How many of you will be attending Commodity Classic this week? No, don’t reply because I know a lot of you will. If you’re twittering from there then use this hashtag: #cclassic. What’s a hashtag? Follow this link. If you’re not a Twitterer but want to keep up with the conversation then you can use the Twitter Search Engine like this.
Cindy, Joanna and I will arrive on Wednesday which is when the games really begin. We’ll be doing some significant event blogging here so feel free to check in often.
I know I’m a Mac guy but I thought I’d try out one of the new netbooks which so far are only in the PC world. So today I’m trying out an HP Mini. Just got it set up.
This is a photo from the built in camera. Not great quality but . . . given the subject matter. So, why a mini? Well, after researching and thinking about it for a while I think it’s a convenience thing.
Let’s say my Mac is tied up doing a live video stream (it will be at the National Ethanol Conference next week) and yet I still want to be live blogging or tweeting. I’ve got my iPhone of course but these things are so small and they are a full computer that I thought I’d try it out. Plus we’re talking less than $400. So, we’ll see. Hopefully, Cindy will like it and let me keep it.
Monsanto is sponsoring a Commodity Classic blogger once again this year. Thanks to Tyne Morgan, former Classic blogger herself, for the heads up. This year Brooke Hoelscher will be providing her perspective on the Classic happenings in Grapevine, TX. Here’s a little bit about Brooke.
I am a junior Agriculture Communications and Journalism major at Texas A&M University. I study the principals of professional writing, editing, public relations, and advertising in the agriculture industry. I plan to graduate in December 2009 and pursue a career in marketing and public relations.
There’s an interesting story in yesterday’s N.Y. Times titled, “Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research.” Apparently a group of university scientists has filed this statement to the EPA which the story says will be holding meetings next week on biotech crops and was seeking public comments.
“Technology/stewardship agreements required for the purchase of genetically modified seed explicitly prohibit research. These agreements inhibit public scientists from pursuing their mandated role on behalf of the public good unless the research is approved by industry. As a result of restricted access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology, its performance, its management implications, IRM, and its interactions with insect biology. Consequently, data flowing to an EPA Scientific Advisory Panel from the public sector is unduly limited.”
The seed companies require contracts to purchase their genetically modified seed and therein lies the concerns and frustrations apparently. It makes a good read just prior to Commodity Classic next week when seed companies will be exhibiting while the EPA is meeting.
Still wondering about social networking? How about this, from Ken Wurdeman’s Twitter account, which points to a note in the Ervin Group Facebook page.
Congratulations to Jack Moyle Jr. of Moyle Irrigation, Enterprise, Utah, winner of this iPod Nano, courtesy of Ervin Group.
Jack submitted the winning story idea for Lindsay Corporation’s “Irrigation Advances” magazine, which is written and designed by Ervin Group. Ervin Group sponsored the story idea contest as part of Lindsay’s recent dealer meeting. Jack suggested a story about how his grower-customers are using precision technology to increase profitability.
Moyle Irrigation has been a Zimmatic dealer for nearly three decades.
When my professor in my class, Digital Media Production, told us that we were required to purchase a Flip Ultra Video Recorder for class, I was disgusted. Great, this is just what I need…buying a junky piece of equipment that I will never use after this class.
However, my bad attitude didn’t last for long. As I started to use the video equipment, along with Apple’s Final Cut Express for editing, I realized that this handy gadget may extend to the start of my career as a journalist in May. Although this tiny camera doesn’t look like the traditional video equipment used by professionals, it’s a convenient to use on the run. Its small size fits in my pocket, making it easier to carry my notebook and photography equipment on an assignment. The best part is that it films in HD, so the picture is high quality and the sound works great without the use of a microphone.
To say the least, after only a few uses, I’m a fan of this equipment, and I’m glad I made the purchase. Check out the links I provided above to learn more about the editing program and this video camera. They are pretty affordable and a lot of fun to use. Let me know if you decide to make the purchase. I want to hear about your future video projects!
