Corn quality main focus for Japanese corn buyers

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) Corn Mission 2010 delegation made it safely to their first destination of Tokyo, Japan, and today met with U.S. Embassy Officials and several trade organizations and importers of U.S. corn and dried distillers grains (DDGS).

The two officials from the U.S. Embassy, Office of Agricultural Affairs were Geoffrey Wiggin, Agricultural Minister-Counselor and Jeff Nawn, Senior Agricultural Attache’. Wiggin and Nawn both commented that there has been positive open dialog between U.S. and Japanese regulators to have science as the basis of approvals in terms of biotech commodities, and have a food safety commission to do scientific reviews on policies for food safety. Both expressed the concern for feeding the world as population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.

Meetings with importers of U.S. corn and DDGS were important to share the message of an improved 2010 corn crop. The delegation met with the Japan Feed Trade Association (JFTA), Japan Feed Manufacturers Association (JFMA), Japan Starch and Sweeteners Industry Association (JSSIA), Japan Corn Grits Association (JCGA), and Japan Snack and Cereal Foods Association (JSCFA), where the delegation provided updates on U.S. corn production, supply and demand and impact of ethanol production and demand from emerging markets.

The major concern for all of the associations was the low quality of 2009 U.S. corn, in terms of vomitoxin, BCFM, moisture and protein content. The delegation confirmed any doubts about the 2010 crop to these organizations and assured that quality is much improved.

“Our 2009 crop was one of the worst years, in terms of quality to export, that farmers in the Corn Belt have ever seen, but we really believe we are back to producing better corn than ever and the future looks promising.” said Kent Kleinschmidt, of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board. “As U.S. corn producers were able to the get 2010 crop out in a timely manner and work the ground, we have an even more positive outlook for 2011’s corn crop.”

Check out USGC's Flickr page for more pictures or follow members of the 2010 Corn Mission on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanksgiving race - by Curt Tomasevicz

This past week while most Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving Day by stuffing themselves full of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and of course juicy sweet corn, I was preparing for our first race of the season.

On Thursday night, I raced in the two-man World Cup race in Whistler, Canada; the same sight as the 2010 Olympic Games. As we prepared for the race in Whistler this past week, a number of great memories came to my mind from the Olympics held last February.

It seems like everything happened so fast during the Olympics last February, I sometimes have trouble remembering everything. It was a very fast two weeks of my life filled with a number of very special moments. But there is one moment that I remember that I will never forget. It happened just before the very last heat of the 4-man Olympic race. The Olympic race was four heats. The times from all four trips down the bobsled track are added together to determine the winner. After three heats, we had a pretty substantial lead. I know that forty-two hundredths of a second doesn’t sound like much, but in bobsled terms, that is a huge lead. The order of the fourth heat is determined by the rank from the first three heats. The order is last place to first place. So my teammates and I were going to be the last sled down the hill that afternoon.

Warming up to push a bobsled is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time, our warm-up area is comparable to a parking lot at the top of the bobsled track. It can be cold and snowy and it can be crowded at times while 25 teams of four men do strides and warm-up exercises. But slowly the warm-up area clears out as, one by one, the teams head into the start-house to put on their ice-spikes and helmets for the race. Before we knew it, the chaos and hectic atmosphere of the Olympics was put aside for just a couple minutes as the top team in the world was the only team left in the warm-up area.

The four of us were doing our last couple strides and sprints to ensure we were ready to push when we found ourselves all standing together with no one else around. None of us said anything (there was nothing that needed to be said). There was no media, no noise or distractions. We simply looked at each other and we each had a little smirk on our faces. We knew that we just need to do our job together one more time successfully and we’d have an Olympic Gold Medal.

That was, perhaps, my favorite Olympic memory.

That brief moment of serenity came to mind again as I stood in the exact same spot on Thanksgiving Day. I thought back on the uncountable things that I have to be thankful for. My life has truly been full of blessings, before and since the Olympics. So even though I didn’t get to eat pumpkin pie with my family on Thanksgiving Day, I was sure to take some time to recall all the fortunate blessings in my life.

Note: While Curt Tomasevicz did not say so in his post, his four-man bobsled team took first place at the World Cup race over Thanksgiving weekend. For more, click here. Every few weeks through the international bobsled season you'll find an update from Curt here at Nebraska Corn Kernels.

