As you have seen and heard on the news, the recent tornados left a path of destruction, especially across Indiana. This hits especially close to home for Carolinas/Virginia NAMA member and regional director, Ann Camden, who like many of us, was at Commodity Classic when the tornado touched down in Nashville.  While Nashville was mostly spared, Ann’s parents’ home and family farm in New Pekin, Indiana was not.

“They lost the house, truck, barn and several tractors,” said Ann in an e-mail to fellow C/V NAMA member, Jeff Tennant. “It’s a total loss, but they are physically fine.” Ann’s uncle was at Commodity Classic so she rode with him to Indiana where she is helping her family pick up the pieces. Her parents have found a temporary residence and many in the community are helping them empty out the house and clean up the farm. 

If you would like to help Ann’s family, they are in need of Wal-Mart gift cards, Kroger gift cards, work clothes, work coats and work gloves. Contact Mary Cameron at Gibbs & Soell (mcameron@gibbs-soell.com, 919-870-5718) to coordinate your donation.

If you would like to help others across the Midwest and South who were affected by the tornados, you can also donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief.  To contribute, go to http://www.redcross.org/, call (800) RED CROSS (800-733-2767) or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  Contributions also may be sent to local Red Cross chapters or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.

The North Central NAMA Chapter hosted a Networking Event for professionals and students on Feb. 9, 2012.  More than 70 students attended this event that involved roundtable discussions and a Career Fair.

The evening kicked off with roundtable discussions that included topics helping students prepare to find a job, as well as issues facing communications professionals.  Students were able to attend four roundtable discussions during the hour.

Following the roundtables, a short career fair was held.  Nearly 15 agribusiness companies and agencies were part of the career fair that allowed students to ask more specific questions about opportunities available within the individual organizations.

With the success of the first event, organizers are looking ahead to the next event.  For more information on future events, contact Becca Yaklich, North Central NAMA Student Liaison Committee Chair, Becca.Yaklich@agribank.com.

The February Iowa NAMA meeting was held February 24, with guest Ryan Burchett of Mississippi River Distilling Company speaking to the group about his start-up business in LeClaire, Iowa.  Ryan and his brother Garrett decided to take a chance on a dream and start Mississippi River Distilling Company in 2010.  Since opening, they have been featured on FoxNews.com and named “Best of What’s New” by Midwest Living Magazine.  Ryan explained how they got started and established themselves as a “local” company – with everything from their building to their t-shirts and especially their ingredients coming from local resources.  All of the grain for their distillery comes from local farmers, and everything is done under one roof, from raw grain to bottling and hand-marking each bottle.  Ryan also discussed their sales and marketing tactics with the group, describing how their Facebook presence and word of mouth have been their main tools since opening.  Iowa NAMA members greatly appreciated Ryan taking the time to talk about his local family business; to learn more, please visit the Mississippi River Distilling Company website at www.mrdistilling.com.

Midlands NAMA came together for an informative session on Farm Financials 101 this month in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Industry experts, Jason Ladman, Director, and Tim Brhel, Ag Finance Specialist, both of Water Street Solutions, discussed the financial environment farmers are facing today.

The group learned how farmers leverage their production with insurance, marketing and financial tools to maintain a healthy working capital and equity.  They heard case studies of several operations that are successfully using an integrated strategy to manage their farm.

What’s driving this need for better financial management?  Extremely volatile commodity prices, skyrocketing land values and an unstable global economy are some of the leading factors that cause farmers to hone their financial management skills.  According to Brhel, “The key concern is really evaluating the risk bearing ability of each farmer’s unique operation as a whole and then making a decision based on the long-term impact.”  When decisions are well planned, farmers are able to do what is right for their operation, improve communication with lenders, suppliers and investors and overall build better business practices.

Join NAMA and  AAEA for a joint reception on March 2nd at Commodity Classic located at  Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.   No cost and no registration necessary.  For details visit http://www.nama.org/chapters/nama.htm

Hosted by American Agricultural Editors’ Association and National Agri-Marketing Association….with sponsorship help from BASF, NAMA’s Midsouth chapter, Great Plains and Rocky Mountain Chapters.

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) has named John Becherer, CEO of the United Soybean Board, as the 2012 Agribusiness Leader of the Year. This award, which is NAMA’s highest honor, will be presented at the Opening General Session of the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation,” April 19, 2012, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness-related areas who exemplify excellence in agribusiness by their significant contributions to the industry.

