In B to B Magazine, I recently read an article titled, “How to Make Your Pages Rank.” It gives tips and tricks for making your website more prominent on the web. The writer, Christopher Hosford, summarizes a study on how different search engines weight the level of importance of different websites. Here is what he has to say…
In a new study on factors that affect search engine rankings of Web pages, marketing analytics company Covario reported that the number of inbound links from other Web sites is the single most important factor in a page showing up prominently in search results.
Covario’s study—“A Statistical Analysis of Features Affecting Rank in Search Engine Results”—cited external inbound links from educational (.edu) sites, the Delicious social bookmarking site, government (.gov) sites, the blog indexer Technorati.com and Wikipedia, in that order, as returning particularly high page rankings.
To read the rest of the article and learn about the different preferences of Google and Yahoo, link here.
I ran across an interesting article on the importance of the first eleven characters in an online document. Now, I know most writers cringe at having to utilize “key words” or pay attention to the meaning of their first eleven characters of text, but studies show this makes a difference if readers decide to click on your link in a search engine or not.
Users typically see about 2 words for most list items; they’ll see a little more if the lead words are short, and only the first word if they’re long. Of course, people don’t see exactly 11 characters every time, but we picked this number to ensure uniformity across the sites we tested.
Users don’t need to predict a link’s destination with 100% accuracy based solely on its 11 leading characters. In real life, links aren’t truncated on the page. Even if users see only the first 2 words or so during their initial scan, they can immediately read more if their eyes stop on the link.
To be most effective, website hosts need to do the following:
-Allow users to confidently predict what they’ll get if they click.
-Be clearly differentiated from the other links.
-Not be misleading or promise too much.
Thanks to some much appreciated financial support from graduation monies, I have purchased some new gadgets to help me get my start. I bought a new MacBook and a Zoom H4 Recorder. Now the trick is getting accustomed to these new gadgets, and fast! A busy writer doesn’t have much time for reading instruction manuals, right?
And, now I have some questions. If you are a Mac user, what do you like best about them? What are your favorite tools on a Mac? Next, which editing software do you prefer for podcasts? Which ones are most user friendly?
Thanks for all of your support and advice! It means a lot to me!
Another ag group has joined the agriblogging ranks.
The U.S. Grains Council welcomes you to “The Grain Board.” This blog was created to serve as a sounding board for the latest trade developments, U.S. agriculture, Council happenings and whatever else comes to mind. We encourage you to comment on the postings, ask questions and share with your friends. Posts on “The Grain Board” are produced by U.S. Grains Council staff. Feel free to contact the bloggers at thegrainboard@grains.org.
The Alltech Young Scientist Award program keeps getting bigger with more entries and that means the competition level increases. This is the fourth year of the program and the awards were presented at the Symposium.
The overall winner in the undergraduate category is Fan Liu of Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China who submitted a paper on HSP70 as a new biomarker in the development and evaluation of anti-stress feed additives.
There were regional winners in both the undergraduate and graduate categories as well.
The overall winner in the graduate category is Tung M. Che, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA who submitted a paper examining the Effects of mannan oligosaccharide on immune function and disease resistance in pigs. Both these winners are pictured in between Dr. Mark Lyons and Inge Russell.
“This year’s Alltech Young Scientist Award program was a very close competition which attracted many high caliber young scientists” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “At a time when we need the brightest young minds in the world to engage in scientific study, I am delighted to present this prestigious award to such talented young students.”
Tung M. Che and Fan Liu will be awarded prizes of $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.
In recognition of their vision, inspirational efforts and leadership that has helped shape today’s cattle feeding industry, Paul F. Engler and the late William D. “W.D.” Farr are honored as the inaugural inductees into the newly established Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame.
Kuhn North America, Inc., of Brodhead, Wis., introduces the new GF 7802 T, six-rotor, trailed rotary tedder with a working width of 25′ 7″.
AutoFarm announces embedded steering control (ESC) for Envizio Pro, allowing it to work with the AutoFarm OnTrac2 GPS Assisted Steering System to provide robust steering of a broad range of equipment including tractors, sprayers, spreaders and combines.
Emily Caldwell of Beaver Falls, Pa., will serve as the 2009 editorial intern this summer at Farm and Dairy, a weekly agricultural publication based in Salem, Ohio.
Biofuels from the perspective of India and East Africa, as well as Europe and the United States, were part of the discussion at the World Ag Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.
Henk Joos with London-based D1 Oils moderated the panel focusing on an integrated approach to biofuels. He stressed that the purpose of the panel was to find solutions. “We can decide to go again in an immense debate on food versus fuel,” he said. “I would like to take a different approach. I would like with my fellow panelists to identify responsible ways to make food and fuel at the same time.”
