview with John here:
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Ingelvac MycoFLEX offers the flexibility to be administered to pigs as early as 3 weeks of age (weaning), providing protective immunity throughout the grow-finish period. Depending on your vaccination schedule, Ingelvac MycoFLEX also may be administered later in the nursery. Appropriate timing of vaccination is dictated by the exposure patterns of mycoplasma in your herd. Vaccination with Ingelvac MycoFLEX should be placed at least 2 weeks prior to onset of exposure to Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae or at least 5 weeks prior to the onset of seroconversion. It is recommended that you work with your veterinarian to determine the optimum timing of vaccination for your herd.
Tropical Storm Fay has certainly changed my plans this week. Instead of being in a plane on my way to Ft. Myers, FL for the Florida Citrus Expo, I’m staying home. The final word on the status of the event is pending the next forecast this morning but it doesn’t look good.
I spoke with Gary Cooper, President, Southeast AgNet, on my way to the airport this morning and he said, “Turn around.” Good call I think after looking at the latest NOAA projection map. It looks like it could go right over top of the show site. Updates on the situation are being posted on the Citrus Expo website and on Southeast Agnet.com.
I was going to be part of the team down there blogging the event and also spending some time with Gary’s staff continuing some new media training. I’m sure that opportunity will arise again.
So, what do I do now?
Post Update: Here’s the decision on the Florida Citrus Expo:
AS OF 8:20 a. m. Monday August 18, 2008:
Citrus Expo has officially been cancelled due to the latest weather forecasts related to Tropical Storm (possible hurricane soon) Fay calling for a pending landfall in the area over the next couple of days. The Lee Civic Center concurs with this decision.
Further information will be posted to this website in coming days and we will be in contact with exhibitors, speakers and vendors directly. This is a final decision and official notice, Citrus Expo has been cancelled for this week.
We greatly regret this decision and have waited as long as we feel we should to see if the storm would take a stronger turn either west or east to allow for the event to go on. Without any assurances of either, we are left with no other choice at this time. We apologize for the inconveniences this will mean for many, but it is a situation totally out of our control.
I’m seeing new media presentations on more and more programs these days and last week’s NAMA Boot Camp was no exception. Erin Holt, Media Supervisor, Martin Williams, was on the program with a presentation titled, “Cool Interactive Ideas.” So I sat down with her to learn about her ideas when it comes to using new media for her clients.
Erin talked about new media, including blogging, podcasting, social networking, widgets and video. Her theme was “being in surprising places” and “talking to your customers in a new way that’s going to be memorable for them.” Words like Twitter are dear to her heart.
I asked her for an example of how they’ve used new media for a client and she used Pfizer Animal Health, equine division. The agency developed a desktop widget for customers called the “Frame Your Horse” widget. This was for a fly control product with parameters tied to weather and location. So those information pieces were incorporated into the widget since they’re items people want on a regular basis. Essentially, the customer can download the widget, customize it with a picture of their horse and get information they want that is mixed with a product message. They’ve had about 4,000 downloads in just over 2 months.
Getting demographic data on users is a challenge with new media. Erin says they were able to collect some data and that they view this campaign as a test case. She recommends doing some up front testing with the target group to help build confidence in the campaign direction and specific new media tool.
I asked her about client acceptance of new media and she says it’s all over the board. Some clients base judgments on their own personal media use so she says it’s the job of the agency to educate them and show the value of new communication technologies. I like her way of handling the fact that new media mechanisms usually reach fewer people than traditional media. She says the numbers are smaller but the composition is higher. You’re, “talking to fewer people, but the right people.” The number one question she gets from clients is are they getting value for their investment.
The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. Since I just attended a swine health seminar you get to listen to “Pearls and Swine” from Drunken Prayer. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 183 (14 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
In addition to pork producers, a number of veterinarians attended the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar. I spoke with Dr. Randy Jones who has been in practice in eastern North Carolina for 23 years. I first asked him if he thought his local BI Rep, Dan Johnson, was doing a good job and he said “He does a great job.” Dan has played a big role in putting this event on, along with a lot of other people and I would echo that.