Corn Mission to Asian Nations to Promote U.S. Corn, DDGS

As a staff member of the Nebraska Corn Board, I have been asked to travel with the U.S. Grains Council on their 2010 Corn Mission to Asia. This year's U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission will explore the Council's success in developing diverse corn markets, from established achievements in Japan and Taiwan to China's emergence as a leading market for distiller's dried grains with solubles and a new buyer of U.S. corn. The USGC has an office in each of the countries we’ll be visiting and we will have meetings with their staff and U.S. Embassy officials.

We will be first traveling to Japan, the largest importer of U.S. corn. Once there, we’ll be meeting with the Japan Feed Manufacturers Association, the Japan Feed Trade Association, the Japan Starch & Sweeteners Association and the Japan Corn Grits Association. We will also be taking a bullet train to visit a Japanese feed mill and possibly see some cattle production in Ishinomaki City.

Then, we’ll hop on a plane to Taipei, Taiwan. Once there, we’ll be meeting with the American Institute in Taiwan, a lunch discussion with traders, buyers and users of U.S. corn, meeting with the Taiwan Feed Industry Association and the Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation. We’ll get to meet with a bioplastics corporation that imports NatureWorks bioplastics made in Blair, Nebr., as well as visiting a sow farm.

Then, we’ll travel to Shanghai, China. We will meet with more trade organizations that import U.S. corn and distillers grains as well as visiting a sea port where corn and DDGS are shipped in, and hopefully see a U.S. corn shipment. Also, we’ll be visiting the Guangzhou Dairy Institute Demo Farm.

Traveling on the mission will be Larry Klever from the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Kent Kleinschmidt from the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, Kenny McNamar and Becky Frankenbach from the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, John Whaley from the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and myself, Kelsey Pope, representing the Nebraska Corn Board.

As a communicator on the trip, I will be regularly blogging for the Nebraska Corn Kernels blog under the tag, Corn Mission 2010, starting November 28th through December 10th. You can also follow the trip through the U.S. Grains Council’s communications at:
USGC Blog: http://www.thegrainboard.com/
USGC Flickr: www.flickr.com/usgc
USGC Twitter: www.twitter.com/usgc
USGC Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Grains-Council/60248643587

Podcast: Thanking farmers and ranchers who provides so much for so many for so little

In this podcast, Mat Habrock of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association notes that Thanksgiving is an opportunity to appreciate all we have been given and to thank all the farmers and ranchers whose bounty provides so much for so many for so little.

"The value of our Thanksgiving dinner in and of itself is something to be thankful for," he said, in reference to the affordability of the food, especially when compared to other countries. "Thanks to the continuous gains made by American farmers, we are blessed with the most affordable, nutritious and safe food supply in the world," Habrock said.

Yet even with farmers and the agriculture sector providing so much, there are people who struggle to put food on the table. "While we all do what we can, I can’t imagine where we would be if some people had their way and forced unnecessary changes through the system that would increase food prices 25 to 50 percent," he said. "While I recognize it is easy to be critical of the food system when you have a full belly, we should be thankful for what we have and how far we’ve come."


In conclusion, Habrock said while you enjoy the leftovers from this year’s Thanksgiving feast, reveling in the traditions surrounding friends, family and food, "be sure to keep in mind a word of thanks for the farmers and ranchers out there who work for the benefit of us all."

Nebraska Corn Kernel podcasts are also available on iTunes! Click here to subscribe.

Reactions from the HSUS Town-Hall Meeting

By Regina Janousek, Nebraska Corn Board Intern

Sunday night, Lincoln was the host to Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, for a town hall meeting. Wayne was sponsored by a Nebraska cattle rancher, Kevin Fulton. I attended the meeting to be a spectator and to listen to what Pacelle had to say on behalf of HSUS.

I was a bit nervous going to the meeting, not knowing the reaction that HSUS would receive from the agriculture community. To attend the meeting, a person had to RSVP on the HSUS site, and received a confirmation email. Upon arriving to the hotel, there was security outside of the meeting hall, where attendees names were checked with the guest list and names were taken down of those that were in attendance.

The meeting began with a few introductions, and Kevin Fulton made a few comments, which he read directly from a sheet of paper. Wayne Pacelle talked about all the wonderful things that HSUS has done to help pets and animals in times of need.

Numerous university students and faculty anxiously waited for what the meeting would bring; producers and agriculture industry leaders were also in attendance.

In order for attendees to ask questions, they were supposed to be written down on a note card which were handed in to the new Nebraska Director for HSUS, where she would ask the questions aloud to Wayne. I have friends that turned in questions which were not read or asked of Wayne.