Cooperatives Working Together has now finished the farm audits of its sixth herd retirement round since the program was started in 2003, removing 50,630 cows that produced almost one billion pounds of milk (186 herds in 33 states).
Join us on March 12, as the Agriculture Council of America (ACA) hosts two major events in Washington, DC: the Mix-and-Mingle Luncheon and the National Celebration of Agriculture Dinner. Click here to sign up for the luncheon. Dinner tickets can be purchased here.
In response to food price inflation and the worldwide economic crisis, Cargill has made an unprecedented gift of $1 million to The Global FoodBanking Network.
AgCareers.com is hosting a Webinar for human resources professionals: “Improve On-Boarding — Impact Employee Retention”, March 13, at 11:00 am (EST).
The professional agriblogger has to be able to work in any environment. This was my Murfreesboro studio setup at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum for today’s John Deere Drive Green event. It’s a very nice facility too.
I’m set up on the upper level about 40 feet from the top of the bleachers. A very nice facility representative got me a table and a chair and set me up next to power outlets. The best news is open wireless internet access.
So, although the show is over for the day, my Mac is keeping me company while I get some photos uploaded along with some posting. I’ll be back out on location again tomorrow morning before returning to ZimmComm World Headquarters.
I recently signed up for a newsletter hosted by Pharo Cattle Company (PCC). With tens of thousands of readers, I figured I could learn something from Kit Pharo and his crew that puts together this newsletter and marketing tool for his cattle operation.
These PCC updates arrive in my inbox and include: a welcome letter, quotes, guest editorial pieces, reader letters, PCC speaking engagement dates and more. I’m amazed at the content of these newsletters, and I’m impressed about the marketing approach this cattle operation is taking. It seems to be an effective way to reach livestock enthusiasts, potential cattle buyers and those interested in agriculture.
Today, I wanted to ask everybody what they think about newsletters? Is this a good tool to reach an audience that might not otherwise come to your site on a normal basis? What separates a good newsletter from a flop?
Guess which one is Amy Cowen? I caught these two in the media room at the Cattle Industry Convention. Hint: I got the release from Angie Denton.
Well, let’s say congratulations to Amy since she’s now the new Director of Youth Activities and Foundation for the American Hereford Association.
Cowan has served the Association in various capacities since she graduated college in 1998. Most recently she worked as the marketing and national shows coordinator, where she worked closely with Chris Stephens, former youth activities director.
AHA Executive Vice President Craig Huffhines says, “I can’t tell you how excited I am that Amy accepted the job. I don’t think we’ll skip a beat with the growth and excitement in our Hereford youth program.”
As director of youth activities, Cowan will oversee the National Junior Hereford Association (NJHA), which is one of the largest youth organizations in the country with more than 2,000 members, and the Hereford Youth Foundation of America (HYFA). HYFA is a not-for-profit organization, which financially supports youth education, scholarship and research.
At the Cattle Industry Convention I attended a Pfizer Animal Health breakfast and interviewed Dr. Dale Grotelueschen. In the picture he’s getting the same treatment from Evan Slack.
Dr. Grotelueschen was there to talk about a partnership between Pfizer and Michigan State University to eradicate BVD (that’s bovine viral diarrhea in case you don’t know). Basically, they’re starting with a regional area which is the upper peninsula in Michigan. It provides a relatively easy area to control for the project. This is a pretty significant disease which costs the cattle industry millions of dollars every year. Hopefully, if the project is successful it can be replicated in other areas.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Grotelueschen here: cic-09-pfizer.mp3
The nomination forms for the 2009 Grower Achievement Award program are open online. All grower operations throughout the U.S. are eligible to enter or nominate. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2009.
Final preparations are underway towards the opening of the three programs to be held at the Galillee College study centre, Israel between March 19 and April 6, 2009: Water and Crop Production Management; Agribusiness and Export Marketing Management; and The Role of Agro technology in Poverty Alleviation and Food Security. Apply to one of the programs here.
Don Guy has joined United Phosphorus, Inc. as the Director of Marketing and Field Development.
