Attention women in agriculture – there’s a new reality show in the works seeking Wonder Women who do tough jobs.
I got a notice from the casting company looking for “the hardest working women in America to celebrate the tough women who aren’t afraid of disgusting, terrifying, or even backbreaking labor. Women who are proud to be Wonder Women!”
They gave a few examples – mining, roofing, hanging from scaffolding, installing power lines, deep sea fishing, fighting fires, working in sewers, slaughterhouses – but not farming or ranching! I think ladies of the ag persuasion need to apply and show these folks the real Wonder Women of this world!
The Iowa Corn Caucus released its report card for presidential candidates today, giving grades for different policy areas related to agriculture with an overall grade for each candidate.
The highest overall grade went to Newt Gingrich, who scored straight As on every single policy issue. Second in the class was Rick Santorum, who had mostly A’s but faltered under farm programs in the areas of crop insurance and conservation. President Obama received a grade of B, as did Mitt Romney, but the rest of the four major Republican candidates got no more than a C minus. Rick Perry received that grade, while Michelle Bachmann was close behind with a D+ and both Herman Cain and Ron Paul got Ds. Cain in particular failed miserably in the energy policy category and farm programs – getting straight Fs in all those areas.
“Our purpose wasn’t to endorse any candidate, but instead to give farmers a tool that they could take with them to the caucuses in January,” said Iowa Corn Growers senior policy advisor Amanda Taylor. The survey for candidates was developed in conjunction with the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) to include ten questions directly related to agricultural issues.
ICGA president Kevin Ross noted that only half of candidates responded to the survey, so the Corn Caucus used other methods to determine the grades. “We tracked interviews, speeches, media quotes and all things related to agriculture, including voting records of candidates who held office,” he said. The candidates who did return the survey were Obama, Cain, Gingrich and Santorum.
It looks like Facebook is still the big dog with this community. In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question, “Do you use Facebook or Google+?” 50% of you said Facebook while only 7% said Google+. However, 20% said Both while 23% said Neither. Interesting. Looks like Google+ has a ways to go.
Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “With net farm income up this year, how is your income?” USDA’s Economic Research Service released it’s Net Farm Income Forecast update yesterday showing a 28% increase over 2010. The report also states, “Net cash income, at $109.8 billion, is forecast up $17.5 billion (18.9 percent) from 2010, and $34.2 billion above its 10-year average (2001-2010) of $75.6 billion.” Wow. How about you? How’s your income doing this year compared to last?
ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.
Learn more about it on their website.
In conjunction with the 130th anniversary of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Inc. (MGEX), the company will hold a celebration and auction on Friday, December 2, 2011. Numerous unique and valuable MGEX items, some dating back more than a century, will be available for bid in both live and silent auctions.
The 130th Anniversary Celebration and Auction will be held on the historic Trading Floor which dates back to 1902 when the first of three current Grain Exchange buildings was erected at the corner of South Fourth Street and South Fourth Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The Main Building housed the Trading Floor, the central location where producers, processors and millers would gather to trade wheat, oats, corn and other commodities. The cash market trading occurred on unique cash tables where sellers would show potential buyers the various grains being offered. Some of these tables, the
first of which was placed on the floor in 1902, are among the historical items up for auction. For a complete list of live and silent auction items, visit www.mgex.com/history.html.
It seems like there is always something new from BASF Crop Protection to make life a little better for farmers.
At the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk, I talked with Technical Market Manager Nick Fassler about what is new in the fungicide arena. You might remember that we just chatted with Nick earlier this year at Commodity Classic about the launch of Xemium™ and already there are new fungicides in the pipeline with that active ingredient. “We’ve been real busy developing new fungicides and new uses for these products,” Nick says. “The last two years we’ve been talking about Headline AMP and now we’ve got another new product on the horizon that combines the active ingredient Xemium with Headline to develop Priaxor™.”
Nick says the Headline plus Xemium compound will be registered on multiple row crops and specialty crops – including corn, soybeans, cereals, potatoes and tomatoes. Registration by the U.S. EPA is expected in early 2012.
