At the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences the media received a preview of the Cotton Life Cycle Inventory & Life Cycle Assessment. This is a benchmark study for cotton sustainability.
Cotton Incorporated announced today the completion of a comprehensive life cycle inventory and life cycle analysis of cotton products. The endeavor is part of the Cotton Foundation VISION 21 Project and included the participation of the National Cotton Council, Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated. The two-year study, managed by PE International, was designed to establish current and accurate benchmarks of potential environmental impacts across the global cotton supply chain. The peer-reviewed data and assessment methodology will help direct sustainability research efforts for the cotton industry, as well as to aid textile decision-makers in achieving their own sustainability goals.
To learn more about the study I spoke with our presenter, J. Berrye Worsham, President/CEO, Cotton, Inc. He says they wanted to have a sense of the environmental footprint of cotton from “cradle to grave.” That’s what this study has accomplished and the results can be found on their website. Berrye says the study is now a tool for the industry since there are companies conducting their own life cycle assessments. As a benchmark, it will be valuable for making comparisons when it is done again in a few years. The study found ways that the industry and even consumers can improve the footprint of cotton. In the case of consumers an example would be doing more cold water washing and less use of dryers to dry clothes. You can hear more about the study in my interview with Berrye: Interview with Berrye Worsham
2011 is winding to a close and we are counting our blessings here on AgWired
Traffic was up nearly 8% on Agwired this year to a grand total of just about 198,000 unique visitors – we should break 200,000 pretty easily in 2012. We had a total of 1790 posts this year, including more than 600 with audio. We posted over 17,000 photos on Flickr and 121 videos on YouTube that were viewed over 111,000 times.
The most viewed photo album this year was Farm Progress Show at nearly 7200, followed by National Biodiesel Conference, Sturgis, NAMA, and AGCONNECT Expo which are all around 4-5,000.
The most popular YouTube video of the year was the unveiling of the John Deere Subcompact 1 Series at National Farm Machinery Show, which has been viewed nearly 39,000 times. Four videos from the John Deere new product launch were viewed collectively over 40,000 times and the unveiling of the New Holland skid steer at NFMS was viewed nearly 16,200 times so far. Other popular videos included the Mike Rowe press conference at the American Farm Bureau annual meeting, ethanol at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and choppers opening the 2011 Farm Progress Show.
Most popular ZimmCasts of the year were Humane Farm Animal Care; Beltway Beef; Irish Agriculture Journalism, Precision Earth and Gibbs & Soell.
Our greatest blessings are too numerous to count – our readers, our sponsors and clients, our freelancers and other friends who make every day of the year wonderful! Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, prosperous and blessed new year!
Yeah. It sounds like a specialty adult beverage I know. Maybe Cindy and I will invent one while we’re here!
It’s sand and surf in the sunshine state. Time for a little R&R. The way we look at it, we’re guaranteed a white Christmas!
But that doesn’t mean you’ll be missing anything on AgWired during the holidays. Far from it in fact. Just add the AgWired App to your favorite iOS or Android device and keep up on the latest.
One day I was thinking to myself, “I wish there was a calendar that had all the ag events for the year on it.” I had never seen such a thing, so I decided to make one.
This was not an easy task. It took me about a month to get it the way I wanted it, including photos from events throughout this past year and getting as many dates for the major ag events included. Not sure how it would actually look in person, we ordered a limited quantity to give as Christmas gifts to some of our clients.
We think they actually came out pretty sweet and now we are wondering if there is any interest among AgWired readers to get their very own copy.
Attention women in agriculture – there’s a new reality show in the works seeking Wonder Women who do tough jobs.
I got a notice from the casting company looking for “the hardest working women in America to celebrate the tough women who aren’t afraid of disgusting, terrifying, or even backbreaking labor. Women who are proud to be Wonder Women!”
They gave a few examples – mining, roofing, hanging from scaffolding, installing power lines, deep sea fishing, fighting fires, working in sewers, slaughterhouses – but not farming or ranching! I think ladies of the ag persuasion need to apply and show these folks the real Wonder Women of this world!
