Industry Insights

“Mad Cow Disease:” this may be a reference that many American consumers might associate with the U.K. and the 1990s, or the 2003 American outbreak. April of 2012

You know spring is near as the snow starts to melt and temps begin to rise.  Another indication of spring is all the farm shows and producer meetings that are taking place.  We recently had a booth at the Shoppes at Wood Ridge Farm Show in Marshfield, Wisconsin.  It is always fun getting out and talking with farmers.

Nelson-Jameson handles products that help farmers manage issues that affect the profitability of their farms, specifically antibiotic and SCC test kits.  These topics have become of great concern with farmers as the FDA is stepping up testing frequency for antibiotics and SCC regulations are, in the process, of being lowered.

Nelson-Jameson will be exhibiting at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) Conference March 13-14 in Madison, Wisconsin.  Our farm products specialist will also be attending the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) Annual Meeting in Kansas City, MO on March 20-21 and be in DSM’s booth representing

Growing up in the Midwest in a food-industry family, I've had the opportunity to befriend an unusual amount of people that work for large food companies in varying capacities.

Even though Christmas was only three weeks ago, it feels more like months have gone by.  Time is a funny thing.  Days can feel like weeks or go by in minutes depending upon what you are doing.  I am not sure why (It could just be me, I am weird like this), but fall seems less long ago to me than the holidays  do.  This past fall I had the opportunity to attend and run our booth in Platteville, Wisconsin for the Focus on Goats Conference.

First, I would like to commend our truck drivers who weekly have to drive the routes in this area.  For those of you who have never been to this part of Wisconsin, it is quite a trip.  There seems to be some unwritten rule that outlaws any road that goes in a straight or non-hilly direction for more than a few feet.  It was like some crazy roller-coaster ride with farms peppering the hilly terrain.  In my mind I could see our trucks rolling up and down these hills bringing our customers their orders like Santa Claus.

The purpose of our presence at the goat show was to build relationships with the producers and let them know we have many lab items that would be a great fit for testing their milk and animals.  They learned a lot about what we do, but not as much as I learned about the goat dairy industry.

Goat folks, as I like to call them, are a different breed (really- no pun intended).  They are a down to earth, hard working, not afraid to get dirty, loyal people.  They take what they do very seriously, and don’t waste a lot of time on silly non- important matters.  Animal care, quality milk, and a happy life are some of their cornerstones. I visited with some of the youngest attendees who had goat herds of 30 or so.  They sold milk, soap, lotion, ice cream and yes, goat meat.  These girls also had other animals but they were now “in the freezer” I was told.

One of the most interesting stories from the lab department occurred about 12 months ago and continues to unfold. We received a call from the father of Chad Campbell, a very

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days - what does that mean to Nelson-Jameson?  (Other than the fact it is being hosted on the north side of Marshfield this year, July 12^th – 14^th, which will make it interesting to get back and forth to work due to additional traffic of the anticipated 80,000 attendees!)  What it should mean is a chance to meet with our fast growing farm customers! We are experiencing a 23% increase in sales from last year of our test kits and other farm related items.

DSM and PortaCheck will be joining Nelson-Jameson in our booth. With 600 exhibitors we want to set ourselves apart from the many other educational and commercial booths.  With the expertise of DSM and PortaCheck I am excited to think of the information these two vendors can provide to farmers to improve their milking operations.

Within our booth we will be showing various milk testing supplies (such as test kits), pH testing supplies, and a new