This might be my last post before heading to the airport on the way to the IFAJ Congress. To get you in the mood I’ve got my interview in the form of a special ZimmCast with Greg Lamp, editor of Corn & Soybean Digest. Greg will be on the trip and is on the IFAJ executive committee, representing the United States.
A John Deere New Equipment Onslaught
Wow! When John Deere comes out with some new equipment they don’t mess around. I have about 16 news releases on new products introduced at the just-completed product launch in Ft. Worth, TX. In the interest of time we’ll kind of provide an overview. Remember each of these has it’s own release and you can find out more on their website. First we have the Frontier Equipment announcements.
Let’s Get This Ethanol Thing Right
In this week’s CornTalk, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman discusses last week’s Ethanol Energy Balance forum at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The forum was organized to settle the debate over the net energy balance provided by ethanol. Much of that debate was created by a recent re-release of a questionable research study that suggests that that support for this form of energy is not worth it.
The ABC’s Of School Nutrition
School’s back in session so it’s time to think nutrition for children. In this week’s MBIC Report, Alane Lidolph, director of consumer information for the Missouri Beef Industry Council, talks about the ABC’s of back to school nutrition.
Web Check AgForLife
I don’t know about you but it can be hard to find good qualified young people who want to enter an agricultural field of any kind today. The folks that run AgCareers.com have introduced a new initiative to do something about it. They’re doing it with a little bit of help too (“a grant from Altria and matching funds from Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Texas A&M University provided the resources for the visual model of the virtual career guide.”).
Weather Channel Blog
This is just a little out of the ordinary for AgWired. Well, maybe not too out of the ordinary. As I was looking at The Weather Channel online to find out the latest about Hurricane Katrina, I noticed they have their own blog! It’s really not too bad and is a good example of what you can do with one. You can meet their bloggers here. And of course you can use this link to subscribe.
Onward To Switzerland
Apparently Thun, Switzerland didn’t look this serene last week as the rain was falling. Little did we know that there was serious flooding until getting an email from the IFAJ organizing committee that our hotels aren’t affected.
Since I just mentioned one commodity group’s new television commercials, why not point out another? According to a story in Not A Blah ZimmCast
In the ZimmCast you can hear my interview with Cindy Cunningham, vice president for communications, National Porkboard, at the recent Ag Media Summit. The “Other White Meat” campaign continues to run with a new addition to the tagline “Don’t be blah.” You can see the full series of tv commercials and listen to the radio ones here.
Announcements From AMVAC
AMVAC Chemical Corporation is a subsidiary of American Vanguard Corporation and they had 2 big announcements this week. To start with they announced receipt of a registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Impact™, a new herbicide, for use in field corn, seed corn, sweet corn and popcorn. AMVAC expects to initiate sales of the herbicide to U.S. corn growers beginning in the spring of 2006. Additionally, they announced a partnership with Pioneer Hi-Bred for a marketing program for AMVAC’s SmartBox® closed-handling system. Pioneer® brand seed customers now have the opportunity to qualify for a discount on the purchase of a SmartBox system.