With so many people working from home today, it would benefit all of us to find online learning resources. This includes industry events that ordinarily would have been held in person, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic are now being held virtually.
When I learned of the Kansas Ag Growth Summit, hosted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA), I was pleasantly surprised of all the sessions that the summit included. The sessions, that were spaced out over about one month’s time, covered numerous agricultural sectors, as well as sessions on topics that pertained to numerous agricultural industries on such as trade and protecting the supply chain during the pandemic.
The sessions that dealt with particular sectors included poultry, feed and forage, soybeans and other oilseeds, animal health, pork, beef, corn, wheat, sorghum, dairy, and pet food, among others.
The speakers were knowledgeable and authoritative, and they represented a good cross-section of the industries in which they work. For example, the poultry session covered the broiler, turkey and egg industries, and included speakers from Simmons Food, Cargill, Butterball and Cal-Maine Foods.
The WATT Global Media team so far has produced a number of articles based on content from the summit sessions, and I don’t believe we are finished yet.
Here are links to what we have reported so far:
- Set the community tone for COVID-19 prevention efforts
- Cargill leader: COVID-19 increased turkey’s market share
- Don’t let COVID-19 be a workers’ compensation issue
- Want to join poultry industry? Network, network, network
- Lessons learned by the pork industry from COVID-19
- ASF situation may have actually helped South Korea
- Pet food production tech creates need for skilled labor
The sessions from July and August can be accessed on YouTube, so if you missed them, you still have a chance to check them out.
The possibility of other summits?
I want to thank the KDA and all involved for bringing us this valuable learning experience, and would encourage other state agricultural agencies to check out those sessions and give some thought about organizing similar summits germane to their own agricultural industries. I have a hunch that agricultural professionals within your state’s borders and beyond would appreciate it.
