We’d like to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors of the 2006 Agribusiness Forum. We greatly appreciate your commitment to NAMA.

AgriMarketing Magazine 
AgWired.com
Associations, Inc.
Beck Ag Com, Inc./AgCall
Cargill
Cattlemen’s Beef Board
CHS
Colle+McVoy
DATACORE Marketing, Inc.
Diamond V
DTN
Elanco Animal Health
Farm Industry News/The Corn & Soybean Digest
Farm Progress Companies
Fastline Publications
High Plains Journal
Hoard’s Dairyman
John Deere Agricultural Marketing Center
KFRM Radio – The Voice of the Plains
McCormick Company
National Cotton Council of America
Osborn & Barr Communications, Inc.
Padilla Speer Beardsley/AdCulture
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
Prism Business Media
Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications
Successful Farming

A special thanks to the Agribusiness Forum committee for putting together an outstanding program for 2006.

Chair
Jessica Lamker, CHS – Land O’Lakes Member Services

Vice Chair
Jane Allman, Cargill Animal Nutrition

Committee Members
JoAnn Alumbaugh, Farms.com
Dave Anderson, AlphaScouts, LLC
Bruce Hageman, Diamond V
Sue Lee, Farm Journal Media
Rich Tiller, Ag Speakers Network
Max Wenck, Morgan&Myers

Executive Committee Liaison
Vicki Henrickson, Progressive Agriculture Foundation

Nearly 200 attendees participated in the 2006 Agribusiness Forum that was held November 14-15 in Kansas City. This year’s Forum took place just prior to the NAFB Convention and featured industry experts from inside and outside the agricultural community. Individual speakers and panels explored topics such as the global forces shaping agriculture, biofuels, and branding.

Ann Ness, Vice President of Corporate Brand Management at Cargill, presented Repositioning the Masterbrand: The Cargill Case Study at the Forum.

Cargill is a family owned company that began as a grain elevator and has grown to 152,000 employees in 69 countries and more than 80 businesses. In 1999, Cargill made a change in their business model and launched a new identity in 4 steps over 6 years. The first step was the creation of a brand council to develop a corporate vision statement, a purpose and vision, how to approach it and to measure the performance.

Next was the brand architecture. Cargill wanted to operate as a master brand and not as a holding company. Their goal is to be the global leader by 2010.

Cargill then developed brand positioning with the help of a brand strategy firm. This firm made Cargill talk to their customers who said they do not think of Cargill as an innovator or as collaborative, but strictly as a commodities provider; but said they viewed Cargill as very smart. This research led to the creation of brand positioning. The final step was advertising strategy that focused on providing evidence of relationships through television commercials.

So, is this working to reposition the Cargill brand? Cargill measures attitude and awareness every year and what they are finding is that perceptions are broadening and improving. “We are very encouraged by results,” said Ness. Cargill has been able to measure farmer responses with focus groups around the world.

Cargill also had to change internally. They had to refocus, “changes had to be made internally in order to deliver externally. Part of Cargill’s success is their entrepreneurial spirit,” said Ness.

For more information on the Forum sessions and interviews with the speakers, visit the Forum blog written by Chuck Zimmerman, AgWired.com, in the NAMA News.

The last presentation at the Agribusiness Forum yesterday was given by Sano Shimoda, BioScience Securities.

Although the title of the session started out with “The Final Frontier . . . ,” Sano thinks we’re just beginning. He’s very optimistic about the future of American agribusiness.

In reference to biofuels, which were a topic of discussion here, he says that we’re going to have to become cost competitive in order to fully develop our capabilities.

You can hear my interview with Sano here: Sano Shimoda Interview (4 min MP3)

One of the presenters this afternoon was Hugh Whaley, Osborn & Barr Communications.

Hugh was representing the soybean industry and the United Soybean Board in particular.

He says that there was a lot of interest from the group in the kinds of soybean varieties that are in development that will help provide more oil for both food and fuel use.

He also says that feeding soybeans to animals is still the biggest use of the commodity but that may be challenged in the future as the biofuels business grows.

You can hear my interview with Hugh here: Hugh Whaley Interview (4 min MP3)

One of the presenters this afternoon was Lyle Orwig, Charleston/Orwig.

He’s being interviewed afterward during the break by Roger Ward.

Lyle was talking about the biofuels impact on food companies and their suppliers.

He says that as more commodities are turned into fuel it’s going to have an impact on the supply available for food purposes.

Out in front of the Forum sessions this afternoon you’ll find Agrimarketing Magazine on display.

Here’s Judy Knoll, Advertising Sales Manager/Customer Services taking charge of things.

Judy says to give her a call because she likes it when her phone rings.

I’ll let her explain that to you.