Merial is the sponsor of the media room at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference once again. Here’s our sponsors at the media reception last night at the Buffalo Exchange.
The man behind a lot of microphones here has been Van Ricketts. Van is involved with the fed cattle business. I spoke to him about two main things they’d like producers to know about right now, calf pre-conditioning and parasite control.
As the beef industry faces record high grain costs, two things are likely to happen: calves will stay on grass longer than usual and feedyard managers will be even more choosey about which calves fill their pens. “The MERIAL SUREHEALTH Calf Preconditioning Program is an ideal option for producers looking to add value and marketability to their calves,” says Dr. Van Ricketts, Director of Corporate Accounts, Merial. “Not only is it a program recognized by buyers throughout the country, but it also has a proven health protocol backed by Merial’s 21-day Limited Health Warranty.”
According to a recent study from Iowa State University, one place producers cannot afford to cut is in their parasite control program. The study concluded that parasite control is the most economically important practice in beef production.
At the cow/calf level, the study showed that dewormers affect weaning rates and weights more than any other technology a producer can employ. Cow/calf producers who used parasite control saw an advantage of 23% in weaning rates and 4% in weaning weights. Parasite control was almost six times more important to a cow/calf producer’s breakeven cost than growth-promoting implants (the second-most economically significant choice). Eliminating parasite control practices would negatively affect breakeven selling prices by 34%, which would mean an added cost of $165 per head.
Listen to my interview with Van here:
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Left to right, the trio representing them at the conference were Josh Pitts of Ag Technologies, Trimble regional sales manager Tim East and Brian Kelly with Ag Technologies. I set up my computer at their booth to do most of my work at the conference and enjoyed spending time with these guys.
Tim says they chose to sponsor this coverage because, like precision agriculture, it is “cutting edge - a high-tech way of communicating, getting ideas out and sharing experiences.”
They did spend quite a bit of time talking with peanut growers at the conference about precision technology because it can be a big time and money saver for growers.
Chuck used some of this interview in his ZimmCast this week, I believe, but you can listen to the entire interview with all three here:
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At the Southern Peanut Growers Conference this week, I had a chance to meet up with one old friend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years - and one new friend that I knew but had never met.
Those of you in the ag journalism business may recognize this lady - formally the voice of the American Farm Bureau Federation once upon a time. You knew her then as Michele Brooks, but for the last 20 years she has been Michele Treptow, married to Rick Treptow of the Georgia Farm Bureau. Michele and I spent a few short minutes catching up and reminiscing about the “dot heads” at the 1985 annual AFBF meeting in Hawaii - and the infamous “Saturday night massacre” later that year when Chuck, Gary Cooper and I were forced out of Florida Farm Bureau after getting approval from the board to take their radio network independent. Ahh, the memories!!!
This gentlemen is known as “Mr. Peanut” in the Southeast and he wears many hats in the peanut industry. Tyron Spearman has been the peanut industry reporter for Southeast Agnet for at least as long as I have been reporting for them - but we had never met until this meeting. It was a great pleasure to meet him and get a chance to chat. He is extremely well respected in the peanut industry.
The SPGC was one of the very best conferences I have ever had the pleasure of attending. The agenda allowed for free afternoon time on the beach, the general sessions were very informative and well attended, the food was great, and the blues bash closing dinner and entertainment was great fun. This group is really a family and they obviously enjoy getting together at this great venue in Panama City every year. I will have more information about the conference in future posts. Not having internet access in my room was a drawback, but I had great access in the conference center.
USDA Undersecretary Dr. Gale Buchanan may work in Washington, DC but his heart is in the southeast. “I spent 21 years at Auburn University conducting research in peanuts and other crops,” said Buchanan. “Then went to the University of Georgia as the director of the Coastal Plain Experiment Station and dean at the college of agriculture.” He also attended the University of Florida, so he is a “triple Southerner.” I guess that makes him a cross between a Tiger, a Bulldog and Gator.
His main message to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference this week in Panama City was that the “future is predicated on information, knowledge and technology gained through research and education programs.”
He had much more to say about the potential for peanuts in feeding the world and playing a part in the biofuels industry as well.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Buchanan here:
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Farmers and others in agriculture are just like everyone else these days. For the vast majority of us, computer usage is becoming a part of our everyday lives, if it hasn’t already taken it over!
That’s why the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation made the decision to use the new media tools of blogging and podcasting to reach out and provide information on this year’s Southern Peanut Growers conference to anyone and everyone who has access to the World Wide Web on spgc.wordpress.com.
Joy Carter with the Georgia Peanut Commission, who is also editor of Southeastern Peanut Farmer magazine and responsible for outreach to media and growers, came up with the idea of using the blog for conference coverage.
