The Propane Education & Research Council and heater manufacturer L.B. White have joined forces on a research project that could lead to the development of a more efficient livestock building heating system.
The Indiana 4-H Congress brings together top 4-H youth for leadership training and for the awarding of over $30,000 in scholarships. Sponsored by CountryMark and Ice Miller LLP, the program presents awards in a variety of achievement categories.
The USDA is accepting comments on a proposed rule to amend the federal marketing order regulating tart cherries grown in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Monty’s Plant Food Company has introduced Agrihance, a three-step nutrient management program to promote crop growth from planting to harvest..
A former U.S. Senator and the first woman president of NAFB are the newest members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Senator Conrad Burns of Montana founded the Northern Ag Network in the 1970s before getting into politics. He was only the second Republican ever elected from the state of Montana, serving for 18 years in the Senate.
The lovely Colleen Callahan, whose married name is actually Burns (no relation to Conrad), becomes the first woman to be inducted in the NAFB Hall of Fame. She was the first female NAFB president and currently serves as Illinois State Director for USDA Rural Development.
I videoed Conrad’s comments after receiving his award and stripped off the audio. Not the best quality, but I am glad I caught it. Some great comments here. Conrad Burns at NAFB
The star-studded NAFB Night of Honors paid tribute Thursday night to several who represent excellence in farm broadcasting.
The Dix Harper Meritorious Service Award was presented to the recently retired John Vasicheck of Red River Farm Network, who has been a member of NAFB since 1994 and has had not one, not two – but THREE NAFB past presidents on staff at RRFN.
The New Holland Oscar in Agriculture was presented to Tony Purcell, Agri-Business Director for Texas State Networks. This is the 4th time Tony has won the Oscar in his 45 year career.
The Herb Plambeck Awards for Creative Excellence were presented to Bayer CropScience and agency BBDO for the Poncho/VOTiVO corn seed treatment spot, while the United Soybean Board and Osborn&Barr received the best series award for the “Beyond the Elevator” campaign.
The New Holland Boomer Tractor that has put in time at Jay Leno’s Garage is now going to the auction block to raise funds for a good cause. Nicknamed “Lil Tug,” by the crew at Jay’s Garage, the tractor made an appearance at the NAFB Convention before starting a tour that ends at auction in January. At the same time, New Holland announced a discount/contribution initiative to coincide with the fundraising effort with the tractor auction. Pictured is Abe Hughes, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for New Holland Agricultural Business in North America, with Lil Tug.
New Holland and Jay Leno have spearheaded the program that will see the ‘Lil Tug auctioned for charity at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona on January 21, 2012.
Proceeds from the tractor auction will go to the Fisher House Foundation, best known for its network of comfort homes built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers where families can stay while a loved one is receiving treatment. The Foundation also ensures that families of service men and women wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan are not burdened with unnecessary expense during a time of crisis.
In grateful recognition of the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces and their families, New Holland Agriculture announced today that effective on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2011 and continuing through January 21, 2012, it will offer U.S veterans and military personnel a $300 discount on the purchase of New Holland Boomer™ compact tractor models 30, 35, 40 and 50 purchased in North America. New Holland will also donate $100 to the Fisher House Foundation for every Boomer compact tractor sold in North America during the discount period.
“This discount and contribution program will further enhance the charitable efforts accomplished by the Fisher House Foundation,” said Abe Hughes, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for New Holland Agricultural Business in North America. “Agriculture has always been one of the backbones of America and it is very fitting that our industry steps forward once again to contribute to not only the courageous members of the Armed Forces, but also to a great role being taken by the Fisher House Foundation.”
I spoke with Abe during the NAFB convention. You can hear more about the programs in our interview: Interview with Abe Hughes
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack once again paid a visit to the nation’s farm broadcasters at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting in Kansas City where he commmented on a number of issues important to farmers and ranchers.
