For those few in the crop farming world who did not attend the 2012 Commodity Classic, you missed a very interesting event – a serious tornado warning that resulted in herding thousands of people in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel into a basement ballroom. Gaylord Opryland Commodity Classic Tornado Warning
We have to give credit to the Opryland staff for their caution and diligence in looking out for the safety of all the people spread out over that huge property. With the damage we have seen by tornadoes around the country lately, a warning was not something they were about to take lightly. The weather watchers were calling for a direct hit on the hotel, which fortunately did not happen, but would certainly have been devastating if it had.
Consider that the Opryland has 600,000 square feet of convention area, including ballrooms and exhibit space, and over 2,880 guest rooms, in addition to 15 restaurants and two huge atrium areas. That was a lot of space for staff to comb through making sure that everyone in the hotel was taken to a safe place.
The majority of the Commodity Classic attendees were in the trade show when the warning went off, and you can see by the video below that there was no initial rush to get out of the area, since it was basement level and there were no windows. However, the hotel preferred to have as many people as possible in a sheltered, uncluttered area, so everyone was moved to a vacant ballroom area. The danger passed pretty quickly so the time in our makeshift shelter was short and we are grateful to the Opryland for acting quickly and judiciously – just in case.
During the NCGA Awards banquet at the 2012 Commodity Classic, Thiel became the 17th member of the Walter Goeppinger Recruiter Hall of Fame, an honor which comes with a classy new blazer.
Thiel led the way in recruiting new members for NCGA in 2011, adding 811 Missouri corn growers, and helping to push NCGA to a record membership of 37,l60. He also helped Missouri Corn get first place for both the largest number of new members and the largest percentage increase for the year. MCGA membership increased by 479 members in 2011, up nearly 29 percent from the previous year.
“I’m glad growers are realizing the value in being a member of the Missouri Corn Growers Association,” says Thiel, who farms in Malta Bend, Mo. “We’ve got a bigger voice when we stand together. And it’s helping. The more growers we have join, the more help we have moving our industry forward. All the things we do are adding up to bigger accomplishments.”
In 2011, Thiel recruited members by hosting a golf tournament, membership event and reaching out to stakeholders in the state’s six farmer-owned ethanol plants.
Billy is pictured here in the center between Mickey Peterson of Minnesota, one of the first Hall of Famers, and NCGA president Garry Niemeyer.
The 2012 Commodity Classic was a major record-breaker. Final attendance figures totaled over 6,000 – a full 25% more than the previous record of 4800 set last year.
It was an indication of the optimism in the agriculture industry right now as commodity prices are good and spring planting season is just around the corner. “Right now, if the recent past is any indication of the future, corn growers have a brilliant and bright future,” said National Corn Growers Association president Garry Niemeyer of Auburn, Illinois during the general session of the Classic with emcee Mark Mayfield.
The excitement and enthusiasm was in the air at the annual meeting of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers who are all interested in working together for the good of the agriculture industry. Niemyer noted several initiatives that are joint projects between various commodity groups, such as the CommonGround program and the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA).
National Corn Growers Association President Garry Niemeyer of Illinois is looking forward to a great, big Commodity Classic this year – with registration already at a record level. “We have 5,400 people showing up for this – the largest by almost 25% that we’ve ever had,” Niemeyer said during a pre-convention interview on Tuesday. And that’s just pre-registration! Actual numbers will increase this week with on-site registrations.
Niemeyer says NCGA will be setting policy this week at the meeting and among the main issues will be recommendations for a 2012 Farm Bill, assuming there is one this year. “We have adopted the Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management program that has been put forth by Senators Brown, Thune, Durbin and Dick Lugar. Hopefully, we’re going to move that policy forward because that makes the most sense to us,” he said.
Other issues of concern to corn growers include maintaining the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) and protecting against government over-regulation.
Today the St. Louis Agribusiness Club presented its annual Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award to Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. Here’s Rick with his award which was presented by past St. Louis Ag Club President Stephanie Regagnon, Solutia, Inc.
I spoke with Rick right after he received his award. He says that he’s “very moved and surprised and it’s a great honor.” He also says that it’s a tribute to the National Corn Growers because I have a great group of volunteer leaders that I work with and a staff that I work with and they make me look good and make the organization look good. But it’s a real honor for our association to be recognized.”
I asked him about the 2012 Commodity Classic since registration just recently opened. He says it’s going to be a good one with a record number of exhibitors already signed up. He also talks about priorities in the coming year for NCGA.
The EWG article attacked the CommonGround program as a PR campaign for “Big Ag” that obscures “the reality … that women really have almost no voice on the boards of the national commodity organizations” compared to “national organic food and agriculture organizations.”
I had a chance to interview Pam during the recent Commodity Classic about her response to that criticism and about the goals of the CommonGround program itself. She took particular issue with the idea “that this program wasn’t genuine and these people were just set-ups, and that is the furthest thing from the truth.”
Pam says NCGA and the American Soybean Association joined together on the CommonGround program. “So that we can make sure that we have true, genuine voices out there with value statements that come from the heart and from the farm,” she said. “They come from women who are involved in their own operations at home and also are learning how to lead and advocate for agriculture.”
The EWG article noted that there are many more women involved in “sustainable” farming groups like the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and that they “don’t need fancy PR campaigns because their sustainable farming practices speak for themselves.” Pam says that depends on your definition of sustainable. “We’re not organic farmers, we’re production farmers who raise corn and soybeans, but we do it sustainably. I’m a sixth generation farmer and I come from people who have a strong connection to the land and all of us have been charged with leaving it better for the next generation.”