“We wanted to open the door for more farmers and industry representatives not able to attend the conference to be able to see who the speakers are, see photos from the conference and hear more about issues within the peanut industry,” Joy said. The website is also being promoted to agricultural media who can download the photos and audio to use.
Joy says the Georgia Peanut Commission has also had great success in educating producers about legislative issues with AmericanPeanuts.com.
Listen to an interview with Joy here:
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We’re happy to announce that in partnership with BASF, AgNewsWire is the official online news room of the Agricultural Media Summit (AMS). What this means is that during the upcoming event we’ll be distributing news releases for various exhibitors and sponsors of the AMS. More information on this will be sent to them in the coming week.
You’ll also notice that we’ve got a link for Ag Journalists to take the 2009 Hot Topics Survey. BASF would like ag journalists to take their survey to help them formulate information that will be valuable to them.
What do you think the hottest agricultural news topics of 2009 will be? Crop disease prevention? New seed traits? Floods and drought?
Give us your ideas and you could win some great prizes from BASF. As an industry insider, your input is very valuable. This survey will take less than five minutes to complete, and individual responses will not be identified, so please share your opinions freely.
If you will be attending the upcoming Agricultural Media Summit you will automatically receive a special gift tied into this year’s theme “It’s a Family Reunion!” Follow the instructions on the completion page and bring the printout to the onsite press room at the Summit.
If you’re not attending the Summit, you can still enter the drawing by filling in your contact information at the end of the survey. (Your answers will remain anonymous).
While we’re still celebrating iPhone 3G release day I thought I’d point out something that may make it a more desirable choice for agribloggers. If you’re a WordPress user like me then there will be an application which allows you to post directly from your iPhone.
The WordPress for iPhone App is nearly ready to go. It supports WordPress.com blogs as well as self-hosted WordPress.org blogs running version 2.5.1 or newer.
Timing wise, with the launch of Apple’s iTunes App store this morning, we expect to see this showing up very soon.
While we wait, here is a brief video showing the App in action. (It’s high quality, so may take a moment to kick off.)
Here’s a sight we won’t be seeing anymore. That’s because Joe Schuele has started a new job at the U.S. Meat Export Federation. This means he won’t be at the media room desk.
I just spoke to him and will miss him in the media room at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference next week. But, we’ll be in good hands with Yard-O-Beef Spokesmodel, Grace Webb, also pictured.
Joe says that he’ll have similar duties at USMEF. He’ll be working with ag media and national media helping fulfill requests for interviews. He’ll also be producing news releases including audio releases. He does admit to having to get up to speed on the pork side of things though. But, all in all, he’s happy to still be able to work with a lot of the same people he has been.
You can listen to what Joe’s up to here:
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Since my email box has been a little less full than normal I know that means that most of you are on break now. Well, it’s time to take a break here at ZimmComm World Headquarters too.
Of course that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come back during the weekend. You never know what you’ll find.
But if you choose to go “off the grid” I don’t blame you and Cindy and I and all the ZimmComm team wish you all a very happy 4th of July celebration.
Here’s a little video from the Wyant/Johnson Farm Foundation benefit concert of Michael Peterson singing part of the song that brought him and New Holland together - “Down on the Farm.”
It’s hard to appreciate from this little thumbnail photo just what a cool venue the Sara Wyant/Allan Johnson lake house was for the Farm Foundation Michael Peterson concert Friday night. You have to go look at the photo album to get a bigger view.
First of all, it is a beautiful house. And it has these three balcony levels so everyone had a perfect view of Michael set up lakeside and the acoustics were excellent.
The event was made possible by our very good friend Gene Hemphill and New Holland. It was his idea two years ago to offer a private concert with Michael to the highest bidder at the NAFB Farm Foundation auction. In 2006, farm broadcaster Pam Jahnke of Madison, WI bought one package and used it for a Wisconsin FFA fundraiser, while the National Farmers Union matched her bid and bought another for their annual convention. Gene says they will offer it up again at the 2008 convention in November.
People from all over the country attended the concert, including some corn guys from Illinois and Kansas who might be familiar faces to AgWired readers. We also had the famous singer and National Biodiesel Board executive director Joe Jobe and his family, as well as some people from as far away as Washington DC, like Karen Coble Edwards who was visiting with Charlene Finck of Farm Journal down at the lake and they both came with their families.
I did a little audio interview after the concert with Sara and Allan, Garry Niemeyer and Ken McCauley, Gene and Michael that you can listen to here.
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While Chuck was busy chasing spotted horses in Mississippi this weekend, I got to go to a really GREAT party at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, featuring our good friend Michael Peterson.
