There seems to be a lot of optimism in the dairy industry based on our conversations with farmers and dairy business companies during the 2011 World Dairy Expo. The ZimmComm team has been on location this week covering the show for the 7th year in a row. We've got a lot of photos online and more stories to come on World Dairy Diary.
We have to mention the passing of Steve Jobs which was a big shock to us and a lot of you. Farm podcasting was made possible by the iPod and Agriblogging is just more fun on a Mac. Thank you Steve. You will be missed.
Our latest ZimmPoll question, "Do you think the world population will be 10 billion by 2050?" generated some mixed results. This prediction is being used by all kinds of organizations for all kinds of purposes. But how accurate is it? Here's what you think. 40% said Exactly or really close; 24% said How can anyone know; 19% said Much more and 17% said Much Less. A lot of people point to a United Nations report for this number. However, they readily admit that no one can know. Here's an excerpt from the 2004 report that says it pretty clearly. You can find the latest report with revisions here(pdf). Projections recently issued by the United Nations suggest that world population by 2050 could reach 8.9 billion, but in alternative scenarios could be as high as 10.6 billion or as low as 7.4 billion. What will population trends be like beyond 2050? No one really knows. Any demographic projections, if they go 100, 200, or 300 years into the future, are little more than guesses. Societies change considerably over hundreds of years-as one can readily see if one looks back at where the world was in 1900, or 1800, or 1700. Demographic behaviour over such long time spans, like behaviour in many spheres of life, is largely unpredictable.
Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We're asking the question,"How do you feel about the corn supply/demand status?"It has been a tough weather year in some areas of the corn belt. After listening to an NPR show yesterday that featured as a guest Bob Dinneen, Renewable Fuels Association, it was obvious there is a lot of worry and misinformation about our corn supply in the public and on the part of activist environmental groups. What do you think? Take our poll and feel free to comment.
Here are some interviews you might have missed this week:
ZimmComm loves beef. That's why we are a sponsor of the National Beef Ambassador program. This past weekend I was a judge for the competition although I had to do it from ZimmComm World Headquarters and not in Wooster, OH. It was very interesting seeing how the contestants responded to an anti-beef blog post. That was one of the things that they were graded on as part of the competition. MORE
A coalition of seven agricultural and biofuels organizations sent a letter this week to two members of Congress who have introduced legislation to modify the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2), warning that it is unnecessary and could lead to higher prices at the pump. MORE
All officers of the Renewable Fuels Association were re-elected to serve another term at the ethanol organization's annual membership meeting held this week in Washington DC. MORE
During this year's Farm Progress Show I visited with Wisconsin grain farmer Charlie Hammer (left). He likes to keep up with new technology and keeps in touch with Ag Leader Technology since he's using their equipment. MORE
Whether it is data from planting, fertilizing, spraying, harvest or guidance, SMS software from Ag Leader houses and organizes data for easy access. And this ability to gather and analyze data could come in handy this harvest season. MORE
This year's Agritechnica will be bigger than ever and this is also reflected in the number of innovations presented. With over 2600 exhibitors from 48 countries in 24 halls, Agritechnica 2011 promises a huge display of innovations. MORE
Alltech held their annual World Dairy Expo reception last night and Kentucky Ale was the star once again! A lot of happy customers showed up including Chris Sorenson, United Cooperative dairy nutritionist and calf/heifer specialist. I visited with him just as the fun got started.MORE
The National Milk Producers Federation held a press conference here at World Dairy Expo on Wednesday to help the media better understand the recently introduced Dairy Security Act of 2011 so that we can in turn better explain it to the dairy industry. MORE
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