The secretary led with USDA’s announcement today on record growth of U.S. agricultural exports in 2011. “I’m pleased to report that we reached a record amount of $137.4 billion of agricultural exports,” Vilsack said. “This is $22.5 billion higher than the export number last year and testimony to the extraordinary productivity, quality and affordability of what American farmers and ranchers are producing, growing and raising.” He noted that agriculture supports 1.15 million jobs in the economy – 1 out of every 12 jobs in the country are connected to agriculture.
Other topics Vilsack addressed included trade, government regulation, rural development, Farm Bill, cutting the deficit, GIPSA and more.
Do you have a favorite bag or basket or box that you use in the house to carry laundry or magazines or a stack of papers to be filed? I have a linen bag inside for just that reason, and a 5-gallon bucket outside for the same. Outside I fill my bucket with weeds from the garden, leaves and sticks, trash to be hauled to the burn pile and anything else I can think of.
It’s the “everything basket”.
That’s what I call this old fruit basket. When grandpa first acquired it, it came filled with apples or pears. He then kept the basket and on a daily basis you can see him hauling it across the front yard filled with grass clippings, leaves, weeds and any other yard waste he may find.
I believe grandma has another one for taking laundry and clothes pins out to the clothesline and to hold gardening hand tools in the garage.
I think they’re pretty handy old baskets. Back then, they thought of everything.
Three aspiring agricultural communicators were awarded scholarships Wednesday from the NAFB Foundation to continue their education.
One of the three was unable to attend the Foundation awards luncheon. He is Nathan Vickers, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York. Nathan is from a southwest Missouri farm family and received his undergraduate degree from Truman State University in Kirksville before heading to the Empire State to continue his education and he now has another $4000 to help with those expenses.
Texas Tech University junior Lauren Bogle (pictured here on the right) is the other $4000 NAFB scholarship winner. Lauren grew up on a crop and livestock operation in New Mexico and is majoring in Agricultural Communications.
Carah Hart (left) is this year’s recipient of the Glenn Kummerow Memorial Scholarship of $5000. Carah is a junior at the University of Missouri-Columia where she is pursuing a degree in Agricultural Journalism. She dreams of becoming a farm director for a Midwest radio station or network.
The scholarships are funded by donations to the NAFB Foundation and the major annual fundraising auction here at the annual meeting, which will be held on Thursday evening.
The new President of the National Agri-Marketing Association is Beth Burgy, Broadhead+Co, pictured on the right with now past President Vicki Henrickson, BCS Communications. Vicki is holding her award for serving as the NAMA commander in chief for the last year.
Thank you Vicki for your service and congratulations to Beth for her election. I look forward to working with her on the NAMA Executive Committee in 2012!
I have an interview with Beth that will be featured in next week’s ZimmCast.
Today NAMA presented their Professional Development Awards of Excellence during the Trends in Agriculture conference. Here are three of the winners (l-r) Stephanie Gable, Novus International – Product/Species Management; yours truly – Public Relations and Margaret Fogarty, Farm Credit – Marketing Communications. Not pictured because she had to attend another conference is Sue Lee, Farm Journal Media – Sales. However, Sue joined via recorded video remarks. I can’t tell you how much this award means to me and want to thank NAMA and my nominator!
I spoke with Margaret and asked her what her award meant to her and what she sees as opportunities in agriculture today. You can listen to my interview with Margaret here: Interview with Margaret Fogarty
Stephanie turned the tables on me and interviewed me about my award. Now how cool is that? I think she makes a good farm podcaster. You can listen to Stephanie interview me here: Stephanie Interviews Me
Mark Ramsey of Mark Ramsey Media offered his insights for agricultural media during the general professional improvement session on Wednesday morning at the NAFB convention in Kansas City.
Mark believes that as broadcasters continue to integrate digital and social media technology, it will completely redefine the meaning of radio. “The reality is, we are all media,” Mark says. “The biggest thing broadcasters have to leverage are the relationships we have between our consumers and our advertisers in our presence.”
