Quite the man

I’ve been to Texas twice in the last two weeks; one for a work meeting, and unfortunately, one for the funeral of Ronny’s grandpa, L.S. “Bill” Pope. Grandpa Pope truly was quite the man!

Not only was he a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he served as as a B-24 Bomber pilot that flew 23 missions over Germany.

I also think he’s quite the man because he was so involved in agriculture. After coming back from service, Grandpa Pope finished his B.S. degree (1947) in Animal Science from Michigan State University and completed M.S. (1949) and Ph.D. (1952) degrees from Oklahoma State University. He joined the faculty at Oklahoma State University as a Beef Cattle Professor and served as Department Head. In 1968, he accepted the position of Associate Dean of Agriculture at Texas A&M University. From 1976 to 1986, he was Dean of Agriculture at New Mexico State University. After retiring from NMSU, he and Grandma Pope moved back to College Station and he began the TALL (Texas Agricultural Lifetime Leadership) Program. He was Executive Secretary in the IAPAL (International Association for Programs of Agricultural Leadership) organization until his death. Grandpa did international programs with Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iraq and Israel. He also received numerous awards during his career. He was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho Hall of Fame and was a Fellow in the American Society of Animal Science. He was admitted to the International Hall of Fame for Adult and Continuing Education at the University of Oklahoma and served as a Director for the Central Bank for Cooperatives. He was nationally recognized as “Agriculture’s Ambassador of Goodwill”.

He has a plaque at the Animal Science building at Texas A&M for him as well for his service to agriculture, the University, as an instructor and for his efforts in the TALL program.

Grandpa Pope was laid to rest in Marlow, Oklahoma, where Grandpa Pope's family farm is located. Ronny took me out to the farm and it has an amazing history!

The farm was purchased by Vance Mershon (Ronny's Great Grandfather - his Grandma Polly's father) who came from Missouri in the 30's. He too was involved in agriculture - he received his B.S. degree in Animal Science from the University of Missouri. The farm has been home to crops, sheep, cattle and horses. Ronny wasn't sure the history of the wagon in the pasture, but it sure looks historic sitting in position in the pasture.

It really is a pretty landscape, and in the middle of the pasture sits Ronny's future dream - a 1968 turquoise-blue pickup. His great grandpa bought it brand new to drive around the farm and it has a "three on the tree" gear shift. He hopes to someday restore it and have it become a "going to church" truck.

Great Grandpa Mershon built a house on the farm that was burnt down by high school students in the 90's - but the skeleton still stands. Seeing pictures of what it used to look like - it was a very nice house back in the day.

Another neat part of the farm were the funny looking huts. Growing up in the Southwest, I immediately thought they were made by Indians for baking! Ronny said Great Grandpa Mershon made the one on the left as a dog house, and the one on the right is a well-pump house. Innovative nonetheless!

It was a great trip to travel to Texas and Oklahoma, despite the circumstances. It gives us hope though, knowing that Grandpa Pope is celebrating in Heaven and that one day we will see him again!

The final leg of my journey: China

I realized after scanning through my blog that I didn't post on China after posting about both Japan and Taiwan in my trip with the 2010 Corn Mission to Asia! You can read about the business portion of my trip to China here. So here are a few pictures about the best parts of China that I experienced.

The two main cities that we visited in China were Shanghai and Guangzhou. One of the first things we saw in China was the Shanghai container sea port. This was ginormous and could hold up to 17 large sea vessels (which holds thousands of containers that you see going down the interstate on semi trailers). On the way to he sea port, we drove on an 18-mile bridge in the water - all you could see the water around you was water. Except for a wind farm. That's right - they constructed a wind farm in the bay!



We also got to visit some ag specific locations - like feed mills and a hog research facility. The pigs below are a Chinese breed of hogs and the people prefer the taste of their pork (which is why we send corn and DDGS from the US over to China to feed these types of hogs. We also export a log of US pork to China as well because they can't meet demand with their domestic production.). They were the ugliest and cutest things you've ever seen! And we got to wear awesome jumpsuits.

After Shanghai, we flew to Guangzhou and one of the first places we went was a dairy. Unlike the hogs, these cows were English breeds and looked just like they do in the U.S. They feed the cows a ration of chopped corn silage (from corn in China) and U.S. imported alfalfa and DDGS. They also make their own plant fertilizer from the manure.

We visited a feed mill were they import US DDGS to feed livestock and aquaculture (fish). Below is a picture of piles of DDGS, an upclose of those dried distillers grains, and the tanks where the fish are fed.



A Christmas surprise

No, this is not my puppy. But he is my parent’s, and they surprised us (and Hank) when we arrived in Colorado for Christmas!

Meet Remington (aka Remy), an Akbash puppy! He is the new ranch guard dog (to be) and will be very similar to the Great Pyrenees dogs my family has had in the past – only shorter hair!

Akbash dogs are native to Turkey and are great livestock guardian dogs. Remy’s parents lived with goats and thus thought they were goats, so I’m hoping Remy grows out of that to think he’s the pack leader!

Welcome to the family, Remy!

Beautiful Taiwan

Taiwan was the second country we visited on the 2010 Corn Mission with the U.S. Grains Council, after Japan. I was pleasantly surprised by this little island of a country – it was like a tropical mountain range. I felt like we were somewhere in between Denver and Dillon, CO, except there were no fir trees – all tropical trees!

The meetings and tours of feed mills were great as the people of Taiwan are so gracious and hospitable. Much more so than the strictness and formality of Japanese business men. You can read more about the meetings on my blog post on the Nebraska Corn Kernels that you can read here.

I want to fill this blog space with beautiful pictures from the Jianguo Holiday Flower Market that is only open this time of year on the weekends – good thing were were there! This flower market was over a mile long and was full of beautiful orchids, bonsai trees, poinsettias, roses, fountains, trees, and gardening supplies for sale. Enjoy these beautiful pictures!

{click on the small ones to make them bigger}

Technorati Tags: Taiwan,flower market,orchids,poinsettias,roses,bonsai trees

Japan Wrap-up

My trip in Asia trip seems to be speeding right along - we finished up with our meetings and tours in Japan yesterday and jumped on a 4-hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan (which felt very short compared the the 13-hour one!) I've been blogging for the Nebraska Corn Kernels blog and the The Grain Board blog, so you can read more newsy blog posts there about the trip. I'm just going to recap a little with some pictures.


Tommy and Larry enjoying Shabu Shabu Japanese Dinner



The "bullet train" we took to Sendai. Travels ~200 km/hr.

The beautiful Japanese countryside and agriculture as viewed from the bullet train.

The Ishinomaki City port. This ship was unloading corn gluten.

 

Corn mission report from Japan

**I am also blogging for the Nebraska Corn Kernels and Grain Board blogs, so some of this information is duplicated from those blogs**

We made it safely to Tokyo, Japan for our first stop on the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) Corn Mission 2010 delegation. Today, the group 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.”

Tonight we ate Japanese "hot pot" for dinner. It was a very delicious variety of beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, rice noodles and tofu The boiling broths cook the meat and veggies, kind of like an Asian fondue. The portion on the left was traditional Japanese broth, and on the right was the spicy broth, which I preferred, to cook the meat and vegetables in.

Tomorrow we are taking a bullet train to Ishinomaki City to visit a feed mill and port where U.S. corn arrives.

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