Have you ever thought about buying all the gifts mentioned in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas?” This year the cost will top $100K according to PNC Wealth Management that calculates the cost each year. They also produce an annual Christmas Price Index. Here’s the findings (pdf) this year:
A sluggish economy coupled with weak demand has kept the 2011 PNC Christmas Price Index® (PNC CPI) to a moderate gain of 3.5 percent in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
According to the 28th annual survey, the price tag for the PNC CPI is $24,263.18 in 2011, $823.80 more than last year and less than half the increase seen in 2010. Still, that comes on the heels of a more modest 1.8 percent increase two years ago at the end of the recession.
The results were revealed this morning on an enhanced web site (www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com) that includes an interactive train journey through a “winter wonderland” setting. The web site also reflects PNC’s commitment to education by teaching economic trends through the PNC CPI.
As part of its annual tradition, PNC Wealth Management also tabulates the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is the total cost of items gifted by a True Love who repeats all of the song’s verses. This holiday season is the most expensive year ever: very generous True Loves have to fork over $101,119.84 for all 364 gifts, a 4.4 percent increase compared to last year.
You can find a handy table with costs listed and compared to 2010 here (pdf). Only the three French Hens, Eight Maids-a-Milking, Nine Ladies Dancing, and 10 Lords-a-Leaping were the same price as last year. Need the lyrics? Try here.
For starters, we can’t say enough how much we appreciate our clients and sponsors. Your support means more than we can say. We also thank everyone in the ZimmComm community. We’ll continue to strive to bring you our best. We’re also thankful to America’s farmers and everyone involved in the production/processing/distribution of food.
During the recent NAFB convention, AgriTalk recorded a panel discussion about new research on Atrazine. This herbicide, which has been on the market for more than 50 years is very beneficial from an economic and environmental standpoint in the production of corn, sorghum and sugar cane according to this new research.
I interviewed one of those researchers, Dr. Mike Owen, during the NAFB Trade Talk in the Syngenta booth. He says his role was to investigate the issue of herbicide resistance. He says the information basically reinforces what most people already knew about the impact of using glyphosate resistant crops with glyphosate to the exclusion of a lot of the other tools in the agricultural toolbox. He says farmers are still in denial about this issue. They need to diversity in weed management! You can find a number of links on this subject posted by Dr. Owen here.
According to a release from Syngenta (pdf) on this subject:
U.S. consumers and society benefit from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by up to $4.8 billion per year, due to increased yield as well as decreased producer costs and reduced soil erosion, according to new studies released today in Kansas City.
In addition, the U.S. economy benefits from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by as much as $22 billion over a five-year period. Benefits to farmers and consumers from the triazine herbicides include increased corn, sorghum and sugar cane crop yields, lower weed-control costs, significantly reduced soil erosion and less carbon released into the atmosphere. Atrazine and the triazine herbicides account for as many as 48,000 American jobs in corn production alone.
You can watch the AgriTalk program with all the researchers, as they share highlights of the new data, documenting atrazine’s impact on weed management, crop yields and jobs.
The Alltech Ag Network is “the future of agriculture.” That’s according to Allie Hembree, pictured with Billy Frey during Trade Talk at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention.
Allie says the Network is a place where events can be live streamed and archived, using the services of iHigh. A recent example is the FFA Convention. You can find all the sessions in the archives. She says that they can help any company or organization set up there own page to do this for their events.
I’m not sure if you’d rather see one of the deer we harvested or not. This is my deer hunting team as things started to wind down on the 2011 hunt yesterday. We had a great time and reduced the over population of deer in Missouri I can tell you. Fresh venison on the grill is a good thing!
So, I’m back at ZimmComm World Headquarters getting back into civilization and agriblogging mode. The woods are a wonderful and peaceful place to get away from it all. However, I’ve got numerous interviews to share with you from the NAMA Trends in Agriculture Conference as well as the NAFB Convention.
