No real news yet. Just a “look” to tease you. Online registration opens May 1. Get that on your calendar too.

If you’re looking for the best place to promote your company or organization’s products and services, then you’ll want to be at the 14th Annual Ag Media Summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 4-8, 2012. This annual get-together, the largest meeting in the United States of the ag industry’s top writers, editors, photographers, publishers and ag communicator specialists, begins with pre-meeting events on Saturday, August 4, followed by the AMS program August 5-8. We invite you to participate as a sponsor or an exhibitor at our InfoExpo or both, and be a part of this important agricultural media event.

The AG MEDIA SUMMIT is a joint meeting of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, the Livestock Publications Council and the American Business Media Agri-Council. This industry-wide gathering of agricultural communicators offers one of the best opportunities for professional improvement and industry networking. More than 600 attend this event each year, and the InfoExpo annually exceeds 85 booths.

Jeff says “We provide weather insurance that pays farmers for the types of bad weather events that cost them yield.” He says their product is designed to work along with the federal crop insurance as a supplement to “cover the top end bushels that the federal crop insurance program can’t cover.” Weatherbill is currently available for a variety of crops. Jeff says one thing growers like is how simple the product works. You can fill out a form on their website to find an agent near you.

You can listen to my conversation with Jeff here: Jeff Hamlin Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Matt says they’re very excited to be launching Anthem herbicide in 2012. That’s a grass and broadleaf pre-emerge for both corn and soybeans that has both pre and post activity.

I was out on field tour duty with FMC recently. You can learn more about Anthem and how it has been performing in trials from the York, NE event.

You can listen to my conversation with Matt here: Matt Foster Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

He says the first question he gets from ag journalists is “How’s it going for you?” The big thing is the crazy weather that has perhaps started to tone down.

You can listen to my conversation with Jeff here: Jeff Morgan Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Gary says they’ve just released four new products, Corn Blend, Soybean Blend, Cotton Blend and Tobacco Blend. He says they all contain their humic materials, plant food, liquid sugar and appropriate amount of micro nutrients. They can all be applied in furrow, in the row on the seed to enhance the germination of the seed and soil around it.

You can listen to my conversation with Gary here: Gary Coughlin Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Russ says one of the relatively new products he’d like to point to is their Vault HP product line. He says they had a phenomenal increase in sales last year. You’ll hear him explain why in our interview. He says that the ag media were interested to know what the trends are that he sees in the marketplace. Those include the increase in use of seed applied treatments and interest in biological solutions to disease and pest problems, both of which are being worked on by Becker Underwood.

You can listen to my conversation with Russ here: Russ Berndt Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

“On August 24th and 25th we are going to have the largest most significant product introduction in our history.” Barry says the new equipment will be unveiled at the Farm Progress Show. I’ll be there for the launch in August and can’t wait to see what’s new.

You can listen to my conversation with Barry here: Barry Nelson Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Michael says the show is going into its seventh season. He says that Farm Credit, the InfoExpo booth in the photo, has come on board as a primary sponsor. He says they’ll be traveling to all fifty states producing stories and they will have some new features that include Ask a Farmer, Off the Shelf and others.

You can listen to my conversation with Michael here: Michael Sanford Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

I spoke with Shelly Kramer, V3 Integrated Marketing, an integrated marketing and social media agency. She spoke to a full house and answered questions for a while afterward.

Shelly says that to measure your social media ROI you need to have a plan. I know that’s tough but if you don’t know what your goal is, then how do you know if you met it? To help her clients better understand digital marketing and especially the social channels she encourages them to act online just like they do in real life. However, that’s not easy for companies to do.

Listen in on my conversation with Shelly in this week’s program and hear more about her perspective and thoughts on using social media in your marketing efforts: Integrating Social Media & Measuring ROI

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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.

Kristina says that they are promoting their Web Press Room to ag media. It’s where you can find news releases as well as video, images and a media kit. So ag journalists make sure you bookmark this website.

You can listen to my conversation with Kristina here: Kristina Hopkins Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

One of our presenters was Brandon Souza, AdFarm. He spoke to students about finding the best fit for your first job. He recommended they find out early what they want to do, hone those skill sets and talk with people in the industry. He spoke to professionals about social media etiquette. He pointed out that everything is public in social media. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but he recommends defining what you want to get out of social media.