Our gracious hosts were Sara Wyant and Allan Johnson, who bought a private concert with Michael at the NAFB Foundation auction last November, courtesy of New Holland and the still-not-retired Gene Hemphill.
It was just a wonderful event, with about 100 of Sara and Al’s friends and neighbors, including lots of familiar faces in the agribusiness world. The event was also a fundraiser for the Farm Foundation, for which Sara has been serving as chairman.
To see more photos from the event, check out this Flickr Photo Album:
So another conference is over and tomorrow I’ll be moving on to Jackson, MS for the Appaloosa Horse Club National Show. This will be the first time it’s being held there and from what I’ve heard already, things are going well.
It’s going to be culture shock going from Berkeley Marina to the hot southeast but I can handle it.
We had USDA Rural Development represented here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference by Tony Crooks. He works with their rural business cooperatives program and has done a lot of work with communities in the area of ethanol and biodiesel.
The challenge he says we have today in rural communities is the large capital outlay to get a biorefinery started so USDA is looking at creative ways to help them. He highly suggests that a community have a community development plan so they can better decide if a plant would be in their best interest. Ways that USDA Rural Development can help is with grants and guaranteed loans. He says they’re looking for communities who need financial assistance, especially in the second generation cellulosic area.
You can listen to my interview with Tony here:
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We may not have the flooding you’ve been seeing stories about in Iowa but the Missouri River crested here at Jefferson City today and is expected to have another crest soon. It rained half the day today so we’ve got more flooding coming.
This is a shot of the Capitol under the bridge over the river, leading into town. Normally there’s a boat ramp here but the water is all the way to the top.
I’m betting this is one of the most photographed shots in town. Right before I got here a local tv crew was shooting the same scene. Click on the picture for a bigger version.
Milk from Lifeway Foods is now garaunteed to be 100 percent, certified hormone free. The makers of the probiotic dairy beverage called kefir has announced they are now using milk that comes from cows that are not treated with hormones.
This 100% certified hormone free milk comes with a Farmers Pledge, which Lifeway will market on the labels of its products. This change came as a response to a growing demand for hormone and antibiotic milk by customers.
Julie Smolyansky, CEO said “Previously the milk we offered was hormone and antibiotic free, however, we now have a Farmer’s Pledge that certifies the milk is hormone free. We think this added benefit will continue to help us reach a wider group of health conscious consumers.”
Lifeway is self-described as America’s leading supplier of the cultured dairy produc kefir and the country’s largest supplier of Organic Kefir.
I thought I’ve been pretty clear about the fact that you can send me your company/organizational news and announcements for possible posting here on AgWired but I’m finding that some companies are not doing so or forget to include us at times. So I guess all I can do is remind you again. If you want your customers to know what you’re up to then you won’t find a better outlet than this one which is reaching people involved in agricultural marketing on many different levels and with many different touch points, like AgWired, AgWired Mobile, ZimmNews and through our YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and AgWired Live TV accounts.
They then have the potential to run here and perhaps on AgWired Mobile as well.
I’d also like to address a comment someone made to me yesterday which bothered me and I’m pretty sure isn’t shared by many, but. . . The comment about AgWired was, “Isn’t that some kind of industry gossip column?” The person admitted to not having read my content. The answer is, “NO.” We don’t write gossip, we don’t write speculation and we don’t violate confidences. If you ever find that happening then I sure hope it gets brought to my attention asap.
We’re a daily source of news about agricultural marketing that you won’t find anywhere else. The goal is to help you be better agrimarketers. You should be able to find ideas and hopefully learn more about the latest techniques to communicate whether you work for an agency, media company, farm group, agribusiness or farm yourself. Do you think that the AgWired online community accomplishes that?
A well-run media center can make all the difference in the world when it comes to covering an event - and the World Pork Expo media center was exceptional.
The main reason for that is Leah Schomburg of TriLix Marketing Group, who has been handling this event for seven years now. She was attentive to the needs of the media, calm - if not always cool, especially today when it was pretty humid - and always had a smile on her face. She and the rest of the staff were more than helpful and pleasant. The last time I saw her today she was offering to give me a ride in the golf cart if I needed it.
Leah tells me that 75-100 media register for WPX each year, with another 50-60 often coming in “depending on the dignitary who shows up for the event.” This year that was Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner and one interview Leah set up with him was for MSNBC.
The best part about the media room was good wireless internet access and a quiet, comfortable atmosphere. At the high point on Thursday afternoon, I would say there were as many as 35 reporters working at the same time in different booths in the center and yet there seemed to be a very low noise level. I think the curtains provided good soundproofing.
Listen to my interview with Leah here:
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What would World Pork Expo be without Pork? I guess just World Expo - right??