Mark is also sharing his insights during a break out session on Wednesday afternoon.
The 68th Annual NAFB Convention is officially underway in Kansas City. Hundreds of broadcast council and allied industry members are already working hard in between catching up with friends we see only once a year!
Our thanks to BASF for providing so much at the NAFB meeting to help farm broadcasters continue to provide “Insight for Agriculture – Every Day” – even when they are on the road and away from the studio. Not only is BASF sponsoring the broadcast room, as always, they are also sponsoring the internet access – which is absolutely necessary and no small expense at any convention.
The photo album is up and will continue to be updated throughout the meeting all week. Stay tuned!
Pfizer Animal Health has added to the expertise and services available to its customers by adding four marketing and creative professionals to its U.S. Cattle Marketing team — Ryan Dunn, Jean Lonie, Charlotte Ami Yi-Kochoa and Heather Campbell.
Our latest ZimmPoll seems to have hit a nerve judging by the number of responses. We asked, “What is the cause of obesity?” Eighty six percent said Bad eating/exercise habits! Only 8% said Over processed food, 4% said Genetics, 2% said Fast food restaurants and no one chose Lack of food regulation. Eating really is a personal choice as well as a necessity. Seems like personal responsibility trumps all else here. What do you think?
Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Which Republican Candidate for President is best for Ag?” There are a lot of them and we’ve listed the main contenders of the moment. What do you think? Feel free to add a comment here.
ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.
It has been a year since the announcement of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance. I remember speaking with Rick Tolman, CEO, NCGA, about the newly formed alliance then. This week USFRA held its first annual meeting preceded by a board meeting. After the program was over I visited with Rick to find out what has been accomplished.
Rick says it’s really exciting to see what’s happening. At the first board meeting the attendance was about twelve or so people and at this year’s meeting there were over twenty with about eighty other people sitting in. He says they raised over $10 million dollars in the first year and have a second year budget of $11.1 million. That’s a big number for farm groups to “put in a pot.” Rick says that a lot of the annual meeting dealt with plans for 2012. In our discussion he talks about what some of those plans are.
Listen to my conversation with Rick in this week’s ZimmCast: USFRA A Year Old
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
The kick-off session for NAMA Trends in Agriculture is “Focus Pocus: 24 Tricks for Regaining Command of Your Day.” Our presenter is Paul Burton, QuietSpacing. I visited with Paul about his topic because, like a lot of busy people today, I am always looking at ways to become more productive.
Paul says one of the ideas he wants people to use to regain command of their day is removing the clutter from their workspace. He says it’s amazing how distracting things you see even in your peripheral vision can become. He’s got lots of good ideas and each attendee got a copy of his book by the same name as the session.
The National Agri-Marketing Association is rolling out a new Strategic Plan. It was previewed at the NAMA Leader Workshop by the NAMA Executive Committee. Here’s Marvin Kokes, NCBA, presenting one of the three key strategies from the plan.
Marvin says those three strategies are; Increase our strategic partnerships on both the local and national levels; Communicate with members and partners more effectively and Grow NAMA membership in non-traditional segments. More information about the plan will be forthcoming from the organization as this plan unfolds.
Prior to the NAMA Trends in Agriculture session a Leadership Workshop was held for chapter leaders and others. The Chair for the workshop is Amber Harrison, Bratney Companies.
I spoke with Amber about what the workshop offers to member leaders. She says the theme of the workshop is “Progress Through Programming and Productivity.” The focus is how chapters can improve member attendance at events. One of the ideas she was offering was mixing up the time of day to hold a chapter meeting (lunch, evening social, etc.).
In addition to developing program development and member recruitment ideas Amber says the NAMA Executive Committee is participating to roll out the new NAMA Strategic Plan.