You can listen to my conversation with Brandon here: Brandon Souza Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

I met AgHaven beta tester Phil White during the Ag Media Summit. Phil is a reporter at KFDI in Wichita, KS. So far he says AgHaven has come a long way and is becoming a valuable tool for producers or reporters like him. The search engine built in to AgHaven is providing more specific ag information than the big search engines. He recommends getting an AgHaven account. AgHaven is still looking for feedback and ideas.

You can listen to my conversation with Phil here: Phil White Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Let’s start with Nick Fassler, Technical Market Manager, Fungicides. He was here to talk about research plots to get the “most out of every acre.” He says they’ve doubled the size of their research program this year. Results should be coming in within the next couple months.

You can listen to my conversation with Nick here: Nick Fassler Interview

Next up is Dr. Scott Walker, Biology Project Manager, Fungicides. Scott covered Xemium fungicide performance data. Xemium is a new fungicide active ingredient that has been submitted to the EPA for registration. It was announced earlier this year at Commodity Classic. Scott says that field data will be presented to the scientific community at the upcoming American Phytopathological Society Annual Meeting.

You can listen to my conversation with Scott here: Scott Walker Interview

And next is Dr. Dan Westberg, Technical Market Manager, Herbicides. He covered new Zidua herbicide. This new class of herbicide for corn and soybeans has performed well in summer research trials and registration is expected by the end of the year in time for the new season in 2012.

You can listen to my conversation with Dan here: Dan Westberg Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

On hand were Andy Atzenweiler and Kathy LaScala, pictured here with two of the folks we met at the shelter. The shoes were sorted by size and groups of people made their way through, finding their size and leaving with something good for their feet. The shoes distributed here were actually not the ones we brought to the AMS. Those are going elsewhere. However, we wanted a way to show publicly our support for the effort and were able to get a quantity of tennis shoes via Soles4Souls for this event. I’ve got a short video clip you can watch of the distribution. Thanks to everyone who supported this very worthwhile effort.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Pictured is Mike Deering, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, receiving the Andy Markwart Horizon Award from Barry Nelson, John Deere. John Deere has very generously made this award possible with a financial grant to AAEA and matched by the AAEA PIF. You may know that this is given in memory of Andy who was the editor of The Furrow and passed away in 2006.

Also presented was the 2011 Distinguished Service Award, made possible through a grant to the AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation by Archer Daniels Midland Company. The Distinguished Service Award recipient is Dr. Paul Sun, special project scientist for Dairyland Seed, posted at Dairyland’s 600-acre Southern Wisconsin Research Station in Rock County near Clinton, Wisconsin. A native of Mainland China, Dr. Sun and his family moved to Taiwan when he was 11 years old. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Sun, with more than 40 years experience in plant breeding, nearly 30 of which have been with Dairyland Seed, is considered the father of hybrid alfalfa.

Other awards include:

AAEA 2011 Photographer of the Year – William DeKay, The Western Producer
AAEA 2011 Writer of the Year – Steve Werblow, Steve Werblow Communications

Congratulations to all winners. I will post winners from ACT and LPC as soon as I get them.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Ted shares an anecdote from his coverage of this terrible tragedy. It will move you not only from what he saw but the ethical challenge he faced in performing his job or dropping his camera and trying to become a rescuer.

You can listen to my conversation with Ted here: Ted Jackson Interview

Thanks to Greg Smith for taking this photo.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Jeanne will be giving the Xbox 360 away at Top Producer’s new Executive Women in Agriculture event this December in Chicago.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

I’ve got lots more stories to post, including interviews. However, I’ll be traveling today and spending some time with family. So keep your eye on AgWired to see more of what happened in New Orleans. My photos are fully updated. I hope you enjoy them.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

The

Receiving one of the awards from the AAEA was John Harvey (pictured on right).

These awards are just some of the many awards that are presented during the Ag Media Summit. I will try to find an electronic copy of them and provide a link as soon as I can.