There is an abundance of pork at WPX, actually. Every hospitality tent offers pork for breakfast, lunch, dinner and/or appetizers. Kinda goes with the territory, doncha know?
Here we see our National Pork Producer president Bryan Black cutting up some pork outside the NPPC tent, and a luau-style roasted pig being carved up by the folks with Automated Production Systems (AP).
There will be lots more pork at the expo on Saturday with the Great BarbeQlossal when over 80 teams will be competing for the title of Grand Champion.
For the second night in a row last night we had a major storm pass through the Des Moines area, and for the second day in a row the weather has been gorgeous.
Today was even better than yesterday, which did get a bit muggy at times, even though we had some high winds. It was sunny and very pleasant.
People have been having a wonderful time here and the Street Band got rocking about 3 pm. Saturday activities will include Cruisin’ with the Hogs Harley Ride in the morning and the Great BarbeQlossal. Hopefully it will be another glorious day.
Merial is the sponsor of the media room at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference once again. Here’s our sponsors at the media reception last night at the Buffalo Exchange.
New technology and new media are a perfect fit, so it is fitting that 
At the Southern Peanut Growers Conference this week, I had a chance to meet up with one old friend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years - and one new friend that I knew but had never met.
This gentlemen is known as “Mr. Peanut” in the Southeast and he wears many hats in the peanut industry. Tyron Spearman has been the peanut industry reporter for 
USDA Undersecretary Dr. Gale Buchanan may work in Washington, DC but his heart is in the southeast. “I spent 21 years at Auburn University conducting research in peanuts and other crops,” said Buchanan. “Then went to the University of Georgia as the director of the Coastal Plain Experiment Station and dean at the college of agriculture.” He also attended the University of Florida, so he is a “triple Southerner.” I guess that makes him a cross between a Tiger, a Bulldog and Gator.
Farmers and others in agriculture are just like everyone else these days. For the vast majority of us, computer usage is becoming a part of our everyday lives, if it hasn’t already taken it over!
We’re happy to announce that in partnership with 
While we’re still celebrating 
Here’s a sight we won’t be seeing anymore. That’s because Joe Schuele has started a new job at the 
Since my email box has been a little less full than normal I know that means that most of you are on break now. Well, it’s time to take a break here at ZimmComm World Headquarters too.
It’s hard to appreciate from this little thumbnail photo just what a cool venue the Sara Wyant/Allan Johnson lake house was for the Farm Foundation Michael Peterson concert Friday night. You have to go look at the photo album to get a bigger view. 
The event was made possible by our very good friend Gene Hemphill and New Holland. It was his idea two years ago to offer a private concert with Michael to the highest bidder at the NAFB Farm Foundation auction. In 2006, farm broadcaster Pam Jahnke of Madison, WI bought one package and used it for a Wisconsin FFA fundraiser, while the National Farmers Union matched her bid and bought another for their annual convention. Gene says they will offer it up again at the 2008 convention in November.
People from all over the country attended the concert, including some corn guys from Illinois and Kansas who might be familiar faces to AgWired readers. We also had the famous singer and National Biodiesel Board executive director Joe Jobe and his family, as well as some people from as far away as Washington DC, like Karen Coble Edwards who was visiting with Charlene Finck of Farm Journal down at the lake and they both came with their families. 
While Chuck was busy chasing spotted horses in Mississippi this weekend, I got to go to a really GREAT party at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, featuring our good friend Michael Peterson. 
Our gracious hosts were Sara Wyant and Allan Johnson, who bought a private concert with Michael at the NAFB Foundation auction last November, courtesy of New Holland and the still-not-retired Gene Hemphill.
So another conference is over and tomorrow I’ll be moving on to Jackson, MS for the Appaloosa Horse Club National Show. This will be the first time it’s being held there and from what I’ve heard already, things are going well.
We had USDA Rural Development represented here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference by Tony Crooks. He works with their rural business cooperatives program and has done a lot of work with communities in the area of ethanol and biodiesel.
A well-run media center can make all the difference in the world when it comes to covering an event - and the World Pork Expo media center was exceptional. 
Leah tells me that 75-100 media register for WPX each year, with another 50-60 often coming in “depending on the dignitary who shows up for the event.” This year that was Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner and one interview Leah set up with him was for MSNBC.
What would World Pork Expo be without Pork? I guess just World Expo - right??
Here we see our National Pork Producer president Bryan Black cutting up some pork outside the NPPC tent, and a luau-style roasted pig being carved up by the folks with 
For the second night in a row last night we had a major storm pass through the Des Moines area, and for the second day in a row the weather has been gorgeous. 
Peanut producers are meeing in Panama City, FL and Cindy has them covered.