The panelists included former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh, Lee Broughton with Enterprise, Bill Horan with 25x’25, and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa.
Dr. Leonard J. Guarraia, Chairman and CEO of the World Agricultural Forum, announced today at the 2009 World Ag Congress that his title will soon only be chairman of the organization and that Kathy Moldthan is taking over the job of CEO. Kathy has been with WAF for ten years, just before the first World Ag Congress in 1999. Prior to that, she worked in the sustainability division of Monsanto.
Kathy says her goal going forward with WAF is to take the organization from only having congresses in St. Louis to expanding into other areas of the world. “To better bring the solutions and innovative ideas that are working in one area and see if we can replicate them in other areas,” she said.
They were expecting 200 participants for this year’s congress and Kathy says there are over 260 registered from more than 20 different countries. “The theme this year is food security and looking at the technological issues related to food security,” she said. “The participants feel the panelists have been outstanding and the discussions have been robust, and some pretty innovative ideas and concepts coming out of those.” She is also pleased with the participation in this year’s Congress by a variety of stakeholder companies – from food manufacturers like Hershey and General Mills to agribusiness companies like Novus, Monsanto and AGROTAIN.
You can listen to my interview with Kathy here: waf-09-kathy.MP3
It should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.
Another company making a difference in that arena is St. Louis-based AGROTAIN International and I talked with president Mike Stegmann today about some of the ways they are helping. “Sustainability means different things to different people but at AGROTAIN International we’re talking a look at fertilizer specifically,” Mike said. “We truly believe there’s ways to use fertilizer, be more efficient, get more, cost less and still do the right thing for the environment.” AGROTAIN is the world’s largest producer of StabilizedNitrogen™ fertilizers.
Along those lines, AGROTAIN has been participating in a study with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service on the impact of nitrogen fertilizer on climate change. “We wanted to understand what the climate change benefit is of using a product like AGROTAIN to using conventional fertilizer or no fertilizer at all,” Mike says.
In fact, the study has found there is a dramatic reduction in nitrous oxide emissions when nitrogen fertilizer is applied with AGROTAIN. More on that will be revealed tomorrow here at the Congress by Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory.
Novus International is playing a major role in this year’s World Ag Congress because they are a company that is playing a major role in global food and agricultural production.
“Our mission as a company is to support sustainable, industrial animal agriculture,” says executive vice president of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni. He notes that there is a great deal of discussion about “organic” farming under the concept of sustainability. “Organic is not for the mass. You’re not feeding 6.2 billion people by going organic. We need to make sure that the people who want to spend the money for organic are not imposing the rule for the rest of the world.”
John Davis interviewed Gio here at the World Ag Congress yesterday about Novus’ role in sustainability and making food more accessible and affordable for the world. “It’s not by promoting free range chicken or organic chicken,” Gio says. He also talks about some of Novus’ products, Alimet and Santoquin, two livestock feed additives that he says have helped to “change the world” for livestock producers and meat eaters. Santoquin is actually 50 years old and has the distinction of being the first feed additive approved by FDA.
The Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Humanitarian Fund has been officially announced here at the Alltech Symposium. His name is one of the most recognizable in the world and the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world was on hand with his wife Lonnie. They’re seen here with Dr. Pearse Lyons after the announcement moments ago.
Alltech president and founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons presented Muhammad and Lonnie Ali a check for $50,000 to establish the Alltech – Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The focal point of the fund is education. Alltech and the Muhammad Ali Center will stress programs that positively impact others around the world, promote excellence and achieving one’s potential. The fund will have humanitarian and artistic components as well.
“For 29 years Alltech has believed that it is our responsibility to not only provide science-based solutions to agribusiness, but to give back to the communities in which we operate,” said Alltech president and CEO, Dr. Pearse Lyons. “The establishment of this fund and this collaboration will undoubtedly help us raise global awareness of the problems that we hope to address; particularly those that are educational or humanitarian in nature.”
On the stage this morning we heard remarks from Lonnie Ali and then Dr. Lyons. I have them recorded for you here.
The impact of trade on food and agriculture security for the global economy was the topic of the first roundtable discussion on day two of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.
Roundtable participants included moderator Gary Blumenthal, CEO of World Perspectives; Joel Velasco of Brazil’s Sugar Cane Industry Association, Cargill’s Devry Boughner, Robert Modarelli with the National Center for APEC; and Tjada McKenna of The Gates Foundation.