Fred Myers received one of the awards too (pictured on right). Earlier in the day he received recognition during the luncheon for fifty years of service to AAEA.

I visited with Fred before the awards banquet about his service award. He says he doesn’t know where the 50 years have gone. He’s always considered AAEA “his organization.” He also received a nice letter from our Secretary of Agriculture. Fred also has a book that he’s written. If you’d like to know more about it or order one just send him an email.

You can listen to my conversation with Fred here: Fred Myers Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgHaven is a sponsor of my coverage of this year’s Ag Media Summit and they were giving a lot of tours to journalists here during InfoExpo. I spoke with Srik Soogoor, President, and asked him how AgHaven is developing. He says things are “going great.” Traffic is growing and feedback has been helpful. Based on that feedback they’ve made a number of improvements and more are planned. One of the things they’re working on is – mobile. They’ve got six apps in development for example!

Listen to my conversation with Srik here: Srik Soogoor Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AGROTAIN VP of Global Marketing Jeff Whetstine, pictured here with Dr. Harold Reetz of Reetz Agronomics, gave Chuck the lowdown in an interview this morning. “It means that we’re going to continue the growth that we’ve experienced in the past,” Jeff said. “AGROTAIN has experienced a phenomenal level of acceptance in the last few years due to its benefits to farmers which is increased nitrogen efficiency.” In fact, Jeff says they actually sold out of product this season.

“Koch is basic in producing nitrogen and AGROTAIN is basic in protecting nitrogen from loss and so the combination of our two companies will offer new opportunities for our customers and for our growers,” Jeff said.

Find out more in Chuck’s interview with Jeff here: Jeff Whetstine Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

This is the BASF team in the picture, (l-r) Dr. Dan Westberg, Nick Fassler, Pat Morrow and Dr. Scott Walker. You’ll be hearing from Dan, Nick and Scott later as we talk about what’s new with BASF. Right now you can hear from Pat talk about the activities planned for the ag media here.

Listen to my conversation with Pat here: Pat Morrow Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Here’s me with my good friend Gene Hemphill, New Holland. We’ve been talking about some exciting projects that you’ll learn more about in the future.

In the meantime, I’ve updated the photo album for you. Are you in there?

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

He says the presentation here is all about the kickoff of the USFRA communications program. He says there will be six phases the campaign will be running through. Phase one is in process which has two components. The first is to encourage farmer and rancher support and participation. The second is to lay out what the effort will do. He says farmers and ranchers need to change their way of thinking and “be willing to engage in a conversation with consumers, not just tell them what we think they need to hear but listen to what their questions are and what they want to hear and that’s going to be the crux of the initial phase.”

Bob says the “pace” has picked up and there are now 49 farmer led organizations that have joined USFRA as affiliates.

Listen to my conversation with Bob here: Bob Stallman Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

This award recognizes and rewards excellence, leadership and encourages professionalism among students. This opportunity provides the recipient face-to-face exchanges with leaders in livestock publishing. Forrest Bassford’s name was appended to the LPC Student Award in 1992 in honor of his contribution to LPC, and his particular interest in furthering the Student Award.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Listen to my conversation with Jessica and Lauren here: ACT Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

As you can imagine there are fresh photos for your viewing pleasure as agricultural media professionals took an opportunity to relax and enjoy each other’s company.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Listen to Nick Lowery: Nick Lowery Statement

I’m getting ready now for the opening “Romp at the Swamp” welcome party. I’ll have lots more photos later tonight. Just finished adding a batch from today.

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

I’ve started a photo album which will be added to during the coming days as we make our way through another Ag Media Summit: 2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

I saw Nick during the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies in Malcom, IA. BASF was one of the companies supporting and displaying at the event. Here’s Nick talking about all the products the company is offering corn growers today. He offered advice for growers facing challenging weather this season. “Now more than ever it’s important to protect that crop from stress and add in late season disease control,” he says. I know I saw a number of planes flying fields traveling to Iowa and back. I’m betting they were applying some Headline fungicide! Someone’s taking his advice. I sure saw some corn showing some effects of stress. I hope we get a little temperature break and some moisture.

You can listen to my interview with Nick here: Nick Fassler Interview

Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2011 Iowa Photo Album