Randy says “I think it’s always good to get all the segments together.” He says this event has been growing and it sure sounds like it has. He says that the impact of the global marketplace has become an issue that all producers face here in the U.S. Input costs are the number one issue but disease is also big on the minds of producers with PRRS still the top of that list.
When it comes to advice for producers he says, “You have to have a plan and stick to it.” He says “you’re going to fail,” but it’s his job to minimize those failures. When it comes to looking ahead he says people have to eat and there’s more and more of them so he thinks the industry will work its way through the current tough times.
You can listen to my interview with Randy here:
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The numbers man on our program at the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar was Dennis DiPietre. He specializes in consulting with the swine industry and is a “headliner” for SwineCast.
Dennis was here to look at trends that are developing like the shifting global marketplace. He sees changes happening in the advantages producers have had in both the low cost of feed stuffs and the intrusion of governments that are taking away feed stuffs for other purposes like biofuels. When it comes to handling diseases, he says BI has had some spectacular success with some like Circovirus which is extremely devastating not only due to economic loss but also since it’s so demoralizing. Until recently there was nothing that could be done. He also is seeing an increase in concerns for the welfare of the animals.
When it comes to what producers are talking to him about, he says it’s mostly the high cost of feed grains. He says, “We really have record high pork prices right now but it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s profits in the industry.” He says it’s a very unusual time. So going forward he says the name of the game is “risk management.” Producers want to protect a margin regardless of the level of prices.
You can listen to my interview with Dennis here:
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Participants in the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar had options today to play golf, go fishing or a couple of others. I chose fishing.
Early this morning our first stop was netting some live bait before heading out off the beaches of Carolina Beach. We fished for several kinds of fish but what we caught in our boat was grey sea trout. Others got flounder, mackeral and even a snapper.
You can see photos from this morning’s water activity in the photo album.
The Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar is about over for the day. We’re getting ready to break after all the presentations. I’ll have more of them in the coming days.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a real family affair. One of the activities available was manicures and pedicures. I walked by the rooms where these were set up and found that they were pretty busy. Lots of customers.
I know that the folks at Boehringer Ingelheim feel like they get as much from the opportunity to interact with their customers here at the Swine Health Seminar as they hope their customers get from them. Several on the BI staff have made that comment.
So, I’ve made sure to interview a few of them, like Bill Van Staaldvinen (left) speaking here with Dr. Dennis DiPietre (more on him later). Bill is a production manager for a large operation and he’s based in Washington, NC. He really likes this seminar. It’s his fourth one and he says he always takes something away with him.
When I asked him about being able to interact with other producers he says that’s one of the best parts of the event. He says, “When you hear that someone else tries this and it works, you’re willing to try it.”
You can listen to my interview with Bill here:
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I couldn’t be there for my good friend, Mike Gustafson’s retirement party but that doesn’t mean there aren’t pictures!
Mike is retiring from John Deere and I’m betting it was a great party. I’m not sure what the whole ribbon on the name badge thing is all about. Could someone enlighten us? Just post a comment.
If you would like to leave Mike a note, please feel free to write a comment and I’ll make sure he gets them. I’m guessing he’s got more time to “head out on the highway, looking for adventure.”
After talking with Dr. Steve McOrist I’m betting that the United States could win a gold if there was a swine competition in the Olympics. That’s because he says that the U.S. has a number of advantages over other countries when it comes to pig production. For example, he says we’ve got a good backup system for vaccines and technological and nutritional support as well as breeding programs.
A key point he made in his talk here was that producers are relying on the tools available and that they should be looking forward with a good risk management program in case the number of those tools gets smaller. If products get removed from the market then fewer choices to fight a disease will mean increased chances for disease resistance. So he says, “Be prepared to think about risk management.”
You can listen to my interview with Dr. McOrist here:
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Dr. Mike Roof is Executive Director of Bio-Research for Boehringer Ingelheim. His job today was to provide an overview of where the company is on the PRRS issue (Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome). He says it’s still the big problem disease and he wants producers to know that BI hasn’t given up on it. He also wants producers to know, “There’s no magic bullets for PRRS. There’s going to be incremental progress over the next few years.”
Mike says that “I learn more from these meetings than I give out” when I asked him what he’s hearing from participants. He says there’s two main things. Producers want to know about the timing of vaccine use and about maternal immunity.