As the questioning started, Wayne was under the hot seat. First to comment was a second-year veterinary student, Jake Geis, who instantly questioned HSUS and the American Veterinary Medical Association’s disagreement on issues. Wayne was quick to say that the AVMA was in the back pocket of the industry, and that their interest was mostly put on the future of the industry and not the care of the animals.

A few more university students got up to talk and ask questions, but again, Wayne eluded actually answering any of their questions. HSUS stated that they have not announced a ballot initiative and have no intentions to. But they do want to push for better standards on gestation crates, veal crates, and chicken battery cages, as well as puppy mills. HSUS said right now they are not concerned about the livestock industry, but going after more extreme forms of confinement.

When questioned about the economic impacts that bans and restrictions would have on young farmers, Wayne simply said that he didn’t have control over the economy. But then he goes as far as to comment on how the agricultural community can’t afford not to change and fill consumer demand for cage free eggs etc. Yet one has to wonder, where does the consumer gain this perception of “factory farms” ??

After numerous questions from UNL students and producers, Wayne announced that they only had time for a few more questions, even though there were many questions left unanswered. The meeting adjourned around 7:15 p.m. even though the announcement for the meeting stated that the meeting would be allowed to go until 8:00 p.m. I have to wonder if the questions were starting to get to Wayne for him to abruptly end the meeting 45 minutes before scheduled.

Don't be fooled by HSUS – it's all about the money

The billboard pictured above can be found at the corner of 10th and “L” Streets in downtown Lincoln thanks to the group HumaneWatch.org. (For a breakdown on the math showing how little money HSUS spends on animal care, click here.)

The billboard appears just in time for the arrival of the Humane Society of the United State's chief suit Wayne Pacelle. He's scheduled to chat about the organization's animal protection rights work this coming Sunday in Lincoln at the downtown Holiday Inn.

HSUS does NOT support your local animal shelter or local humane society. It just wants you to think that in the hopes that you'll fork over your hard earned money to an animal rights organization that has a bigger payroll than the White House. 

Of course when you spend more than $20 million a year to raise $100 million to support a $100 million budget while sitting on $160+ million in assets and nearly $25 million in cash, I guess you can do whatever you believe you can get away with. Even continue to promote a false image of your activities or run a "university" to promote animal protection rights studies.

Anyway, from the HumaneWatch blog post that includes a shot of the billboard above:

Of note, a local cattle rancher will appear in Lincoln to introduce Pacelle. Why, you ask? Good question. The rancher in question is a small all-organic, grass-fed beef producer who apparently believes Pacelle’s HSUS will leave him alone (and give him a competitive edge) while it pursues a veganized America.

He’s wrong, of course. 

Winston Churchill once famously said that “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Sound familiar?

Let’s be very clear about something: Pacelle is a vegan who will never actually endorse (much less eat) a steak, even if the animal it came from was produced and finished on a prairie with daily pedicures, and a staff of servants feeding it organic hay in between belly-rubs.

So why is Pacelle a credible guy? What gives him a position of authority from which to lecture Nebraskans about how to produce the food that most of us eat? Another good question.

Mostly, it’s HSUS’s money.

Nebraska farm families recognized for participating in 'Sustaining Innovation'

Two Nebraska farm families were recognized at the Nebraska Corn Board meeting and dinner in Kearney on Tuesday night.

The Bergen family from Henderson, (top; joined by Nebraska Corn Board chairman Alan Tiemann on the left) and the Kimball family from Callaway, were present to receive recognition and a family picture for participating in the Corn Board's Sustaining Innovation campaign.

The two families’ roles in the campaign were to be “real-Nebraska farm family models” and be photographed on their farms. They then became the face of the campaign and helped share the many positive messages about farming and farmers today.

Other Nebraska farm families not present but who helped out with the campaign were the Beattie family from Sumner, the Flaming family and Robertson family from Elsie, the Cantrell family from Merna and the Long family from Grant.

The Sustaining Innovation campaign shows that through responsible stewardship, improved management practices and new genetics, Nebraska corn farmers are growing more corn with less – less fertilizer, less chemicals, less water, less land and less of an impact on the environment.

We’ve portrayed these family farmers on moving billboards on delivery trucks in Lincoln and on grain trailers across the state. They’ve also been on display at Aksarben’s River City Rodeo & Stock Show.