So there will be quite a bit of activity on AgWired prior to the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
The ZimmComm team is gearing up for a busy week in Kansas City. There’s a lot going on. First up will be the annual meeting of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance followed by the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference. Then it’s on to the NAFB convention. We’ll have full coverage on AgWired. To make it easy to see our coverage any time you want, get the AgWired smartphone app (iPhone and Android)!
Also, if you are attending the NAFB convention and want to know more about using your smartphone for broadcasting purposes, plan to sit in on Chuck’s session on Wednesday at 3:15pm.
I have to take time to add my voice to all the folks who are talking about the passing of Steve Jobs. This is not an attempt to chronicle his life or achievements. It’s more to say how much I appreciate them. The iPod, followed by podcasting was a huge driver for our business. We affectionately call it farm podcasting. For that I am very grateful. I’m sure he never thought that his devices would be used to deliver farm news and information. At least I don’t think he did.
I never studied Steve’s life but I’ve been fascinated by his business and the products it produces. I have an iPhone/iPad/Macbook Air/iMac. I use them every day and they just plain work. As many of us Mac addicts like to say, “You can do everything on a PC that you can do on a Mac. It’s just more fun on a Mac!” I’m sure it’s more fun because Steve took risks and put his customer first, deciding to make something they want, not what he thought they wanted. That’s a lesson for all of us. So, that’s it I guess. We’ll miss you Steve but I’ve got a feeling that Apple will live on and continue your legacy.
We were shocked to hear that our friend Shannon Schaffer passed away suddenly over the weekend while on a bicycle ride.
We got to know Shannon when he was with the U.S. Grains Council. In fact, I traveled with him on a trip to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. You really get to know people when you travel like that. I didn’t have a room for a night at our hotel in Egypt and Shannon immediately offered to let me share his which I did. He was our main guide throughout that trip and kept us all together and on time. He is already missed.
Shannon left USGC to serve as Director of Membership for the National Farmers Union for the past year or so.
Here is the official obituary and details:
Shannon R. Schaffer, age 41, died on Saturday, September 17, 2011. He was the beloved husband of Sheri Schaffer; father of Ashton Schaffer; son of Ronald and Fae Schaffer and brother of Meredith Gulseth (Mark) and Emily Fisher (Alex). In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to an education fund being established for his son, Ashton at T. D. Bank, 308 Maple Avenue, East, Vienna, Virginia 22180.
Funeral services will be held Friday September 23 at 3:00 pm at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Vienna, VA. You can share memories of Shannon on the Tributes.com website.
Minnesota is a leader in the biodiesel industry, being the first state to require that all diesel fuel contain a two percent blend in 2005, and has since increased to a five percent blend. “Increasing the amount of biodiesel in our fuel allows us to take advantage of a renewable fuel made right here in Minnesota,” said Ed Hegland, former National Biodiesel Board Chairman and Minnesota farmer. “I’m proud to live in a state that is leading energy innovations and taking part in valuable solutions like biodiesel.”
“With nationwide demand for biodiesel growing steadily through implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) and Minnesota’s continued biodiesel consumption leadership, we expect to quickly ramp up production at REG Albert Lea, LLC,” said REG’s CEO Jeff Stroburg when the purchase of the plant was finalized. “With a foundation in agriculture and expertise in domestically-produced, renewable energy, REG is proud to bring green-collar jobs to this rural economy while supporting ag producers in Minnesota and across the Midwest.”
REG was already the largest biodiesel producer in the United States and the acquisition of REG Albert Lea brings the REG owned/operated total to more than 210 million gallons per year. REG was the general contractor and manager for the 30 mmgy refined vegetable oil feedstock biodiesel plant which originally began production in April 2005. Distribution of biodiesel at the facility started late last month. REG filed for filed an initial public offering in July.
Here’s a cool on-line tool that offers yield and production comparisons of various crops by county.
I received an email a few weeks ago from the guy who built the tool for a comparison engine called “Find the Best,” and also FindtheData.org.