Consumers’ interest in agriculture and personal respect for farmers is high, even in countries where less than two percent of the population works in agriculture, according to the BASF Farm Perspectives Study, which surveyed 1,800 farmers and 6,000 consumers. Yet farmers and consumers also agree that farmers’ reputations remain low. The study, which outlines the way farmers and consumers view the farming profession, its challenges and its support network, revealed surprisingly strong agreement on major issues, including the role of farmers and the major challenges farmers are facing in the 21st century.
The study was carried out in Brazil, India, the United States, Germany, Spain and France in cooperation with the global market research firm Synovate GmbH and Professor Dr. Ulrich Oevermann, Professor for Sociology at the University of Frankfurt.
Both farmers and consumers view farming as a vocation, one that is dedicated to providing nourishment, supporting rural culture and caring for the land. “Steward of the land” or “Caretaker of the land” is farmers’ favorite self-description in all six countries (over 80%), but registers significantly lower with consumers (50-60%). In a related question, many consumers blame farmers for environmental problems, with concerns strongest in Brazil, India and France (38-43%), the U.S. and Germany (23%).
Around 80 percent of farmers and consumers from all countries agree that farming’s primary objective is to feed the world. Consumers show a high level of interest in farming (from 84% in India to 50% in France), but also admit that they do not know enough about farming to judge it properly. The price of food and, conversely, the price of conservation remain obstacles for both farmers and consumers.
Outgoing NAMA President Vicki Henrickson, BCS Communications, has presided over her last board meeting. That is if she passes the gavel tomorrow at lunch. Vicki is one of the most energetic cheerleaders for NAMA that I know.
I spoke with her after the meeting to find out some of the informational highlights from today’s meeting. Membership is up, meeting attendance is up and entries in the Best of NAMA competition are up. It’s all good. Vicki says the organization is in strong financial shape and the future looks bright.
Swanson Russell announces the promotions of Staci Nass, Shelton Crouch, Nicole Hansen and Kassi Williams.
In the Lincoln office, Nass was promoted from graphic-tech specialist to graphic designer. She began her career with Swanson Russell in 2004 as a production artist. A native of Lincoln, Nass graduated with an associate degree in graphic design from Southeast Community College in Milford, Neb.
Hansen, who joined the Lincoln office in 2007 as a student runner, was promoted to associate account manager. Originally from Aurora, Neb., she received her bachelor’s degree in business marketing from University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2009. Hansen’s primary account assignments will be Rain Bird, Turfco and Project Evergreen.
Crouch joined the Omaha agency in 2001 as a graphic designer and is now an interactive art director. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Dana College in Blair, Neb. Crouch assists healthcare clients with email marketing, digital advertising campaigns and online branding.
In the Omaha office, Williams was promoted to associate account manager. She began her career at Swanson Russell in 2010. A native of Knoxville, Iowa, she graduated with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and animal science from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Williams’ clients include handles Merck Animal Health, Global Animal Management, eyeD, Land O’Lakes Purina Mills and the Nebraska Children’s Home Society.
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.
A former U.S. Senator and the first woman president of NAFB are the newest members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
The star-studded NAFB Night of Honors paid tribute Thursday night to several who represent excellence in farm broadcasting. 
The New Holland Oscar in Agriculture was presented to Tony Purcell, Agri-Business Director for Texas State Networks. This is the 4th time Tony has won the Oscar in his 45 year career. 
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack once again paid a visit to the nation’s farm broadcasters at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting in Kansas City where he commmented on a number of issues important to farmers and ranchers. 
Texas Tech University junior Lauren Bogle (pictured here on the right) is the other $4000 NAFB scholarship winner. Lauren grew up on a crop and livestock operation in New Mexico and is majoring in Agricultural Communications.
Mark Ramsey of 
The 68th Annual NAFB Convention is officially underway in Kansas City. Hundreds of broadcast council and allied industry members are already working hard in between catching up with friends we see only once a year!
It has been a year since the announcement of the 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