BASF is also offering several new incentives for growers to get a great start on the 2012 season, according to Corn Market Manager Mike Hofer. “One of them is called ‘Investment Advantage’ which is really a first of its kind in the industry,” Mike said. “It rewards a grower who purchases a high yield package from BASF, which may contain products like Headline AMP for corn, or Headline for soybeans, or Kixor herbicide technology.”
To help growers who purchase this type of package before March 15 better manage their risk, BASF will offer a partial rebate if commodity prices fall below a certain point. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that growers maintain a healthy return on investment,” Mike says.
BASF is also expanding the Headline Advantage offer from BASF has expanded to include more BASF fungicides for the 2012 season with up to 20% savings. In addition, BASF is again partnering with John Deere Financial to bring growers Finance Advantage.
Have you ever thought about buying all the gifts mentioned in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas?” This year the cost will top $100K according to PNC Wealth Management that calculates the cost each year. They also produce an annual Christmas Price Index. Here’s the findings (pdf) this year:
A sluggish economy coupled with weak demand has kept the 2011 PNC Christmas Price Index® (PNC CPI) to a moderate gain of 3.5 percent in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
According to the 28th annual survey, the price tag for the PNC CPI is $24,263.18 in 2011, $823.80 more than last year and less than half the increase seen in 2010. Still, that comes on the heels of a more modest 1.8 percent increase two years ago at the end of the recession.
The results were revealed this morning on an enhanced web site (www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com) that includes an interactive train journey through a “winter wonderland” setting. The web site also reflects PNC’s commitment to education by teaching economic trends through the PNC CPI.
As part of its annual tradition, PNC Wealth Management also tabulates the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is the total cost of items gifted by a True Love who repeats all of the song’s verses. This holiday season is the most expensive year ever: very generous True Loves have to fork over $101,119.84 for all 364 gifts, a 4.4 percent increase compared to last year.
You can find a handy table with costs listed and compared to 2010 here (pdf). Only the three French Hens, Eight Maids-a-Milking, Nine Ladies Dancing, and 10 Lords-a-Leaping were the same price as last year. Need the lyrics? Try here.
Wheat Growers has announced Bill Pool as Director of Communications and Corporate Marketing.
“Bill Pool has a depth of understanding and knowledge of our industry that will help significantly move our communication and marketing efforts forward,” Steve Briggs, Wheat Growers Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Agronomy, said. “His experience with and connections to major agricultural enterprises will serve Wheat Growers well.”
Bill Pool is a Minnesota native who most recently was Vice President and Regional Sales Director for Farm Market iD. Prior to that he held sales and marketing positions for Technekes LLC, American Cyanamid and Cargill.
Wheat Growers is a grain and agronomy cooperative. Interestingly, members now grow more corn and soybeans than wheat!
This social media driven promotion has exceeded all expectations for results which have mainly been measured by number of entries as well as other social media interaction.
Entries can be in the form of a written essay, photo or video explaining what you’d do with a new Boomer tractor with front end loader if you won one. Here’s an example of a recent video entry.
You may not have ever heard of AgGateway, but this relatively youthful organization already has a membership that reads like a who’s who of agribusinesses and their important goal is to help efficiently share information between trading partners in the agricultural and food supply chains.
GROWMARK was one of the founding companies of AgGateway just six short years ago, growing out of an organization known as RAPID. “RAPID was really formed by the crop protection segment of the ag industry and it did what AgGateway does today,” said GROWMARK Chief Information Officer Tim Piper. AgGateway allowed the concept started by RAPID to expand into other segments of agribusiness. “Many companies like GROWMARK are involved in several other segments of the ag industry and we didn’t really have a system of developing projects and standards around interchange between trading partners in these other segments.”
So, AgGateway developed with councils for different segments of the industry. “There’s still a crop protection council, but now we also have a crop nutrition council, seed, feed, etc.,” Tim explains. And as the organization grows the councils are expanding as well, with a retail and a precision ag council added recently and more councils in the works for grains, animal health, equipment and specialty crops.
