One of our sponsors here on World Dairy Diary is The Callicrate Bander from No-Bull Enterprises. The owner is Mike Callicrate who recently attended the R-Calf annual meeting in Colorado. We weren’t able to attend that meeting so my wife, Cindy, did an interview with Mike to get a report on what happened there.
The interview with Mike is about 13 minutes long. You can listen to it here: 
Mike Callicrate Interview (9MB MP3 File)
As dairy producers you also pay your Beef Checkoff dues. Hopefully you might be interested in the following.
We had a secret mystery guest here at the Cattle Industry Convention. He’s Sam Elliott. You have hopefully heard his voice on a beef commercial somewhere, sometime. Sam didn’t prepare a speech. He spoke in a very genuine voice about his past, including his first memory of riding a horse. He spoke about how full circle he feels like his career has come to now be the spokesperson for the beef indusry. You can hear his unforgettable words at the end of his remarks.
You can listen to what Sam had to say here: Sam Elliott Speaks (5:22 Min. MP3 File)
If you don’t have the time to listen to Sam for his full remarks, click here to hear him utter his famous words.
There’s all kinds of activities in the booths at this year’s Cattle Industry Convention Trade Show. The Bayer booth had a very amusing pool shark. He had quite a crowd so I guess he was entertaining.
I’m going to let you be thejudge.
Here’s a little less than 2 minutes of video from his performance: 
Trade Show Video (.wmv file)
I know that the Cattle Industry Convention is a beef event but dairy producers pay the Checkoff too. The trade show got kicked off today.
I’m experimenting with my camera that also takes some fairly decent video. So I’ve got a short video clip for you in case you’ve never been to this event.
Here’s a little less than 2 minutes of video from this evening’s trade show: Trade Show Video (.wmv file)
At the Cattle Industry Convention I got to meet and interview 2 dairy producers who are on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
They are Lucinda Williams (l) and Jenny Senn (r). Lucinda is from Massachusettes and Jenny is from South Carolina. They shared with me why they are attending the convention and talk about the challenges they face in the business. I also asked them what they thought was the best thing about being in the diary business today.
You can listen to my interview with Lucinda and Jenny here: Lucinda/Jenny Interview (11:46 Min. MP3 File)
Today I had a chance to interview Monte Reese who is the COO of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. He talks about the Cattle Industry Convention that’s just getting started here in Denver.
You can listen to my interview with Monte here: Monte Reese Interview (3MB MP3 file)
Today’s USDA radio newsline featured a story by Gary Crawford with audio from USDA Economist, Keith Collins. The story says that because of its tenative nature , the Milk Income Loss Contract Program may not play much of a role in determining 2006 milk production.
You can listen to the story here: USDA MILC Story
Here’s my home for the week. Not a lot of activity here today. Lots of interviewing for new committee members. I did a little wandering around just to get my bearings. I probably won’t have much to offer until tomorrow afternoon though. I’m hoping to conduct some interviews midday and have some new content for you to listen to then.
It sounds like a great program is being prepared for attendees at the upcoming Pennsylvania Dairy Summit.
The Pennsylvania Dairy Stakeholders is co-hosting the 2006 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit with the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania. Supporting partners for the Summit are the Penn State Dairy Alliance, the Center for Dairy Excellence and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The 2006 Dairy Summit will take place Wednesday and Thursday, February 1 & 2, 2006, at the Lancaster Host Resort in Lancaster, PA.
American Dairy, Inc., announced recently that it will be on tv in the Pittsburg, PA market on cable. Basically their release says that “PCNC Cable News Channel in Pittsburg, PA will spotlight the Company in a continuation of the previously announced “Investment Opportunities in China” series, produced by Platinum Television. American Dairy was one of a few Chinese companies invited to be featured on the show by Platinum Television Group’s advisory board, made up of MIT and Harvard business school graduates, as well as magazine editors of Fortune, Forbes and INC. Households in Pittsburgh will be able to watch the news segment on American Dairy, which is approximately seven minutes long and presents facts about the Chinese government’s promotion of milk products in China, as well as insight into the Company’s processing plants and premier powdered milk and soy products. Viewers will be able to watch clips of the Company’s processing plants, headquarters, core products and research & development team throughout the Company’s operations in China.”
There’s a link to their website to watch the video but all I saw were commercials in Chinese like this one.