Woody Robinson is a recent graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara who now works for FindTheBest, which he describes as “an objective, socially curated comparison engine that allows you to find a topic, compare your options and decide what’s best for you.”
He says that not only is the crop comparison tool “pretty fun to play around with,” it can also offer farmers some insight into crop production in various regions of the country. “Using data from the USDA, crops are compared using several categories (state, county, harvested, production, yield, etc). These categories can also be filtered to narrow crop search results,” Woody says. “It does provide an interesting perspective for the diversity of American farming.”
Here’s the media tent maestro, Gene Hemphill, New Holland Agriculture. He’s making sure we’re all being taken care of.
The weather here on the final day of set up is beautiful. Let’s hope it stays that way although the forecast is for it to turn much warmer by Thursday. The ZimmComm team is on location and Cindy’s off getting our first interview with the Illinois Corn Growers.
After taking care of business at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference a few of us had to get a little R&R. So we followed Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet, to his place at Cedar Island at Keaton Beach. Tagging along are Mike Deering, NCBA and Evan Slack, the Evan Slack Radio Network. Today’s Evan’s birthday so make sure you wish him a happy one.
We have had two days of scorching heat but we did get some fish to bite. Our cooler had more in it yesterday but for the dog days of summer we felt pretty good about it. This afternoon we’re switching gears and going out scalloping before calling it quits. If you’re interested we’ve got some photos online here.
If you’re ever over this way and need a good guide then call Captain Edward Thomas, T.G.I.F. Charters. Cappy knows where to go and when. We highly recommend him.
It’s nice to have a couple days away from the agriblogging highway. Tomorrow we’ll be homeward bound and then off to another adventure on Monday.
The Salute to America celebration in Jefferson City included a bird show. The star was this bald eagle. They made their appearance before the evening concert series. We heard all about hawks, owls and eagles with this one being last on the program.
“This program features our country’s symbol – the bald eagle,” said Walt Crawford, Director of the World Bird Sanctuary, based in St. Louis. “We salute our country, our veterans and the eagle as a living emblem of the beauty and vitality of Missouri’s natural resources.”
The main entertainment on the stage in front of the Missouri Capitol Building was the Little River Band. Cindy and I saw them in Tampa at Commodity Classic. The band still plays their classics like The Other Guy, etc. I think they appeal to a wide audience and especially age range.
The big star of the show on Independence Day is the fireworks and they did not disappoint us in Jefferson City. The fireworks are set off across the Missouri River from the state capitol building and there are people in pretty much every square inch of ground you can watch from on both sides of the river.
The Capitol City boasts one of the largest fireworks displays in the State! Plan to bring the entire family to watch the spectacular from the north lawn of the State Capitol. Be sure to tune in your radio to listen to the choreographed music accompanying the display on Jeff 104. This is the highlight of the Salute to America Festival and you won’t want to miss it!
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
At the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences the media received a preview of the Cotton Life Cycle Inventory & Life Cycle Assessment. This is a benchmark study for cotton sustainability.
Traffic was up nearly 8% on Agwired this year to a grand total of just about 198,000 unique visitors – we should break 200,000 pretty easily in 2012. We had a total of 1790 posts this year, including more than 600 with audio. We posted over 17,000 
One day I was thinking to myself, “I wish there was a calendar that had all the ag events for the year on it.” I had never seen such a thing, so I decided to make one.
I got a notice from 
We were shocked to hear that our friend Shannon Schaffer passed away suddenly over the weekend while on a bicycle ride. 
Minnesota soybean growers will be in attendance Monday at the grand re-opening of a soy biodiesel plant in Albert Lea that was shut down in 2008. 
I received an email a few weeks ago from the guy who built the tool for a comparison engine called 
Woody Robinson is a recent graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara who now works for FindTheBest, which he describes as “an objective, socially curated comparison engine that allows you to find a topic, compare your options and decide what’s best for you.” 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