Mike also says that BI is working on ten new vaccines outside of PRRS and has a growing R&D group in cattle.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Roof here:
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I made it to La Ceiba on the north coast of Honduras. The city is much more set up for tourists and I was able to wander into a local resort and get a good enough connection to load some more video. Finally! So, for those of you interested in getting a better look at the ag program Billy Collins is running for the indigenous Chortí Maya living in Western Honduras, here’s video of Billy giving an impromptu tour of the training farm:
The Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar is more than just a conference for producers. It includes their families. So while they are learning more about their industry, other activities are taking place like t-shirt tie-dying.
Here’s an example of what some of the young people are doing out by the pool. In addition to tie-dye, there’s also face painting and even manicures and pedicures. Of course, there’s also the beach and the pool.
Maybe we’ll get done early enough today for a little pool time.
New Holland Agriculture has a new President and CEO. He’s Barry Engle. He starts his job on September 8. That’s the position that was assumed on an interim basis a year ago by CNH President and Chief Executive Officer Harold Boyanovsky.
New media, social media, whatever. On August 6, I participated in the first 
Liza Teixeira is the new Public Relations Specialist for the 
One of the key people involved with the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Seminar was Gary Robertson. He’s the brand manager for Ingelvac MycoFLEX. You can actually see him sitting in the back left part of this picture during the presentations.
A very important component of a swine herd management plan is nutrition. Boehringer Ingelheim’s Swine Health Seminar featured nutritional consultant, David Funderburke. He and his wife have their own business, working with large producers domestically and internationally.
You know that any company with national sales/technical support services looks at their folks as all “on the team.” According to Doug Nold (left), Boehringer Ingelheim has been team building.
Dr. John Kolb is a professional services veterinarian for Boehringer Ingelheim. He was on the program to talk about 
Tropical Storm Fay has certainly changed my plans this week. Instead of being in a plane on my way to Ft. Myers, FL for the Florida Citrus Expo, I’m staying home. The final word on the status of the event is pending the next forecast this morning but it doesn’t look good.
I’m seeing new media presentations on more and more programs these days and last week’s NAMA Boot Camp was no exception. Erin Holt, Media Supervisor, 
I asked her for an example of how they’ve used new media for a client and she used Pfizer Animal Health, equine division. The agency developed a desktop widget for customers called the 
In addition to pork producers, a number of veterinarians attended the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar. I spoke with Dr. Randy Jones who has been in practice in eastern North Carolina for 23 years. I first asked him if he thought his local BI Rep, Dan Johnson, was doing a good job and he said “He does a great job.” Dan has played a big role in putting this event on, along with a lot of other people and I would echo that.
The numbers man on our program at the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar was Dennis DiPietre. He specializes in consulting with the swine industry and is a “headliner” for 
Participants in the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar had options today to play golf, go fishing or a couple of others. I chose fishing.
The Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar is about over for the day. We’re getting ready to break after all the presentations. I’ll have more of them in the coming days.
I know that the folks at Boehringer Ingelheim feel like they get as much from the opportunity to interact with their customers here at the Swine Health Seminar as they hope their customers get from them. Several on the BI staff have made that comment.
I couldn’t be there for my good friend, Mike Gustafson’s retirement party but that doesn’t mean there aren’t 
After talking with Dr. Steve McOrist I’m betting that the United States could win a gold if there was a swine competition in the Olympics. That’s because he says that the U.S. has a number of advantages over other countries when it comes to pig production. For example, he says we’ve got a good backup system for vaccines and technological and nutritional support as well as breeding programs.
Dr. Mike Roof is Executive Director of Bio-Research for Boehringer Ingelheim. His job today was to provide an overview of where the company is on the PRRS issue (Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome). He says it’s still the big problem disease and he wants producers to know that BI hasn’t given up on it. He also wants producers to know, “There’s no magic bullets for PRRS. There’s going to be incremental progress over the next few years.” 
The Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar is more than just a conference for producers. It includes their families. So while they are learning more about their industry, other activities are taking place like t-shirt tie-dying.
Cool Interactive Ideas in new media was the topic of a NAMA Boot Camp presentation by Erin Holte, Martin Williams.
