Zimmer named CEO of Channel Bio Corp.

KENTLAND, Ind. — Seed industry veteran Jim Zimmer has been named CEO of Channel Bio Corp. Channel Bio is part of American Seeds, Inc., a Monsanto holding company.

Zimmer replaces Aline Funk, who recently stepped down as Channel Bio’s CEO to take a position with a program called AGRA (The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa). Don Funk continues as president of Channel Bio.

Most recently, Zimmer was vice president of Monsanto’s U.S. Branded Business. He joined Monsanto in 1992 as a field sales representative. He has since held various sales, marketing and business unit leadership roles within Monsanto’s U.S. commercial organization in chemistry, germplasm, traits, biotech grain and licensing strategies.

Channel Bio is one of the largest and fastest-growing seed corn and soybean seed companies in the United States, with more than 280 full-time sales representatives working directly with row-crop farmers.

The Channel brands are Crow’s Hybrids, Kentland, Ind.; Midwest Seed Genetics, Carroll, Iowa; and NC+ Hybrids of Lincoln, Neb.

Indiana farmers win 2008 Conservationist Award

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) recently announced that Jim, Cathy and Jamie Scott, J. A. Scott Farms, Inc. of Pierceton, Ind., have been named “2008 Conservationist of the Year.”  The Scotts were named the national winner at the ASA Awards Banquet at the Commodity Classic in Nashville, Tenn.

In its seventh year, the Conservation Legacy Awards is a national program designed to recognize the outstanding environmental and conservation achievements of U.S. soybean farmers. Selection is based on each farmer’s environmental and economic program.

Judges look for dedication to the land through cropland management practices, farmstead protection and conservation and environmental management.

The Scotts were one of four regional winners of this program, from which a national winner is chosen. They scout all their fields once a week from the month prior to crop establishment until harvest and if something needs treating, they spot treat if possible. They use GPS on their sprayer to help eliminate overlaps and skips, which reduces chemical usage.

By following this approach, the Scotts need fewer chemicals because fewer weeds are going to seed and continuous no-till has reduced the amount of chemicals needed, as well.

About 50 acres of grassed buffer strips have been planted in all open ditches and hay has been planted in some highly erodible fields. Plus, concrete inlet structures and stone chutes have been built in some ditches. The Scotts have planted 35 acres of trees for wind and shelter breaks and have built two ponds to capture excess rainfall and provide water for wildlife.

Applications were scored by a panel of judges that included representatives from the Soil & Water Conservation Society, the National Assoc. of Conservation Districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Corn And Soybean Digest, Monsanto, a member of the ASA Conservation Task Force and two 2006 regional winners of this program.

Along with the ASA, this program is co-sponsored by Monsanto and The Corn And Soybean Digest.

OSU grad Wendel receives Ohio Krauss Award

WOOSTER, Ohio — Angie Wendel, a graduate of The Ohio State University’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Nutrition, has received the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s (OARDC) 2008 William E. Krauss Director’s Award for Excellence in Research, for her dissertation on the role of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in mediating lipid accumulation and diabetes.

The award, presented each year at OARDC’s annual Research Conference, honors outstanding dissertation research by an OARDC-supported graduate student. Winners receive $1,000 and a framed reprint of their research paper. Wendel’s study, Conjugated Linoleic Acid Fails to Worsen Insulin Resistance But Induces Hepatic Steatosis in the Presence of Leptin in Ob/ob Mice, appeared this year in the Journal of Lipid Research.

Her findings, a faculty nominator noted, “are important in expanding our understanding and opening new research opportunities regarding the interplay between CLA, diabetes and adipose hormones.”

Martha A. Belury, an associate professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, served as Wendel’s advisor. Wendel works as a postdoctoral scientist in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, under Rosalind Coleman, M.D.