These Nebraska farm families are helping share agriculture’s story. You might be surprised to learn that:

• 95% of all corn farmers in America are family owned. (USDA)
• America’s corn farmers are by far the most productive in the world, growing 20% more corn per acre than any other nation. (USDA)
• Corn farmers cut erosion 44% in two decades thanks to new tillage methods. (USDA) 
• Thanks to new, innovative fertilization methods, today’s American corn farmers are producing 70% more corn per ounce of fertilizer. (USDA) 
• The energy used to grow a bushel of corn has fallen 37% over the past 30 years. (USDA) 
• Family farmers grow 90% of America’s corn crop. (USDA) 
• Corn was a bright spot in America’s economy last year – we exported $9 billion worth of corn! (USDA) 
• American farmers grow five times more corn than they did in the 1930s – on 20% less land! (USDA) 
• Farmers are using GPS-based precision technology to reduce overlaps in the field and to precisely place fertilizer and pesticides exactly where they need to be – and in exactly the right amounts. 
• Monitoring soil moisture levels and measuring the amount of water corn plants lose each day is helping Nebraska corn farmers significantly reduce irrigation and water demand. 
• While irrigation is used more widely in Nebraska, less than 14% of the total U.S. corn crop is supplemented with water via irrigation. The rest relies solely on rainfall. (USDA)
• Only 1% of the corn grown in the U.S. is sweet corn for humans. The rest is field corn used for livestock feed and ethanol.

There is no question: Corn farmers can do what America and the world is asking of them: Grow more corn for feed, food, fiber and fuel – and do it in a way that protects the environment and provides economic benefits all along the value chain.

Thank you again to the Bergen and Kimball families, as well as the other families who could not be at the dinner.

The changing seasons - by Curt Tomasevicz

Note: This is the first blog post written by Olympic gold medalist Curt Tomasevicz. Every few weeks through the international bobsled season you'll find an update from Curt here at Nebraska Corn Kernels.

The 2010-11 World Cup bobsled season is just around the corner. Our first race is back on the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, British Columbia on November 26. Being on the bobsled team for the last seven years has forced me to adjust to an “autumn-less” year. Let me explain.

During the bobsled off-season (April through September), many of us choose to train in the warmer weather. It is not possible to keep ice on any of the bobsled tracks, so our training consists of weight room training and sprint work. I spend my off-seasons training in Colorado Springs where temperatures in the Julys, Augusts and Septembers can reach the mid-90s. Once the beginning of October comes, all the athletes gather together in Lake Placid, N.Y., or Calgary, Alberta, to begin our pre-season camps and training. That forces us to endure a drastic weather change. Obviously, the cold weather is necessary for bobsledding in order to help keep ice on the bobsled track. So I’ve grown accustomed to a fast summer-to-winter transition.

In Nebraska, there are definitive seasons through the year. Winter, spring, summer and autumn all have distinct characteristics. Some Nebraska farmers would say that the seasons in Nebraska are winter, planting season, irrigation season and harvest season!

I know that most people would say that their favorite season is summer, but as I grew up in central Nebraska, harvest season became a part of my life. Every year I remember the landscape slowly opening up, field by field, as the seven foot corn plants became one foot stalks. The hot August and September weather slowly turned to a cool fall before going to a cold November and December.

It was something I took for granted and now, as a bobsledder, winter comes extremely early every year. I’m around snow every year by at least the second week in October. I know, I know, it’s the sport I chose. But that doesn’t mean that I have to enjoy cold weather! I miss harvest season and the slow summer to winter transition.

I know the weather in Nebraska seems to be unpredictable and uncooperative. But while Nebraska farmers were finishing harvesting their corn and everyone was enjoying temperatures in the seventies during the first week of November, I was in Lake Placid, N.Y., enduring my fourth snow storm of the year!

Jagels elected officer of U.S. Meat Export Federation

Nebraska Corn Board member Mark Jagels, a farmer from Davenport, has been elected secretary/treasurer of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Mark Jagels at the recent USMEF meeting in Dallas.
Jagels was elected secretary/treasurer
of the organization at the meeting.

Jagels is a fourth generation farmer who farms with his father outside of Davenport, where he lives on the home place that was originally homesteaded in 1885. They are diversified producers who raise corn and soybeans, custom feed cattle and operate a trucking company. For several years he has served as a member of the USMEF executive committee representing feed grains, and has co-chaired USMEF’s Feed Grains & Oilseed Committee.

