For Erin Jarolimek, being a member of a student NAMA chapter definitely helped her get a job after graduating from North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D. She graduated in May, 2003.

“I use the skills I learned as a NAMA member every day in my career,” Jarolimek says. “Being a member provided me with good foundation skills and the networking opportunities made me more confident that I could do well in the job market.”

Membership in a NAMA student chapter allows students to network with professionals and develops skills in marketing, communication, leadership and team-building. As the name implies, the organization is focused on marketing.

NAMA has approximately 3,500 student members globally, and includes 38 U.S. and Canadian chapters.

Despite the benefits, offering and participating in NAMA can be challenging and requires considerable resources, says Cheryl Wachenheim, NDSU Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics associate professor. To develop recommendations to help NAMA chapters grow and thrive, Wachenheim surveyed NAMA chapter advisers.

“My goal was to develop recommendations to help student chapters maintain and grow their viability as co-curricular activities,” Wachenheim says.

From the survey, Wachenheim was able to develop plans for advisors and universities to boost student NAMA memberships. She also developed a series of recommendations for professionals in the agri-marketing industry.

* Get to know the students in NAMA and make approaching you easy for them.

* Help faculty recruit students and encourage/entice them to be active in the student and professional NAMA chapters. Let students know you care they are participating and that you and your firm value their efforts and experiences.

* Help the students finance their activities because the activities, such as attending the national conference, can be an insurmountable expense for many students.

* Contact the dean of the supporting college or the chairman of a department. This can do wonders for gaining internal support for the student chapter. Write the president of the college explaining how important a student NAMA chapter is to you, your firm, community, profession, university and the students.

* Make sure your firm knows the benefits of your participation with a NAMA student chapter. Receiving recognition for your interaction with the chapter will help sustain it over the longer term.

“Becoming involved as a professional can take time out of our busy schedules, but seeing the students mature and develop skills is very rewarding,” Jarolimek says. “As professionals in the agri-marketing industry, we want to hire the best and brightest students out of college. Hiring students that were active NAMA members will give us these types of students.”

To learn more about student NAMA chapters and find the one closest to your community, visit www.nama.org/student/student-index.html.

Thirty-six members and guests of the MoKan NAMA Chapter met at Union Station on Nov. 14, prior to the kick-off of the NAMA Agribusiness Forum in Kansas City. 

Attendees enjoyed a buffet lunch followed by the program with featured speaker Bill Horan, a producer from Iowa and Board member for the Truth About Trade and Technology.

Horan said he and his brother use the same approach to farming that Wayne Gretsky used to play hockey. Gretsky tried to move where he thought the puck would be not where it currently was, and Horan said they tried to make business decisions based on where trends were headed not where they currently were.

Horan went on to say that knowledge, information and relationships were more important in farming today than capital. He also talked about identity preserved crops and the biodiesel industry, as he has invested in both technologies.

Join MoKan NAMA on December 13 for an evening meeting on ethanol.

Three agricultural marketers spoke about their success working with the emerging rural lifestyle market for 20 North Central NAMA members at the Nov. 9 meeting. The panel included: Jim Estrom, co-owner and sales manager for Northfield Tractor, a John Deere dealership in Northfield, Minn.; Craig Gustafson, retail manager for six Federated Co-op outlets in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin; and Roger Olson of the Rural Lifestyle Media.

“There’s excitement, hope and optimism about what’s happening in rural America which has experienced the first population increase since the 1930’s,” Olson stated. He offered some selected demographics defining the rural lifestyle market as a special sneak preview of the first ever national rural lifestyle study just completed by the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. He added, “We’re all collectively learning and defining this audience.”

Gustafson detailed how understanding demographics was behind Federated Co-op’s decision to demolish an idle grain elevator, building an 8,000 square foot retail country store operation in its place. He explained that the new country stores use clinics on various topics to bring in rural lifestyle customers with a great deal of sales success. “We generally end up selling them more for their acres than what they originally come in to purchase,” he advised. 

Both Gustafson and Estrom agreed that service is a key for the rural lifestyle marketplace. Asked about competing with big box retailers for equipment sales, Estrom responded, “With equipment, service has always been most important. For example, we offer extended store hours during peak times and even weekend emergency service.”

Thanks to Josh Krenz of Land O’Lakes for meeting arrangements at the Agricultural and Food Science Academy, Vadnais Heights, Minn. NAMA members enjoyed a spread of hors d’oeuvres and sweet treats prepared for them as a project of the food processing class. The Academy, in its sixth year as a charter high school dedicated to an agricultural curriculum, currently serves 225 students. Supporting that mission, NAMA has been a contributing sponsor of the Academy.

Special thanks to Cindy Jorgensen of Brown and Bigelow, a preferred promotional products supplier with CHS, Inc., for serving as panel moderator.

Often our jobs take us away from home, perhaps out of the state and maybe even out of the country to promote agriculture in a variety of ways. Carolinas/Virginia members and guests learned what the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is doing to promote the state’s leading industry, agriculture.

Members and guests learned about the Best Practices in Branding Regional Products on Wednesday, November 8. Attendees gathered at the Raleigh Farmers Market to take a tour of the market and learn more about how farmers are marketing their vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy products and other locally grown products directly to consumers.

In addition, attendees enjoyed lunch at the State Farmers Market Restaurant, and heard program manager, Jeff Thomas, describe the Got to Be NC campaign, an extension of the long-time Goodness Grows in North Carolina branding program.

Join Carolinas/Virginia NAMA Tuesday, December 12 for Best Practices in Preparing for the 2007 Farm Bill. For more information visit, www.nama.org/chapters/car12-12-06.html.

