John Latham joined the ranks of Patrick Swayze, Kevin Bacon and Larry King when he recently served as Honorary Duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.

Hundreds of hotel guests gathered to see John direct the 5 p.m. march, which took the ducks from the distinguished Italian marble fountain in the hotel’s lobby to its rooftop where they spend their off-duty hours in the Royal Duck Palace.

The famous Peabody Duck March has been a hotel tradition since 1940, when Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day. Mr. Pembroke taught them the now-famous Peabody Duck March and became the Peabody Duckmaster. He served in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991.

Ducky Facts:
• The Peabody Ducks are five North American mallards: one drake and four hens.
• Duck is not served anywhere at The Peabody, quite possibly making Chez Philippe the only French restaurant in the world that does not serve duck.
• The Peabody Ducks do not have individual names as the hotel recognizes that its resident waterfowl are wild animals, not pets.
• The Peabody Marching Ducks have appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sesame Street, when Bert and Ernie celebrated Rubber Ducky Day, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in People magazine and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In addition, they were once a question on Jeopardy.
• Each team of ducks lives in the hotel for only three months before being retired from their Peabody duties and returned to the farm where they were raised.

Source: http://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody_ducks

Here’s a video of how the duck march works. Poultry never had it so good.

This article on the formation of Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds and our mission of remaining independent was published yesterday in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

The second sentence of the story makes the case for our entire business: “…representatives with the small north-central Iowa seed company say they’re armed with unbiased information to help make customers money.” Feel free to forward this link to anyone who might benefit from knowing the independence story.

A local power company — Alliant Energy — has begun construction of Whispering Willow Wind Farm in Franklin County. The first wind mill components started rolling in last week and the county’s first wind turbine will soon be constructed. These things are huge! Much bigger than they appear from far away.

According to wind energy experts, a completed wind turbine costs upwards of $2 million. It takes, on average, about 14 semi trailers carrying towers, blades and mechanical housing units to install one turbine. Right now, wind-generated power accounts for 1% of all energy generated in the U.S. by public and private utilities. That 1%, however, constitutes displacement of 29 million tons of coal and 90 million barrels of oil a year. The federal goal is to generate 20% of our power through wind by 2030. Iowa has surpassed California now as the second largest producer of wind energy, behind Texas.

Check it out here. We’re posting preliminary material for an upcoming summer event that promises to be a great time for all who take part. If you’re not already on Facebook, make sure you sign up as a Facebook user so you can become a “fan” of this page.

As we launch the new Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds company, a little nostalgia recounting our roots might be in order. The attached clip of our Grandma Evelyn Latham, 92, wife of our founder, the late Willard Latham, was captured several weeks ago. Here she talks about the work ethic of Willard as he was building his Latham Seed Co. from scratch back in the late 1940s. In this clip, Evelyn talks about Willard’s frustration having toiled to build an elevator, only to have the state inspectors come by and tell him it was not built high enough. The only recourse: tear it down and start all over. Which he did. It’s a great example of the perseverance needed in building a company.