I am taking over for John Davis covering this event this week and hope I can do half as good a job. Thanks to John for his excellent coverage, and thanks again to Novus International for sponsoring Agwired coverage of the congress.
This morning I had an interesting Twitter exchange on the subject of bloggers vs. journalists. I don’t see the difference really and I don’t think you can lump people into those categories as if they’re mutually exclusive. I think you’ll find plenty of “journalists” on mainstream media channels without credibility and you’ll also find plenty of blogging “journalists” with plenty of credibility. That exchange became the inspiration for this week’s program which features an interview with Debbie Hildreth who is the Alltech blogger here at the Symposium I’m attending. I was the Alltech blogger last year so it was easy for me to understand what Debbie is doing as a freelancer with a new gig.
Here’s Debbie doing one of her many interviews which are winding up as YouTube videos that are also being posted on their blog.
If you’re a freelance writer or photographer you might find our interview of interest. There is a world of opportunity out there and hopefully Debbie’s story will inspire you.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 220 (12 min MP3)
We love farmers. They feed our soul. Together we are working to help our generation understand the importance of knowing where our food comes from and who produced it.
We’re not your typical “who cares” kind of young people from the Millennial Generation. Sure, we all have cell phones and we text like crazy. We have iPods and spend way too much time on Facebook and MySpace, but we care about our planet. We care about our country. We care about the American family farmer.
Few of our friends know how their food is produced. We think that is sad. And, really it is kind of scary. If we are not careful, we will become dependent on other countries to provide our food. That is not good. Who knows what goes on in other countries when it comes to growing our food? We have an idea, and it too is not good.
In an effort to create a conversation among our peers about our food, our farmers and our future, we have committed to getting connected. We want to get the word out about where our food comes from and how it is produced. We invite you to join our I Love Farmers group on Facebook and be a part of the conversation about American agriculture.
The Alltech blogger, Debbie Hildreth, has been busy. I will be featuring an interview with her in this week’s ZimmCast. Part of her duties include getting short video clips with attendees here at the Symposium. The first one I found in their YouTube channel is with Alltech Europe Director Marc Larousse. He answers the question: How are Alltech’s European facilities doing during this economic crisis?
KIDZONE is going global thanks to new support from Alltech. KIDZONE is an educational resource of Agri Aware, an Irish farm and food education organization. Teaching children about agriculture and food is something I think all of us here in America would like to see more of. The new KIDZONE resource is scheduled to launch later this year. I spoke with Dr. Pearse Lyons, pictured here with Mairead Lavery, Agri Aware, at yesterday’s press announcement. Dr. Lyons is holding up the teaching resources packet for class rooms called, “Dig In.” It is one of the items that will be translated into different languages as part of this effort. I would encourage American farm groups to look into this program.
Dr. Lyons says that he became aware of Agri Aware a few years ago and has supported it locally in Ireland since then. This new level of support is meant to allow the program to become available around the world.
I also asked him how things were going at this year’s Symposium. He says that attendance is strong at about 1,200 and that is impressive when you consider what he described as several strikes against them. For starters, the economy is discouraging travel, especially internationally. Additionally, Alltech began charging a fee for the Symposium for the first time this year. However, those factors have not dampened attendance which is testament to how important these folks believe the event is from a networking and professional improvement standpoint.
We finished today’s Alltech Symposium out on the farm. You couldn’t have asked for more picture perfect weather which is why I took photos like this one of the buffalo. You can find a lot more in the photo album.
I have a number of stories to post in the morning including an announcement by Alltech that it’s supporting a program to educate children about farm life. Actually, the company has been supporting it but now wants to help take the program “global.” More on that in the morning. Until then, enjoy the photos.
It’s official now. Our good buddy Mark Lambert is a Senior Communications Manager for the National Corn Growers Association. The picture is him hard at work during the recent NAFB Washington Watch program.
“Mark is such a valuable addition to our NCGA communications team. We are delighted to have him join the NCGA team,” said NCGA Communications Director Nancy Bunker Koester. “Our farmer members and state organizations will benefit greatly from the wealth of experience Mark brings to NCGA after working more than two decades on corn and ethanol issues for Illinois farmers.”
Previously, Lambert served as communications director for the Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Corn Marketing Board. He has been actively engaged in agriculture and related issues for more than three decades, with 20 years of experience in the corn industry and 12 years covering agri-business as a journalist and columnist for the Peoria Journal Star and Illinois Agri-News.
J.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere, has been recognized for his efforts that have “impacted the lives and livelihood of the world’s population by meeting the growing need for food.”