For nearly 18 years, John Becherer has guided the Board of more than 60 volunteer U.S. soybean farmer-directors through times of growth and change as it evolved from its inception in 1991 to 2011, when the Board marked its 20^th anniversary. Soybeans have seen a 140% increase in global demand for the two decades of USB’s existence and Becherer helped build this growth at a pace that has outperformed global demand for any other major U.S. row crop. For example, soybean prices set an all-time record in 2008 and have remained strong ever since, despite the downturn in some of the other U.S. agricultural sectors and the general global economy.

But Becherer isn’t allowing USB and the rest of the U.S. soy industry to sit back and coast.. In 2011 alone, he helped USB farmer-leaders:

• create a new long-range strategic plan;
• develop a new effort that could redefine how the marketplace determines the value of U.S. soy and reward U.S. soybean farmers for quality; and
• direct the first formal, independent, third-party assessment of USB’s governance and structure in nearly 20 years.

 

In 2010, Becherer engaged private industry to more effectively build confidence among consumers about today’s agriculture and our food supply by helping to create the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), which has grown to include more than  70 major U.S. farm and commodity organizations from just 20 when it began.

Becherer has also helped to narrow USB’s focus, encouraging the board to reduce the number of its priority issues from five down to two through a board-wide, comparative voting process. This has increased USB’s effectiveness in addressing short-term opportunities or challenges that merit immediate attention by the soybean checkoff, such as supporting the leading user of U.S. soy, the animal agriculture sector, and conducting activities that will increase public and private investment to improve U.S. transportation infrastructure.

Becherer also helped identify the need for QUALISOY, a unique U.S. soybean-industry organization consisting of farmer-leaders of the soybean checkoff and associations, as well as representatives from food- and feed-industry organizations, researchers and others. Their mission is to facilitate the development of new U.S. soybean varieties with enhanced traits. QUALISOY, which Becherer also helps lead, brings competing interests to the same table and develops a consensus on how the U.S. soy industry can meet future food, feed and fuel needs.

The soybean checkoff is the leading farmer-funded soy research and promotion program in the world and provides U.S. soybean farmers with a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive international agricultural sector.

In addition to helping create the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Becherer took a leading role in creating the Commodity Checkoff Roundtable. It serves as an opportunity for non-farmer/producer leaders of U.S. commodity checkoffs to share successes and improve the effectiveness of all farmer-funded research and promotion programs.

Becherer is also a long-time member of such prominent U.S. agricultural industry organizations as the National Agri-Marketing Association, the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, and the St. Louis Agribusiness Club. Becherer received the 2009 Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award from the St. Louis club.

Congratulations to John and the U.S. soybean industry for this significant accomplishment.

Greg Guse, President, Paulsen Marketing, has been named the 2012 NAMA Marketer of the Year. The NAMA Marketer award will be presented during the Second General Session of the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation” on Thursday, April 19 at 11:00 a.m. in Kansas City, Missouri and is sponsored by Agri Marketing magazine.

Greg Guse’s many accomplishments span a 35-year career that has always focused on agriculture; from his early days as a communications assistant at GTA Feeds, as a young account guy at Martin Williams, starting his own agency, Gregory Scott Communications, and his fortuitous arrival at Paulsen Marketing in 1995.

Beginning in 2009, Guse’s leadership steered Paulsen to move beyond traditional agency roles to create a consistent ag marketing research program. The result is a number of thought papers and articles released to the industry including: interviews with producers, research in farm communities and outreach to ag companies. These papers generate significant discussion within the industry including numerous requests to present research findings to industry associations, clients and more.

Guse’s leadership style is much like agriculture itself—take care of the soil, plant the seeds, weather the storms and reap what you sow. And above all, never stop learning.

He recently led an initiative to build relationships with local farmers to give feedback and input—leading to the Paulsen Ag Advisory Panel. This gives staff the opportunity to talk directly to the customers that buy their client’s products.

Guse contributes to overall marketing and sales success first as the agency leader and second as a hands-on account supervisor on key accounts.    

Guse began his NAMA career in 1978, serving in many capacities over the years, and further supporting the organization with Paulsen as a Sustaining Partner. Most recently he served as Best of NAMA Vice Chairman in 2009 and Best of NAMA Chairman in 2010.

He is also committed to Paulsen staff involvement with NAMA. At the regional NAMA awards show in 2011, Greg chartered a bus to take over half of the Paulsen staff to the awards ceremony. Greg also encouraged Paulsen’s attainment of Sustaining Partner for the first time in the agency’s 60-year history.

Greg believes in the power of youth and innovation to keep agri-marketing fresh and relevant. He believes in giving opportunities to and nurturing people. And he believes in the promise of NAMA to identify and empower tomorrow’s agri-marketing leaders—not just through seminars, but through real-world, hands-on examples. Greg truly lives the NAMA ideals every day.