More than 50 students from Midwest universities including the University of Missouri, Kansas State University, Iowa State University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Nebraska attended. I met students whose majors ranged from animal science to agriculture education. It was great to be able to tour and learn with such a diverse group of students.
My day began bright and early at 5 a.m. when I departed MU to head to Kansas City. When our MU group arrived we enjoyed introductory presentations and delegates were split into groups. Students had the opportunity to see different animal health companies. I toured Ceva, Farmland Foods, Duff Dynamic Marketing, and the American Royal Association.
All of the tours impressed me. I was amazed that so many great agriculture companies were in Missouri. I had been to the American Royal before for events and a 4-H tour, but I enjoyed visiting with associates about opportunities the Royal has for college students. Duff Dynamic Marketing was a company that hires individuals with my major. They work on communications and marketing campaigns for national agriculture companies. I happened to run into a fellow MU ag j alumni there as well.
Farmland Foods was our lunch stop, so it was the tastiest tour destination. One of our speakers was in charge of recipes and food taste for Farmland and I am pretty sure all of our delegates would have loved to have her occupation!
I knew very little about Ceva before the trip, and now know it is one of the world's largest chicken vaccination companies. It has global operations and is expanding rapidly to meet the world's food demands by 2050. One of the leaders of their marketing department spoke to us. He began his career as a plumber and cleaned toilets at Ceva before moving up the ranks to the position he is in today (which is a substantial one in the company.) His success story was inspirational and really emphasized how hard work can pay off.
I knew very little about Ceva before the trip, and now know it is one of the world's largest chicken vaccination companies. It has global operations and is expanding rapidly to meet the world's food demands by 2050. One of the leaders of their marketing department spoke to us. He began his career as a plumber and cleaned toilets at Ceva before moving up the ranks to the position he is in today (which is a substantial one in the company.) His success story was inspirational and really emphasized how hard work can pay off.
Our day ended at a banquet where we mingled with representatives from all of the industries that our groups toured. I enjoyed speaking with representatives from Osborn and Barr and several other companies.
Overall the 2012 AFA Animal Health Corridor showed me how many animal health facilities our region hosts and the positive effect they have on our economy. I was delighted to be selected to take part in the experience and hope to attend the 2013 Corridor.
Check out the AFA Animal Health Corridor webpage to learn more:
http://www.agfuture.org/s/1342/index.aspx?sid=1342&gid=1&pgid=518
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