It is true that Pam is the only woman on the 15 member NCGA board of directors, but it is important to note that traditional farming families like Pam’s tend to actually be more traditional families than the general population, in that the women are the primary child caregivers (gasp!) which takes up a large portion of their time when children are young. “In fact, I postponed my involvement in outside organizations until I had my family up and going and raised,” she said. “Since I’m a grandma now and I have two sons back from college, I’m free to go out and get more involved in my own trade association and to be a voice to tell what’s actually going on down on the farm.”
Pam says the CommonGround program allows some younger farm women to take a more active role without the time and travel commitment required in serving on a national board.
The 2011 Commodity Classic is one for the record books.
Attendance at the annual meeting of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers shattered previous records. Total attendance was more than 4826, breaking the previous record at Nashville three years ago by almost 300. Total number of growers was over 1600, compared to the previous record of 1513 in 2009 in Grapevine.
Interesting demographic information gathered from pre-registered growers showed that the average acreage for a grower attending the Classic was 2,326 total – over 1,000 of that in corn. That is also a new record.
Next year, Classic is back in Nashville, maybe to smash even more records!
At Commodity Classic in Tampa, FL, the leaders of all the participating organizations took to the stage during the general session. Included is the President of the National Corn Growers Association, Bart Schott (pictured second from right). Also on stage were Alan Kemper, ASA, Gerald Simonsen, NAWG and Jerry McReynolds, NSP and moderator Mark Mayfield.
Mark asked each of them the question: “What are you doing to enhance public trust and what efforts do you have to make ag more sustainable?” Listen to Bart’s answer here:
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)and BASF Crop Protection announced the winners of six scholarships during the 2011 Commodity Classic on in Tampa. This is the fourth year for the NCGA Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program which awards five $1,000 scholarships to college students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field.
The winners are Hayley Bunselmeyer, a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in crop sciences; Kristin DeSutter, a junior at the University of Illinois pursuing agricultural communications; Amy Peyton, a junior at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business, economics, and public service and administration; Andy Pringnitz, a junior at Iowa State University studying agricultural business, economics and international agriculture; and Jessica Schwartz, a first-year graduate student at Ohio State University specializing in horticulture and crop sciences. They are pictured here with BASF VP for U.S. Crop Protection Paul Rea and Pam Johnson, a Corn Board member from Lloyd, Iowa and liaison to the Grower Services Action Team.
“Providing students with the financial resources to complete their education is the key to building strong agricultural leaders of tomorrow,” Pam said. “We thank BASF for its integral role and support in these scholarships.”
These young people really are the cream of the crop, chosen from about 45 entries nationwide. I had a chance to get a couple of comments from each of them, which you can listen to here:
Corn stocks may be a little tight right now, but National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman thinks that is probably a short term situation.
“Still our biggest challenge is that we can overproduce the market,” Tolman said during an interview after his presentation at the National Ethanol Conference on Monday. “Farmers respond to incentives, there’s an incentive right now to produce. I can guarantee we’ll have a big crop in 2011.”
Tolman makes that confident prediction after an informal survey of the NCGA farmer board members, who are mostly ahead of the game right now as far as being ready for spring planting, compared to where they were a year ago. “We had a great fall, farmers got their crop out of the field, they did their fall tillage, they did their application of inputs. We’re coming into the season in about as perfect a condition as you can have,” he said, adding that odds favor significant yields in 2011 and a larger carryover in 2012.
Rick also gives a preview of the upcoming Commodity Classic in this interview:
We have to give credit to the Opryland staff for their caution and diligence in looking out for the safety of all the people spread out over that huge property. With the damage we have seen by tornadoes around the country lately, a warning was not something they were about to take lightly. The weather watchers were calling for a direct hit on the hotel, which fortunately did not happen, but would certainly have been devastating if it had.
During the NCGA Awards banquet at the 
The 2012 Commodity Classic was a major record-breaker. Final attendance figures totaled over 6,000 – a full 25% more than the previous record of 4800 set last year.
The excitement and enthusiasm was in the air at the annual meeting of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers who are all interested in working together for the good of the agriculture industry. Niemyer noted several initiatives that are joint projects between various commodity groups, such as the 
Pam says NCGA and the American Soybean Association joined together on the CommonGround program. “So that we can make sure that we have true, genuine voices out there with value statements that come from the heart and from the farm,” she said. “They come from women who are involved in their own operations at home and also are learning how to lead and advocate for agriculture.”
The 2011 Commodity Classic is one for the record books.
At Commodity Classic in Tampa, FL, the leaders of all the participating organizations took to the stage during the general session. Included is the President of the National Corn Growers Association, Bart Schott (pictured second from right). Also on stage were Alan Kemper, ASA, Gerald Simonsen, NAWG and Jerry McReynolds, NSP and moderator Mark Mayfield.
The winners are Hayley Bunselmeyer, a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in crop sciences; Kristin DeSutter, a junior at the University of Illinois pursuing agricultural communications; Amy Peyton, a junior at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business, economics, and public service and administration; Andy Pringnitz, a junior at Iowa State University studying agricultural business, economics and international agriculture; and Jessica Schwartz, a first-year graduate student at Ohio State University specializing in horticulture and crop sciences. They are pictured here with BASF VP for U.S. Crop Protection Paul Rea and Pam Johnson, a Corn Board member from Lloyd, Iowa and liaison to the Grower Services Action Team.
Corn stocks may be a little tight right now, but 