Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. Named to Ward’s 50
Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. was named among the prestigious 2018 Property-Casualty Ward’s 50 Companies.
The list is compiled by Ward Group, a consulting firm specializing in the insurance industry and a leading provider of industry benchmarking.
“To be named one of the 50 top P&C companies in the country is a tremendous honor,” said Darlene Wells, VFBMIC executive vice president and general manager. “It is a privilege to work for an organization that strives for and delivers excellent results. It is a testament of employees’ fortitude, focus and discipline on growing our company in a healthy, financially responsible manner that gives us a stronger financial position to grow and better serve our policyholders for the long term.”
VFBF Women’s Committee Announces Award Changes
Changes are coming to the state Women’s Committee Awards. New to the program, the Distinguished Farm Bureau Woman Award will recognize a woman for her contribution in either farm business and community activities; agricultural business and community activities; or agricultural leadership and community involvement. This award is open to all Farm Bureau women producer and associate members. It will replace the Farm Woman of the Year recognition.
The state women’s committee will also honor an Outstanding Woman in Agriculture. The recipient will be selected by the state committee and will recognize a woman’s achievement in the agriculture industry. The Farm Bureau Ambassador program will see a minor change, as each finalist will now receive $200 for their efforts, beginning at the 2019 Women’s Spring Conference.
Unfortunately, after much deliberation, the Lady Leader contest will no longer be offered.
Visit the Virginia Farm Bureau Women’s Program page at www.vafb.com for more information later this summer
Virginia Agriculture Gains New Leaders as VALOR Graduates Latest Class, Announces New Class
The Virginia Agriculture Leaders Obtaining Results (VALOR) program, the commonwealth’s premier agriculture-leadership training program, celebrated the graduation of its third class of leadership fellows at the Hotel Roanoke on July 14.
The program, which is housed at Virginia Tech within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is also preparing to welcome its fourth class of fellows, and has announced the names of those invited to begin this fall.
The Cohort III fellows, who engaged in a service project and professional development activities during the past two years, enjoyed an evening reception and dinner ceremony at the historic hotel and closed their fellowship experience with an alumni networking brunch. Each reminisced about experiences and knowledge gained throughout the program.
Virginia Ag Expo Highlights Precision Agriculture
The theme of this year’s Virginia Ag Expo on Aug. 2 is “Utilizing Precision Agriculture to Manage Challenges.”
That theme will be explored during the state’s largest agricultural field day, which will be held at Cloverfield Farm in Essex County.
A field tour will feature corn and soybean variety test plots, and the discussion will focus on precision agriculture, a management practice that makes farming more accurate with the use of information technology.
Trade War Endangers Farmers, Farm Bureau Tells Congress
AFBF Vice President Scott VanderWal
American Farm Bureau Federation Vice President Scott VanderWal and Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening today warned Congress that many farms will lose money and even go out of business entirely if the growing trade war continues. Each called for a resumption of talks and removal of tariffs that are undoing decades of progress in trade.
Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, testified separately for his state’s organization. “Agriculture has been and continues to be the tip of the spear,” the corn and soybean farmer told the committee. “Once you lose a market, it is really tough to get it back. We cannot afford to lose our place as a leader in the agricultural global marketplace.”
Farm Bureau’s Merchandiser Minute with Robert Harper- July 13, 2018
Young Farmers Talk ELDs, Broadband with DC Representatives
By Emmalee Edwards, Craig County Young Farmers
On July 10-12, a group of Farm Bureau Young Farmers from Southwest Virginia took on Washington, D.C. to meet with Congressmen and organizations such as National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Animal Ag Alliance, and BIO. We spent July 11th on Capitol Hill, meeting with Congressman Garrett and Congressman Griffith.
We divided the group between the two congressmen; those in Congressman Garrett’s district met with him, and those of us in the 9th District met with Congressman Griffith. We had four key issues to bring to Griffith’s attention: electronic logging devices (ELDs), rural broadband access, trade tariffs, and the Farm Bill. Our time with our Congressman was limited as he had been called into an important meeting (top secret, of course), so we had only five minutes to discuss the first issue – the effect of ELDs on livestock transportation. The requirement for livestock haulers to use ELDs would be detrimental to beef cattle operations in the district, where the best option for feeder calves is to ship them via trucks from Virginia to Midwest feedlots. Griffith agreed that livestock haulers should be exempt from using ELDs, and is currently pushing for further reprieve from compliance for those transporting animals.
Grain Prices Reflect Stockpiled Commodity
National grain supplies are stockpiled, which means lower profits for Virginia grain producers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a quarterly grain stockpile report June 29 that showed the nation’s corn inventory at approximately 5.31 billion bushels as of June 1, an increase of 77 million bushels from a year earlier. The national soybean inventory reached 1.22 billion bushels, which is 256 million bushels higher than in 2017.
Virginia Laboratory Gets New Tool in Protecting State’s Animals from Catastrophic Disease
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Regional Animal Health Laboratory in Harrisonburg recently was certified to perform screening testing for the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus in animals. Because of this new capability, the lab, which is part of a network operated by VDACS, will perform a valuable early warning function for the detection of Foreign Animal Diseases, including FMD.
Plows and Politics 