Hat Chat

The Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa has been hit with some heavy rains, but the show continues today and good crowds have turned out the first two days. Among the news coming from the show is a Roundup price cut announced by Monsanto. Jason Hoag is a DEKALB corn marketing manager. He told HAT, “When we look at the necessity to have a complete herbicide system, we’ve listened to farmer customers who want to make sure they’ve got the residual option, but they also want to make sure they’re in a place where they feel good about what they’re paying for Roundup. If you look at PowerMAX and WeatherMAX in terms of the performance they’ll deliver vs. some of the generic products in the marketplace, superior control, superior crop safety and some additional overall benefits, and then we wanted to complement that with providing a good total herbicide system for them and their Roundup Ready crops.”

Hoag also talks about early harvest SmartStax results in the HAT interview:

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A close look at the 2010 crop around Indiana reveals some good plants, but many that are stressed from adversity and weather extremes. The senior agronomist at Beck’s Hybrids says the stresses will amount to yields this year falling short of top end performance.

Denny Cobb says that also means USDA’s billion bushel Indiana corn crop projection isn’t likely to happen. “I guess I have a hard time squeezing my arms around that one,” he told HAT.

Cobb explained, “I think there are some good crops out there but it’s really a mixed bag, and I think we’re maybe a little on the short side. Probably the first two to two and a half weeks in August is what really took the top off of it here in Indiana.

Hear more with Denny Cobb here:

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The third Indiana National Guard Agriculture Development Team to Afghanistan deploys in a little under a month, and among its ranks is a familiar face to Indiana agriculture. Lt. Bart Lomont is the policy director for Lt. Governor Becky Skillman. But for the next year he will be in Khost Province focusing on ag marketing. Lomont tells HAT it’s “more of a public affairs role, but also from ag broadcasting and providing them where they can find markets and discovering prices. Where we’ll be is only three to four hours from Kabul but they have no clue what wheat should be going for in the major cities or the markets there.”

Lomont is originally from near New Haven in Allen County where his father still operates a grain farm. He graduated from Purdue with an agricultural economics degree.

His career in state government got its start when he approached Skillman at the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry. “I just went up to her, kind of cold calling her, thanking her for all she and the governor did for agriculture. They’re a great team for Indiana agriculture.

In the HAT interview during training at Purdue in July Lomont talks more about Afghanistan and his plans upon returning to Indiana next year:

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Two Iowa egg farms have recalled eggs tied to salmonella illnesses in several hundred consumers, but an Indiana official says eggs here are safe.

Paul Brennan is the Executive Vice President of the Indiana State Poultry Association. He told HAT, “There have been eggs shipped from these concerned flocks in Iowa to Indiana, very few, and as I understand it they’ve all been withdrawn. So people should feel confident that the eggs in Indiana are safe. None of the eggs in question came from Indiana producers, either in state or out of state.”

With the onset of this round of Salmonella enteritidis in eggs, some are now questioning what they call an under, or even unregulated industry. Is the egg industry regulated? Brennan says, “Oh my gosh, yes. It’s highly regulated, both by FSIS, the Food Safety Inspection Service at USDA, and by the AMS at USDA, and also the FDA. So three agencies right there, and that’s just part of it. But from a food safety standpoint those are the three main agencies.”

(Brennan is pictured with a Chinese tour guide while in Beijing with the Indiana Ag Trade Mission.)

Listen to the entire interview:

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Agriculture continues to be an important part of the Indiana State Fair, although as Don Villwock says, there was an even greater emphasis on agriculture at the state fair many years ago when the ag population was higher. But the Indiana Farm Bureau president says now the fair is even more important for farmers. “Today when consumers are really disconnected from modern day agriculture, they don’t understand us. They don’t understand what it takes to feed this growing world population that we have, that farmers really, truly care about their farms, about their soil, about their water, about the air, and about how we take care of our animals. We truly are champions of animal care, and the state fair is a great place to showcase that to our urban friends and neighbors.”

The 2010 fair concluded Sunday. During the Farmers Day pancake breakfast Wednesday Indiana Farm Bureau presented $3,000 to the Indiana FFA Foundation. The donation is just a small part of their consistent commitment to FFA.

Don Villwock explains in the HAT interview:

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The Indiana State Fair moves into its final three days today and assessments of the Year of Pigs theme indicate it has been a success. Mike Platt, Executive Director at Indiana Pork says the theme has been a tremendous draw for the fair. “We’re getting comments from people all over the state that they’ve gotten a lot of good feedback locally about Year of Pigs,” Platt told HAT. “They’re coming here to see all the fun activities and different interactive exhibits, and absolutely to eat the good food. Garbage Burgers are flying off the shelf. We’re delighted with that as a menu item and it’s kind of fun to have that as the signature dish of the year.”