During a presentation after the last session today at the World Agricultural Forum in St. Louis, Syngenta Seeds President David Morgan presented Penn with the Syngenta Recognizing Contributions to Global Challenges Award for his work that has “contributed significantly to bringing plant potential to life by addressing the crucial issues of safe, affordable and reliable supplies of food, fuel, fiber and water.”
Morgan highlighted Penn’s work to calm fears after BSE in cattle was discovered to have been imported into the U.S. from Canada. He was also noted for his educational work about the enhanced safeguards put in place against BSE and helped lift bans on U.S. beef exports to other countries.
Penn told the delegates to the forum that he was very flattered, very honored and very pleased to accept the award. He hopes the award will help draw attention and better inform people of the daunting challenges facing agriculture in the future.
You can hear almost all of the award presentation (sorry, missed the first few seconds) and Penn’s acceptance remarks here: Syngentaaward.mp3
President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Bob Stallman, just finished up his part of a panel discussion at World Agricultural Forum, entitled Strategies, Actions & Policies for Long-Term Security in Agriculture & Food Production.
Right at the outset, Stallman stressed the American farmers’ commitment to making sure that not only people in the U.S. are fed but that the entire world has enough to eat.
“Any hungry person should be great cause for concern to all of us.”
Stallman says agriculture needs to figure out how it will feed the 9 billion people who will live on the planet by the year 2050… on basically the same amount of land used to feed about 6 billion today (including the nearly 3 billion who now don’t get enough to eat). But, he says global hunger has less to do with production than it does with infrastructure and politics. “Hunger in the world today is not a lack of calories. It’s a problem of distribution,” he said.
Stallman says policies, in particular, the trade protections that too many developing countries insist upon, are some of the political decisions that are having a tremendous impact on world food supplies. He also defended biofuels, which had been a bit maligned during this session, as not being to blame for the spike in food prices the world has seen. Stallman pointed out that American farmers are getting better at sustainability practices.
Stallman tells the group in St. Louis that there are some solutions to the daunting tasks world agriculture will face over the next couple of decades.
“We must continue to seek out new production technology, adapt new production technology and not fear new production technology. Those countries that choose to turn their backs on tech will be left behind.”
Stallman says open borders and open trade are also part of the solution to how to feed those 9 billion people by 2050.
You can hear more of Bob’s comments during the session here: Stallman1.mp3
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.
Thanks to some much appreciated financial support from graduation monies, I have purchased some new gadgets to help me get my start. I bought a new MacBook and a Zoom H4 Recorder. Now the trick is getting accustomed to these new gadgets, and fast! A busy writer doesn’t have much time for reading instruction manuals, right?
And, now I have some questions. If you are a Mac user, what do you like best about them? What are your favorite tools on a Mac? Next, which editing software do you prefer for podcasts? Which ones are most user friendly?
Another ag group has joined the agriblogging ranks.
The 
The overall winner in the graduate category is Tung M. Che, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA who submitted a paper examining the Effects of mannan oligosaccharide on immune function and disease resistance in pigs. Both these winners are pictured in between Dr. Mark Lyons and Inge Russell.
Biofuels from the perspective of India and East Africa, as well as Europe and the United States, were part of the discussion at the World Ag Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday. 
Dr. Leonard J. Guarraia, Chairman and CEO of the 
It should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.
The 
The impact of trade on food and agriculture security for the global economy was the topic of the first roundtable discussion on day two of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.
This morning I had an interesting Twitter exchange on the subject of bloggers vs. journalists. I don’t see the difference really and I don’t think you can lump people into those categories as if they’re mutually exclusive. I think you’ll find plenty of “journalists” on mainstream media channels without credibility and you’ll also find plenty of blogging “journalists” with plenty of credibility. That exchange became the inspiration for this week’s program which features an interview with Debbie Hildreth who is the 
Here’s Debbie doing one of her many interviews which are winding up as 
Have you heard of or visited 
KIDZONE is going global thanks to new support from Alltech. KIDZONE is an educational resource of 
Dr. Lyons says that he became aware of Agri Aware a few years ago and has supported it locally in Ireland since then. This new level of support is meant to allow the program to become available around the world.
We finished today’s Alltech Symposium out on the farm. You couldn’t have asked for more picture perfect weather which is why I took photos like this one of the buffalo. You can find a lot more in the photo album.
It’s official now. Our good buddy Mark Lambert is a Senior Communications Manager for the 
J.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere, has been recognized for his efforts that have “impacted the lives and livelihood of the world’s population by meeting the growing need for food.”
President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Bob Stallman, just finished up his part of a panel discussion at World Agricultural Forum, entitled Strategies, Actions & Policies for Long-Term Security in Agriculture & Food Production.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
