It was just a year ago that Cindy interviewed Mark Gale, Charleston|Orwig, while attending World Dairy Expo. That started a series of ZimmCasts with the leadership of advertising and public relations agencies. Now we’ve come full circle.
At this year’s World Dairy Expo I visited with Brittany Unterweger, Account Supervisor for the agency. The agency was having a very busy week since they work with about ten different clients that are involved with World Dairy Expo. Brittany says the agency focus goes beyond the dairy industry though, into overall food systems, “from farm to plate, from producer to consumer.” She says there has been an internal shift within the agency to move beyond just agriculture. Interactive has also grown tremendously and that includes app building and the further development of their blog, Field Assignment.
Brittany says that she’s excited to have a more holistic approach with the food systems concept so they can helpt their clients see the big picture. She says their client list has been growing and that it’s an exciting time at Charleston|Orwig.
Listen to my conversation with Brittany in this week’s ZimmCast: Visiting With Brittany Unterweger
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The program ends this week with music from Music Alley, called “Make You Happy” by The Milkmen. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
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2011 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
If you missed the 2010 World Dairy Expo, you missed a lot!
Here’s some of the posts we did on World Dairy Diary – including audio, video and photos that you are welcome to download or link to.
Amazing Results in Boosting Milk Fat Levels – interview with Dr. Scott Bascom, a nutritionist with Cooperative Plus in Wisconsin.
How Lower Protein Rations Can Increase the Bottom Line – interviews with Dr. Larry Chase with Cornell University and Dr. Bob Stoltzfus with Lancaster Veterinary Associates.
Five Star Dairy Wins Environmental Award – first ever award by Wisconsin Dairy Business Association.
RFID at the Speed of Commerce – using ultra high radio frequency (UHF) to tag identify large groups of moving animals.
Interviews with Dairyman and Dairy Woman of the Year – Don Bennink of Florida and Liz Doornink of Wisconsin.
Precision Feeding of Dairy Replacement Heifers – interview with Pat Hoffman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Award Winning Dairy Credit Scours Protection – Interview with Dave Hartford of Oakridge-Bahler Farm, Connecticut.
Using a Brix Refractometer to Measure Colostrum Quality – $50 investment can be a big help for producers.
Robotic Post-Milking Spray System – See a video of how it works.
New Robotic Feedpusher Video – kinda looks like R2D2!
Thanks to our sponsors this year:
and 
The weather has been fabulous so far this week for the 2010 World Dairy Expo and Wisconsin’s own Fabulous Farm Babe (Pam Jahnke) has been hard at work as usual. She was the first person I saw when I walked in the door yesterday morning, so I figured she would make a great first interview for the expo since she has been the local farm broadcaster in Madison for over 20 years.
I talked with Pam about her background, her career, covering the expo as a reporter and judging cattle as a kid, how the show has changed and how the dairy industry in Wisconsin is doing these days.
Enjoy my interview with the Fabulous Farm Babe here: Pam Jahnke Interview
Check out the 2010 World Dairy Expo Photo Album and the rest of our coverage of #wde10 on World Dairy Diary sponsored by Alpharma, Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, Charleston-Orwig, Novartis Animal Health and Novus International.
Alpharma Animal Health is reaching out to teach young people more about agriculture through a grassroots educational program called “Reach Teach and Learn.”
The company launched the program earlier this year at the 2009 Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The program supports local school districts and colleges through initiatives that encourage students to learn more about agriculture and how their food is produced, and to share their insights and knowledge about what they learned. I talked with Dr. Lance Fox, Alpharma’s Director of Technical Services, at their exhibit during World Dairy Expo about the purpose of the program.
“Essentially the program is designed to reach out to our youth – elementary, high school, college-level students – our future leaders of tomorrow, to promote agricultural awareness,” Lance told me. “It’s not about products, it’s just about reaching out to the youth.”
It’s also about motivating young people to reach their own personal and professional goals, something Lance has done in his own life and he shares that story when he talks with young people of all ages. He grew up in the Wisconsin dairy industry, became a veterinarian, joined Alpharma as a technical services manager, and earlier this year achieved the personal goal of climbing to the top of Mt. Everest. “If you believe, you can achieve,” Lance says.
Find out more about the Reach Teach and Learn program, which features an essay and video contest for different age level students, at reachteachlearn.com.
Listen to or download my interview with Lance here.
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Charleston Orwig must have more dairy industry related clients than any other communications agency in the country, which makes sense since they are located literally in the heartland of the state synonymous with dairy production – Hartland, Wisconsin. At World Dairy Expo this year they are working with a number of clients – including Alpharma, Arm and Hammer animal nutrition, Novartis, Dairyland Seed and Hoard’s Dairyman.
I talked to Lyle, the Orwig of Charleston Orwig, in the agency’s suite overlooking the expo arena about their commitment to agriculture and the dairy industry. “When we began with Charleston Orwig, agriculture was a focus for us, we didn’t just happen to get a couple of ag accounts and say – oh, let’s be an ag agency,” Lyle said. “Having grown up on a central Illinois dairy farm, it’s important for me personally, as well as the agency to maintain that connection to agriculture and so we have focused on that as we’ve grown the agency.” Lyle says about 85 percent of the agency staff have an agricultural background, either in agribusiness communications or growing up on a farm, or both.
One of Charleston Orwig’s specialties is reputation management, which is critical these days in the animal agriculture industry with critics such as PETA and HSUS becoming more aggressive in trying to sway public opinion against livestock producers. “Part of our mission is to help clients tell their story in a positive way and educate consumers on the need to grow crops and livestock for feeding the world as well as the U.S.,” Lyle says. Listen to my interview with Lyle below.
Charleston Orwig and two of their clients – Hoard’s and Alpharma – are sponsoring coverage of World Dairy Expo this week on our sister blog, World Dairy Diary, and be sure to check out the World Dairy Expo Flickr photo album for all the sights.
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In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