Listen to more of my conversation with Tim about AgGateway here: Tim Piper Interview
Watch a GROWMARK video about the benefits of AgGateway.
CHS Inc. announced it has signed an agreement with Solbar Industries Ltd., to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Solbar.
A special webinar focusing on dealing with the complex issues that can arise in family farm relationships will be held on Wednesday, January 11 beginning at 2 p.m. CST.
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has named Greg Akaki, farm director at the Kansas Ag Network and WIBW radio, Topeka, Kan., the 2011 Farm Broadcaster of the Year.
I could crack some walnuts with this thing.
I could break open the ice that forms in the horse’s water tank.
I could threaten … well … better not.
I could pound in some nails with this thing.
Or I could use it for its intended purpose – to pull nails.
Today, I’d just flip over the hammer and yank them out by their head, but back in 1904 when this was patented, they used it to pull nails.
It kind of looks like a toenail trimmer, too. I pity the poor soul that has toenails that big!
At the NAFB Trade Talk I visited with Russ Berndt, Becker Underwood. We had visited earlier this year at the Ag Media Summit where we talked about their bio-based, growth-promoter for soybeans, Vault HP. Russ says that’s still the big news with Becker Underwood.
Russ says they’ve had a big increase in sales this year which is the second year the product has been out. He thinks the return on investment that growers are seeing is driving this increase. Looking ahead to 2012 he encourages growers who saw flooding or water-logged fields to consider using a seed treatment that contains an inoculant product.
Maximizing corn yields in 2012 was the theme of information shared during the NAFB Trade Talk this year by FMC. I visited with Gail Stratman (not pictured), FMC Midwest Technical Lead to find out what’s new with FMC. He says that as demand for corn continues to grow worldwide, farmers are trying to eke out every bushel they can from their crop. He provides some thoughts for how to achieve this using FMC products.
Listen to my interview with Gail to learn more about how FMC products can help increase corn yields here: Interview with Gail Stratman
The Illinois 4-H Livestock Judging Team bested a field of 28 states to become the 2011 national champions at the National 4-H Livestock Judging Contest.
The Mid-America Alfalfa Expo & Conference has announced its program for the 2012 event, which features an impressive line-up of alfalfa and agriculture experts as well as an industry trade show and auction.
Soybean farmers will gather Jan. 11, 2012, in Topeka for the Kansas Soybean Expo, themed “Kansas Soybeans: Growing Opportunities.”
For starters, we can’t say enough how much we appreciate our clients and sponsors. Your support means more than we can say. We also thank everyone in the ZimmComm community. We’ll continue to strive to bring you our best. We’re also thankful to America’s farmers and everyone involved in the production/processing/distribution of food.
A few months ago, we cleaned out my parents’ house that they lived in since I was just 9 months old. Without giving away my age, let’s just say it’s been a few years. In the boxes buried in basement closets, we found all sorts of things from when my brother and I were kids: flattened basketballs, R2D2, Strawberry Shortcake, whiffle ball and bat, and these old ice skates.
In my town of 120 people, across the road from our house was a ¼ acre field. Each winter, the farmer would flood the field to make a skating rink for the kids in town…all six of us. The nice part was, mom could just yell out the front door when it was time for supper.
I didn’t master the ice skates like I did the roller skates though I used to lay awake at night and dream of doing a triple lutz. That was also back in the day when a few hours in the cold didn’t phase me and now if I’m out for more than 10 minutes I’m claiming frostbite so I can head back to the house.
These skates put a few laps on around the old rink, but you had to watch out for corn stalks sticking up through the ice. I was always glad when he rotated to soybeans – it made for a cleaner ice skating surface!
Thanksgiving dinner this year will cost more, but it’s still a bargain no matter how you slice it.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the retail cost of menu items for a classic Thanksgiving dinner including turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the basic trimmings increased about 13 percent this year. That may seem like a lot, but it still means that the average cost to feed a hungry table of ten is less than $50 – not even five bucks a plate. Try to get that in any other country for the same price!