“I’m proud to be a part of a great organization that strives to open markets and increase sales around the world for U.S. beef and pork,” Jagels said in a news release. “I’ve seen firsthand how USMEF works in markets overseas, and its success positively impacts the bottom line of livestock producers here in Nebraska and across the country. That, in turn, helps ensure there is a solid feed market for Nebraska corn and distillers grains.”

USMEF encourages beef and pork exports via promotions and relationship building around the world. Estimates from USMEF show the value of meat exports have increased and are worth about $159 per head of cattle and $44 for each hog – and growing exports increases this value back to Nebraska and the country’s livestock producers.

“Mark is an excellent representative of the Nebraska Corn Board to serve on the USMEF executive committee,” said Don Hutchens, executive director for the Nebraska Corn Board. “It has been 24 years since we’ve had a board member serving as an officer on USMEF’s executive committee. It’s the commitment of farmers like Mark, and the funds of beef, pork, soybean and corn checkoff dollars that are matched with USDA and industry funds, that open the market to a world of potential buyers.”

Jagels, who has made several trips to promote U.S. beef and pork with importers, retailers, restaurant owners and consumers in several countries, noted that 95 percent of the world’s population resides outside the United States and that the competition is growing to deliver protein to them.

“It is critical to our long term agricultural survival to promote what we do best in the U.S. and that is produce high quality, safe food,” he said.

Podcast: Distillers grains is a great livestock, poultry feed

In this podcast, Greg Whitmore, a farmer from Shelby and member of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association, reminds us about all the feed that corn ethanol plants produce. Known as distillers grains, ethanol plants produce some 11 billion pounds of feed here in Nebraska and some 73 billion pounds across the country.

Ethanol plants produce distillers grains because the ethanol process only uses the starch portion of the corn kernel. Whitmore said the rest of the kernel’s components, including fiber, protein and oil, combine to make distillers grains, an outstanding feed ingredient for livestock and poultry.

In the podcast, Whitmore discusses some of the benefits livestock and poultry producer see from distillers grains, including that it is a nutrient-rich feed that can help lower feeding costs.

"When you think of corn-based ethanol, think about distillers grains, too," he said. "Both add a lot of value to that initial bushel of corn."

Nebraska Corn Kernel podcasts are also available on iTunes! Click here to subscribe.

Nebraska corn yields estimated at 166 bushels

In its crop production report today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered its estimate for Nebraska corn yields to 166 bushels per acre – that's 4 bushels below the October estimate of 170 but still the second-largest yield on record (tied with 2004).

With harvested acres remaining the same, that yield figure puts the state's corn crop at 1.48 billion bushels, off from last month's 1.58 billion estimate. It is still the second-largest corn crop on record.

Nationally, USDA pegged corn production at 12.5 billion bushels on a national average yield of 154.3 bushels per acre. That yield estimate is 1.5 bushels below last month, while total crop production is down from USDA's 13.1 billion bushel October estimate.

Yields were reduced across the Corn Belt, although a few states (MI, MN, NY, ND, WI and CA) are still projected to have record yields.

As for supply and demand, USDA lowered feed and residual use by 100 million bushels and corn exports by 50 million bushels. However, it increased corn use for ethanol by 100 million bushels, which it attributed to record October ethanol production indicated by Energy Information Administration data. It also said that – while small relative to domestic usage – higher ethanol exports and lower imports are expected to add to corn use for ethanol with high sugar prices limiting the availability of ethanol from Brazil.

In the end, all that math lowers 2010-11 corn ending stocks 75 million bushels to 827 million bushels. USDA said that figure – if realized – would be the lowest since 1995-96 and represent a carryout of 6.2 percent of projected usage. In 1995-96, carryout dropped to 5 percent of estimated usage.

In the chart below, the highlighted figures in the 2009-10 column are records.

Crop update: Nebraska corn 94% harvested

Nebraska's corn crop is 94 percent harvested, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in it's weekly crop progress update. A year ago, only 28 percent of the crop was in the bin. The five-year average is 66 percent. What an incredible fall we've had here in Nebraska!

Yet progress across the country is similar - nationally 96 percent of the crop is harvested, compared to only 35 percent last year and the five-year average of 73 percent.

The early harvest is allowing farmers to get fall field work actually done in the fall. (Unlike last year, when we did a crop update in January to show harvest in the snow!)