The chance to be the signature commodity of the Indiana State Fair, and benefit from all the great PR, was a very timely opportunity for the state’s pork producers. Mark York of Wabash County is the group’s president.

“The last two years we have lost a substantial amount of money with the markets, with H1N1, with the economic downturn,” he explained. “The perfect storm came together and obviously we’ve returned back to profitability the last 3-4 months, and we’re starting to heal some wounds. What a fitting place to be able to profile pig as an agricultural commodity at the Indiana State Fair. So we’re excited about it, very thrilled.”

Andy Eubank spoke with York on opening day of the fair:

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Gary Truitt got comments from Mike Platt Wednesday, Farmers Day:

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On Farmers Day Wednesday at the Indiana State Fair Lt. Governor Becky Skillman presented the 2010 AgriVision Award to JoAnn Brouillette of Demeter LP in Fowler. The award is presented to a Hoosier demonstrating exemplary leadership to maximize the potential of Indiana Agriculture.

Brouillette is the Managing Partner and President of Demeter LP, a company started in 1944 that today operates grain facilities and commercial warehousing. Skillman said she and her family have been pillars of Indiana agriculture.

“I met JoAnn almost immediately upon becoming Lt. Governor,” she told HAT, “and she’s been a great partner in so many of the state’s initiatives, in addition to serving on our advisory board to the state department of agriculture.”

Brouillette was honored to be placed in the same company as previous AgriVision award winners. “Oh it’s an incredible honor. I feel very humbled and honored, particularly to be named with the likes of the Sonny Beck’s, the John Swisher’s, and the Shorty Whittington’s and Brian Reichart’s of the world.”

In the HAT interview, JoAnn talks about the history of Demeter and the future for Indiana agriculture:

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The queen reigning over the Indiana State Fair has proven to be a real natural, whether she is speaking in front of large groups, waving the queen wave, or in the ring with livestock and exhibitors. Denae Pyle, a Purdue University junior is from Kosciusko County, and grew up on a hog farm. So it is quite fitting that the 10 year 4-H member exhibiting pigs all those years is queen during the Year of Pigs.

The most memorable part of traveling nearly 8200 miles across the Hoosier state during her year-long reign has been seeing Indiana’s diversity. “When you don’t have the chance to travel across Indiana you aren’t able to see that, and I have been so lucky and blessed that I have been able to see the diversity of landscape, the diversity of crops that we have here, the diversity of agriculture, and also the diversity of people that we have across Indiana.

Listen to the Denae Pyle interview here to learn more about this year’s queen:

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Hoosier Ag Today was proud to participate in the sale, helping to purchase the Champion 4-H Yorkshire Barrow, exhibited by Holly Hopkins of Parke County. Her animal sold for $14,500. Money from the sale helps 4-H members attend college, purchase future 4-H livestock projects, and develop careers. In addition, the Indiana 4-H Foundation also receives a portion of the proceeds.

Courtney Maxwell, a 13-year-old Porter County 4-Her, sold the Grand Champion 4-H Steer for a record $42,000. “Indiana 4-H is my life, and completing my life goal at my age is amazing,” a teary-eyed Maxwell said. “I’d like to thank my supporters and my family for helping me throughout this journey.”

Dan Baker attributed the increase in bidding to a growing appreciation of the value of the 4-H program and a willingness to invest in the future of rural Indiana. Baker told H AT moving the sale to Saturday night also helped, “We had one of the largest crowds tonight we have ever had for this sale.”

HAT talks with dan Ba ker after the sale

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Farming is what Louise Beaman and Carolyn Hegel know and love, and Friday Purdue Extension honored the women for their lifetime of contributions to Indiana farming and Purdue University. Beaman received the Purdue Women in Agriculture Achievement Award, and Hegel received the Leadership Award.

“I’m just so happy with this,” Hegel told HAT. “I thought as I was accepting it I was accepting it for all the many, many farm women in our state who are advocates for agriculture every day.”

Hegel is the former Indiana Farm Bureau 2nd Vice President. She says women in ag are being taken a lot more seriously, largely because they are so well prepared when speaking to the public. “One of the first meetings I ever spoke to a group for Farm Bureau I looked out and saw someone writing down what I was saying. I made a commitment at that time to always be sure I had accurate information. And our farm organizations are so adept at providing information for people, for farmers, to go out and be the spokespeople for agriculture.”

Beaman is on the executive committee of the National Council forAgriculture Research, Extension and Teaching, known as CARET. That position has made her quite familiar with Washington DC.

“We have 2-day meetings bringing us up to date on the budget and the climate in DC, and then we visit all of the senate and representative offices all in one day. We tell them why we think it’s so important that we get proper funding for the research, the extension, and the teaching, the three components for all of the land grant system. Of course here it is Purdue University.”

Learn more about this year’s winners:

Carolyn Hegel

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Louise Beaman

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