“The quality and variety of food produced for our dinner tables on America’s diverse farms and ranches sets us apart from our contemporaries around the world,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “It is an honor for our farm and ranch families to produce the food from our nation’s land for family Thanksgiving celebrations.”
The turkey itself is what gobbled up most of the price increase this year. According to AFBF, a 16-pound turkey will cost about $21.57 this year at $1.35 per pound, an increase of about 25 cents per pound over last year. “Turkey prices are higher this year primarily due to strong consumer demand both here in the U.S. and globally,” said AFBF economist John Anderson.
Those into the organic scene can expect to pay double the amount for the average Thanksgiving meal this year, according to the Arizona Farm Bureau. The Organic Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings will cost $106.39, with a 16-pound organic turkey at $63.84 or $3.99 per pound. But really, even that is a bargain at just over $10 per person.
So, gobble up and give thanks this week for the most abundant and affordable food supply in the world.
During the recent NAFB convention, AgriTalk recorded a panel discussion about new research on Atrazine. This herbicide, which has been on the market for more than 50 years is very beneficial from an economic and environmental standpoint in the production of corn, sorghum and sugar cane according to this new research.
I interviewed one of those researchers, Dr. Mike Owen, during the NAFB Trade Talk in the Syngenta booth. He says his role was to investigate the issue of herbicide resistance. He says the information basically reinforces what most people already knew about the impact of using glyphosate resistant crops with glyphosate to the exclusion of a lot of the other tools in the agricultural toolbox. He says farmers are still in denial about this issue. They need to diversity in weed management! You can find a number of links on this subject posted by Dr. Owen here.
According to a release from Syngenta (pdf) on this subject:
U.S. consumers and society benefit from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by up to $4.8 billion per year, due to increased yield as well as decreased producer costs and reduced soil erosion, according to new studies released today in Kansas City.
In addition, the U.S. economy benefits from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by as much as $22 billion over a five-year period. Benefits to farmers and consumers from the triazine herbicides include increased corn, sorghum and sugar cane crop yields, lower weed-control costs, significantly reduced soil erosion and less carbon released into the atmosphere. Atrazine and the triazine herbicides account for as many as 48,000 American jobs in corn production alone.
You can watch the AgriTalk program with all the researchers, as they share highlights of the new data, documenting atrazine’s impact on weed management, crop yields and jobs.
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board is enjoying the best relationships with its contractors in years according to new CEO Polly Ruhland. I spoke with Polly, pictured on the right, at the NAFB Trade Talk session to find out how things are going after some of the recent changes.
Polly says that the Beef Board is taking a look at the structure of its joint committees to see if they can be better or re-structured. She says they’re also looking at their by-laws and some of the antiquated language that’s now twenty five years old. The Beef Checkoff is celebrating its silver anniversary. Polly also mentions that they’re starting a big life cycle analysis project that “allows us to put metrics on how we’re doing as far as sustainability goes and to communicate those to consumers.”
At the recent NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference one of our panel discussions focused on “Trends In Energy/Alternative Fuels.” On the panel were Nathan Schock, POET & Matt Roberts, PhD.
What are the main influences escalating the demand for ethanol and other plant-based energy? This session examines the trends in the alternative fuel market and the initiatives needed to drive the production to meet the demand. You’ll also discover the messages and opportunities on which ag communicators and marketers need to focus.
Thanks to Paulsen Marketing for supplying this video clip with Nathan who talks about government’s role in ethanol’s future.
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.
I got a notice from the casting company looking for “the hardest working women in America to celebrate the tough women who aren’t afraid of disgusting, terrifying, or even backbreaking labor. Women who are proud to be Wonder Women!”
The 
At the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk, I talked with Technical Market Manager Nick Fassler about what is new in the fungicide arena. You might remember that we just chatted with 
BASF is also offering 
“The quality and variety of food produced for our dinner tables on America’s diverse farms and ranches sets us apart from our contemporaries around the world,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “It is an honor for our farm and ranch families to produce the food from our nation’s land for family Thanksgiving celebrations.” 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