The U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) board of directors unanimously elected wheat grower Randy Suess of Colfax, WA, Secretary-Treasurer at the USW Winter Board Meeting in Washington, D.C. Click here for all other board appointments.
We told you in last week’s ZimmCast about the Communicating Renewables Summit coming up in Minneapolis this April. This conference is designed specifically for the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders and the media.
Conference organizer Joanna Schroeder with 4RCommunications has just released a new promotional video about the summit – now live on YouTube for your viewing pleasure!
The members of Cooperatives Working Together voted to fund the self-help program for two full years, from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2010, to help bring the dairy supply into balance with shrinking demand.
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) released the ISAAA annual report “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops 2008.”
U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) invites anyone who is part of the U.S. wheat industry to submit photographs for possible use in its 2010 calendar. The winning photographers will receive $100 each from USW. This year, USW is looking for non-commercial photographs that illustrate the theme “The Wheat You Want from Producers You Can Depend On.” Entries must be submitted to USW by Aug. 1, 2009.
Schillinger Seed has named Tony Nikkel as Operations Manager for the company. In his new role, Nikkel will be responsible for directing the production, manufacturing and logistic activities for Schillinger Seed including eMerge Genetics.
I know a lot of you are looking ahead to Commodity Classic but Cindy and I have a whole lot of event coverage happening before next Wednesday in Grapevine.
To start with, I’m heading on over to Murfreesboro, TN today to get ready for the next Drive Green Utility Tractor Show event at the Miller Coliseum. That’s going to take place tomorrow.
Then Cindy and I head to San Antonio this weekend for the 2009 National Ethanol Conference. We’re going to be biofuels blogging for the Renewable Fuels Association on a variety of web locations, including here on AgWired. We’ll also be live blogging for RFA on their conference blog. We’ll be taking advantage of some our new tools at the event so keep us in mind if you’re interested to see how the ZimmComm team handles an event online. We’re also going to be working with our good friend, Joanna Schroeder, Communicating Renewables, who will be assisting our coverage on our Domestic Fuel site at both the NEC and Commodity Classic.
Okay farm podcasters. There is yet a new tool over which you can drool. I have always been a Marantz fan and this one looks to be a great offering. I know I pointed it out before but now you can find it for sale at BSW right now.
The Marantz PMD661 is a versatile, professional handheld PCM/MP3 recorder based on the popular PMD660, offering a streamlined form factor, a superior feature set, and the use of SD flash media. Major new design innovations include a smaller footprint and an improved top facia layout with fewer buttons as well as more highly developed use of multi-functional operation. The PMD661′s compact size, combined with the improved control layout, ensures comprehensive single-handed operation.
No, Cindy, I’m not ordering one (not that I’m tempted or anything). BTW, BSW also has the Tascam DR07 on sale too.
A pretty broad coalition of ag groups has launched a campaign to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) also known as the “card check” bill. This looks like the perfect opportunity for a Twitter feed, blog and podcast.
Led by co-chairs Western Growers, the California Farm Bureau and the California Grape and Tree Fruit League, Agriculture for a Democratic Workplace (ADW) unveiled its Web site (www.coalitionforagriculture.org) with information and tools coalition members may use to contact legislators and voice their opposition to the EFCA.
Labor is making the EFCA a top priority in Congress this year. The EFCA would radically alter 75 years of labor law governing the rights of employees by, among other things, effectively eliminating NLRB-supervised secret ballot elections in favor of “card check,” thereby enabling unions to organize employees merely by convincing or coercing a majority of them to sign cards.
Along with national partners like the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, ADW intends to let the nation’s leaders know that agricultural workers, employers, associations and organizations will fight to protect the right to a federally supervised secret ballot when workers are deciding whether or not to join a union.
“These are tenuous economic times,” says Tom Nassif, President and CEO of Western Growers. “We need to make small businesses, including domestic family farms, more competitive and incentivize the growth of new business which will encourage job creation. Passage of the EFCA will result in just the opposite.”