The 2006 Agribusiness Forum is now in the history books, but you can hear the speaker audio recordings and view the PowerPoint slides through this site. 

Attendees were emailed a password to access the files at no cost.  Others may access the files for a fee.  Click here to go to the presentation order page. 

If you attended the Agribusiness Forum and have yet to fill out the on-line survey, please visit http://www.nama.org/forum/survey.htm.

Noted economist and Washington observer, Jim Wiesemeyer, kicked off the 2006 Agribusiness Forum, November 14-15, in Kansas City. Wiesemeyer and Forum attendees looked at the Global Forces Shaping Agriculture.

What are some of the major factors shaping our ag market environment? Wiesemeyer stated that higher interest rates are here and it’s having an impact on the housing market and the consumer to a degree. There have been 17 consecutive rate increases that ended in June and now they’re on hold. Wiesemeyer believes the next move will be lower rates because of the somewhat weak economy, the dollar situation, etc. In addition, he says we are in a recession that is hopefully just a growth recession because of the global repercussions of our downward growth.

Wiesemeyer also discussed the progress and condition of the 2007 crops. “Acreage volatility is the biggest market factor and has been for the last 2 months,” says Wiesemeyer. He predicts it will be a roller coaster ride in the spring as the market tries to bid the adequate amount of corn acres, how few soybean acres we can deal with, and the price of wheat because of the considerable increase in the number of acres of wheat.

He predicts that the prospects for agriculture remain favorable over the next five years. Wiesemeyer says that agriculture as an energy crop is here to stay, but the renewable fuel demand will force significant realignment with energy prices remaining a wild card. He also predicts that ethanol production will increase 85% over the next five years and corn utilized for ethanol could increase 60%.

One fundamental change that should be watched is that for the first time foreigners will sell more to the U.S. than U.S. citizens provide revenue to the government. Within the next 15-20 years, China will surpass the U.S. on GDP.

Jim Wiesemeyer is Vice President of Policy and Trade Issues for Informa Economics Inc.’s Washington, D.C. office. He is also the Washington consultant to the Pro Farmer newsletter. Besides writing for Informa Economics’ daily Morning Comments, Jim has a column, Inside Washington Today, on AgWeb.com.

Agriculture is going through a dramatic change. Don Wick, Red River Farm Network, led a panel discussion on Tuesday, November 14, on how large producers are helping the agriculture industry keep up with these changes and how they are becoming a driving influence for suppliers. Panel members included John Vrieze and Tyler Bruch. Wick has been in farm broadcasting for 25 years and is a two-time winner of the “Oscars in Agriculture” for excellence in agricultural journalism. Wick is also a past president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and is a columnist for DairyStar.

John Vrieze is in partnership with Emerald and Baldwin Dairys in Wisconsin; he also serves on the board of the Russian Farm Community Project that operates a 500-cow dairy 60 miles north of Moscow. Vrieze is a third-generation dairy producer who in 1990 went into Russia to explore the options and in 2001 built the 500-cow dairy. His operation is one of the highest milk producers in Russia. He is currently building a 3,200-cow dairy facility on 9,000 acres of land in southern Siberia.

The Emerald Dairy in Wisconsin includes a Transition Management Facility which is a pre and post natal care facility for cows. They have about 3,000 calvings per year at the facility and have a contract with the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinarian Medicine to expose students to this calving facility. Next to the facility is a lagoon with about 11-12 million gallons of manure for which they have built a Mixed Plug-Flow Anaerobic Digester. In addition, they have also built a Gas Clarification Facility which takes the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide out of the bio gas and leaves them with about 95% methane gas which is natural gas. They are producing about 100,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day and now have a contract with 3M who will buy the natural gas.

Emerald Dairy is also working on the Omega 3 project. They have tripled the amount of Omega 3 in milk which has huge advantages for cardiac health care. It’s been suggested that Omega 3 is brain food, not only for brain development for children, but for staving off Alzheimer’s.

Tyler Bruch left his family farm in Emmetsburg, Iowa, after graduating from Iowa State University four years ago to start a farming operation in Bahia, Brazil. Bruch currently farms about 11,000 acres of soybeans, cotton and popcorn. Bruch is the owner and CEO of Global Ag Investments, a U.S. based private equity fund that allows U.S. investors to invest into U.S. managed agriculture in Brazil. He is also a partner in Global Ag Bio Diesel which is a 15 million gallon plant under formation that is due to break ground in February 2007. This plant will use cotton and soybean seed for bio diesel and will be sold to the local market. Bruch is also a silent partner with his brother and parents on their farm in Emmetsburg, Iowa. There they farm about 3,500 acres.

Why farm in other countries? Bruch says because of competition. Land prices in Iowa were around $150-$180 per acre to rent when he graduated, where as in Brazil it was around $27-$30 per acre to rent. The same is true in Russia, the land is affordable. Could anything keep these farmers from going to other countries to farm? “No,” says Bruch. The ability to increase acres to support additional farmily members is the limiting factor in the U.S. “In our area to expand, that means you have to walk over the neighbors to do it and I’m not willing to do that.” Bruch says there is an unlimited land base in Brazil and they are renting properties that have been established and in production for 10-12 years for $25-30 per acre on 60 year contracts.

Most of the commodities produced by Vrieze and Bruch are domestic, with the exception of Bruch whose cotton is about 50% domestic and 50% export. Vrieze says that the Federation of Russia put up trade barriers on cheap poultry coming into the country as a way to revitalize the poultry industry. There has been a huge number of poultry buildings built, including in southern Siberia. So it’s a ready made market for the soybeans he produces. Also, Russians love dairy products and even have more dairy selections than in the U.S., making it an easy commodity to fill.

Special thanks to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board for sponsoring this session.