The Southeast Grain and Feed Association annual convention gets underway on Thursday February 23rd at the Hyatt Regency Savannah. Josh Snellings, president of the Southeast Grain & Feed Association:
“The convention is definitely growing, we’re seeing an increased number from year to year, especially for the last five years, I’d say. The biggest increase there, I’d say is from the Midwest, are just making great attendances now. The Midwestern elevators, companies from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana are starting to come to our convention.”
Snellings explains that the increase in interest from the Midwest can be attributed to the fact that most of the southeastern states are net importers of grain for the livestock industry:
“The guys in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan areas of the country there, they ship a tremendous amount of corn grain to the southeast particularly to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, on these trains for hogs and poultry, and they also ship a lot to Florida.”
Snellings outlines some of the speakers lined up for this year’s convention:
“Randy Gordon with the National Grain and Feed Association in Washington will be speaking, we will also have a Mr. Lonn Taffel, who is senior vice president ABN AMRO; he’ll speak to some of the supply and demand outlook of the industry and how it’s pertaining to prices, and a lot of people will ask him about last week’s USDA report.”
Snellings says that there’s still time to get involved in this year’s convention:
“No, it’s defiantly not too late to get involved, you can still register online at Grain & Feed Association’s website, segfa.org. This year they made it available where you could register online, instead of mailing your registration forms in, and that’s made it quite a bit easier.”
This year’s event also includes a trip to The Lady and Sons Restaurant in Savannah, the restaurant owned and operated by Paula Deen and her sons, as well as a scholarship golf outing on Saturday at The Club at Savannah Harbor.
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