Tomorrow we'll learn what the latest as to what USDA is thinking the size of this year's corn crop will shape up to be. Will yields (and the crop) get smaller? Will exports and feed demand remain unchanged?

In October's report, USDA estimated Nebraska corn yields at 170 bushels per acre – the second-largest on record. Nationally, USDA estimated yields at 155.8 bushels per acre, the third-largest on record.

This week's photo, from the Nebraska Corn Board's crop progress set on Flickr, was submitted by Howells Clarkson FFA Chapter.

HSUS uses National Animal Shelter Week to promote false image

This week, November 7-13, 2010, is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, which was launched by HSUS in 1996 as a way to acknowledge and promote the invaluable role shelters play in their communities and to increase public awareness of animal welfare issues and shelter services. The HSUS is using this week to promote and celebrate animal shelters across the country through media and public outreach. They have an event planning guide, articles and press releases about the week. And not surprising, they are using TV superstar Ellen DeGeneres to promote their programming.

However, all of this sounds nice and good for the animals, right? Many people think of HSUS as their local Humane Society interested only in helping animals that have been abandoned or abused, certainly not a radical organization. But their vice president, Michael W. Fox, said, "The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration". Not much doubt where Fox stands.

HSUS is using this week to celebrate the valuable role of shelters – even though it doesn’t do much to help them. HSUS spends less than 1/2 of 1% on animal shelters across the U.S.! They essentially want to destroy animal agriculture.  They continue with these "public relation" ploys to promote a false image that they work closely with local shelters, and ride on the name "Humane Society" to confuse the public.

This is a perfect opportunity to educate the public on who the HSUS really is, and how it is affecting agriculture and livestock production in Nebraska - our livelihood. Take time this week to be an "agvocate" and post something on faceebook, twitter, your blog, talk to a friend or hair dresser, or even write a letter to the editor.

HumaneWatch.org does a great job of explaining what HSUS is really all about and how you can help animal shelters directly instead of supporting HSUS. Here is some info to get you started on sharing the truth and ways to promote animal agriculture:

• HSUS shares less than one-half of one percent of its budget with hands-on pet shelters. See the evidence for yourself.
• How well does HSUS perform in your state? Read "Not Your Local Humane Society" to find out.
• Click here to see all the HumaneWatch ads and leaflets to date.
• HSUS: Animal-Welfare Fool’s Gold
• The “Humane Society” That Isn’t
• The power of social media: You can make a difference
• Agvocate; Video comments support ag industry

Become AFAN of Nebraska agriculture

No matter the topic, we are always learning or helping to educate others to improve our society. That’s what A-FAN, the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska thinks, too. They are hoping to educate the consumer audience how livestock is raised and cared for in Nebraska.

A-FAN’s new campaign, Become AFAN, has been a dream of theirs for some time and is now a reality, with TV commercials during primetime television time in stations all across Nebraska – some even reaching into South Dakota and Iowa.

Become AFAN is dedicated to helping inform the public about modern food production and providing honest and open information about the way animals are cared for on Nebraska farms.

One of their most important messages is that Nebraska farmers are some of the best in the world at what they do. They use the most modern technology, the most environmentally sound farming practices and the most advanced methods possible to raise their crops and livestock. Nebraska farmers do this day in and day out – often in the face of extreme weather and hardships, to put food on your family’s dinner table.

If you’ve seen the commercials, they talk about how the future of agriculture looks – emphasizing that “The Future is Now”. These commercials show how baby pigs are safer than ever before and more are surviving their first month, and how dairy cows are healthier and producing higher quality milk. They also highlight that they way we handle cattle is safer and less stressful for the animals, as well as poultry products and eggs being safer than ever before. Watch it for yourself:


The commercial encourages the viewers to check out http://www.becomeafan.org/. At this website, you can watch the commercial, but more importantly, there will be information about each livestock species and a webisode - a short video – about each as well. Currently, there is information about pork and poultry, and the dairy and beef will be up soon. You can also follow Become AFAN on facebook and view Become AFAN TV on YouTube.

Please share this information with friends – ag or non-ag – so they can hear the true story of how animals are being raised humanely in Nebraska.

Read more about A-FAN and livestock in Nebraska:
A-FAN adds videos on animal care, sow housing
Become a fan of A-FAN
Dairy opening its doors this Saturday
Ag's economic impact - through the eyes of a senator from the city
Video: Ag important to state's economy, economic development
Video provides some info on Nebraska egg industry