I’ve just got to point you to Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasions, once again. He works for Edelman Digital and one of his fellow digerati (Dave Coustan) will be on my breakout session panel at the upcoming NAMA Conference. Steve just did a couple of posts that anyone in communications and marketing ought to read. I’m going to take the liberty of pointing you to a couple of his remarks. I’m also going to include a remark from a recent Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine, post that ought to give you pause as well.
In a post titled, “Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009:” The Power of Pull – Where push once ruled, it’s now equally important to create digital content that people discover through search
How hard is this for the traditionalist (public relations and journalism) to understand? Very! The objections include things like, “I can’t control it” and “The numbers are small.”
In a post titled “The Newspaper Reporter of the Future is Here Today,” Steve points to the work of Peter Abraham, who is covering the New York Yankees for a local newspaper. Abraham is blogging, including live with CoveritLive, podcasting, posting pictures. Here’s what Steve says about it:
Now imagine for a moment that Abraham wasn’t a Yankees beat writer but instead covering your company or industry for the business section. Or imagine she is the newspaper’s food columnist. This multi-platform method of engaging is right for all of them. If every reporter did this on staff they can build not only a more engaged audience, but also redefine local media since it’s all potentially global.
For PR professionals, this is a boon. More content creates more opportunities for us to tell our stories and to also engage journalists using these same channels. If we’re not there as individuals and companies then we won’t be top of mind.
What Abraham is doing represents not only the future of journalism but also what PR professionals themselves need to do to build connections in the years ahead.
Now, keeping in mind what Steve says above, read this comment from a recent post by Jeff Jarvis. His post is titled, “TV’s Next,” in which he writes about the demise of newspapers and explains why he believes broadcasting is next.
It’s a failure of distribution as a business model. Distribution is a scarcity business: ‘I control the tower/press/wire and you don’t and that’s what makes my business.’ Not long ago, they said that owning these channels was tantamount to owning a mint. No more. The same was said of content. But it’s relationships (read: links) that create value today.
The local TV and radio business, once a privilege to be part of, is next to fall. Timber.
How is your company or media outlet making sure you survive the digital information transition? Do you agree with Steve and Jeff or disagree? Do you still think you can control your customers or subscribers and force them into your “domain?”
Charlie O’Brien of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has been named to the Farm Foundation’s Round Table, which is an invitational discussion forum of leaders from agribusiness, government, academic and agricultural-related interest groups. O’Brien is AEM’s vice president of agricultural services.
Agri-Inject, Inc. now offers Mister Mist’r Ultra, a new generation of their injection check valve for injection systems.
Challenger introduces the most powerful and innovative row crop tractor in North America — the Challenger MT600C Series, offering four models with maximum gross engine horsepower from 270 hp to 350 hp.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) was presented with one of the wheat industries most prestigious awards, The Wheat Advocate Award.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
How many of you will be attending Commodity Classic this week? No, don’t reply because I know a lot of you will. If you’re twittering from there then use this hashtag: #cclassic. What’s a hashtag? Follow this link. If you’re not a Twitterer but want to keep up with the conversation then you can use the Twitter Search Engine like this.
I know I’m a Mac guy but I thought I’d try out one of the new netbooks which so far are only in the PC world. So today I’m trying out an 
Monsanto is sponsoring a 
Still wondering about social networking? How about this, from Ken Wurdeman’s 
However, my bad attitude didn’t last for long. As I started to use the video equipment, along with Apple’s 
The professional agriblogger has to be able to work in any environment. This was my Murfreesboro studio setup at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum for today’s 
I recently signed up for a newsletter hosted by 
Guess which one is Amy Cowen? I caught these two in the media room at the Cattle Industry Convention. Hint: I got the release from Angie Denton.
At the Cattle Industry Convention I attended a 
We told you in 
I know a lot of you are looking ahead to Commodity Classic but Cindy and I have a whole lot of event coverage happening before next Wednesday in Grapevine.
Okay farm podcasters. There is yet a new tool over which you can drool. I have always been a Marantz fan and this one looks to be a great offering. I know I 
A pretty broad coalition of ag groups has launched a campaign to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) also known as the “card check” bill. This looks like the perfect opportunity for a Twitter feed, blog and podcast.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
