Jim Evans, Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, has written a great article about the use of blogs in agricultural communications. It’s titled, “Why and how journalists around the world are using blogs to cover agriculture” and you can find it on the IFAJ website. Here’s an excerpt:
During late 2005 agricultural communications researchers Emily Rhoades and Kelsey Hall conducted what may be the first analysis of agricultural blogs. They analyzed 52 agriculture blogs originating in North America and concluded that agricultural communicators cannot ignore blogging. You can read an abstract of their study and findings at: http://www.aceweb.org/JAC/index.html > Issues > 2007
By early 2009, time spent on social networks and blogs had become the fourth most popular online activity, ahead of personal email. The Nielsen Company reported that, globally, one in every 11 minutes online is accounted for by social network and blogging sites. The share of time accounted for by such sites increased 38% between December 2007 and December 2008. In Brazil, for example, 23% of minutes spent online in December 2008 involved social network and blogging sites. You can review a summary of findings at: http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr_090309.pdf
The IFAJ home page now features a repository of agricultural blogs from IFAJ members everywhere. You can view it at www.ifaj.org > “Join the global agricultural blogosphere”
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) would like its producers to get to know them better, says Lynn Heinz, the executive director of communications. The organization serves all the 800,000 beef producers in the country, and is working with ag journalists to help them get their message out. In some cases this is with paid advertising, and in others it is to help them develop story ideas.
Since they are helping journalists come up with story ideas, I thought I’d ask him for a few ideas. So we discussed some of the key issues facing beef producers today.
“One of the things we’ve seen all summer with the economic situation, people have moved away from traditional steaks and those kinds of more expensive product. We’re working with retailers to help them feature those kinds of items. We’re helping consumers understand how to use something like the flatiron were they can still have the steak experience but at a lower cost.”
CBB is also working with exporters to meet the increased demand of Russia, Europe and Asia for middle meats. But this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what CBB is doing to promote its beef producers. To hear more, listen to the full interview with Lynn.
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
There are a lot of agricultural policy concerns today and the Farm Foundation is taking an active role in helping DC adopt better legislation. The organization notes that agriculture is important and ag policy is important, and their role is to bring divergent views together and provide a forum for discussion. During these discussions, The Farm Foundation lets the best policies arise and then provides the outlet for policy makers to take advantage of these ideas. However, the organization does not lobby, but simply provides the best information for policy makers to use.
I asked Sheldon Jones what key issues they have been dealing with and he mentioned two: food prices and the agriculture’s role in feeding and fueling the world.
“A year ago when food prices were increasing and there were food riots around the world, we commissioned a study from three economists at Purdue on what are the real drivers to food prices. They reviewed literature, assessed the global demand for food and what were the driving factors including fuel, petroleum prices, world stocks, supplies of grain and more.”
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
Several student and young professional awards were given during the IFAJ/AMS summit and one of the most coveted awards, the Forrest Bassford Award was given to Whitney Wallace and is sponsored by LPC. Whitney will be a senior at the University of Missouri this fall and she is an active member of ACT – the AG Communicators of Tomorrow. She will be graduating next May with a degree in Agricultural Journalism with an Ag Economics minor.
I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Whitney, and she is a talented and well spoken woman who has already taken the ag communications industry by storm. For those companies looking for a rare talent, you’d better get in line now, because I suspect that Whitney will be off the market in a blink of an eye!
As such an active and young member of the journalism community, I asked her to give her fellow students some advice.
“Just like I tell the other students at Mizzou, you just gotta jump in an try everything you can. Because we have so many opportunities that we can pick and choose and find so many great little niches of places we can succeed.”
Thanks to Carly and Joanna, pictured here about to go into Billy Bob’s, our online photo album from this year’s IFAJ/AMS is very full. You’ll find almost 900 pictures in there. Please feel free to use them and if you need a high res version we’ll do our best to get one to you.
I got up early this morning and watched all the photos as a slide show via my Apple TV on my 42″ plasma screen. It felt almost like being there. I could hear the voices and know what they were saying. That happens when you spend a lot of time with good friends and colleagues at an extended event like this each year.
Quasimojo played once again at this year’s event. I’m thinking we should be recording these for future release. What do you think?
Then we could release an annual CD, Best of CD, etc. Perhaps a recording contract with a big label down the road? I don’t know.
All registrants to the IFAJ Congress 2009 received a great wild west souvenir to take home with them. These leather note pad holders were all printed with our names. I was registered although I did not get to attend.
Cindy brought mine home. She actually just got home yesterday after attending the APS meeting in Portland, OR right after IFAJ/AMS. She’s starting to know what it feels like to be me when I’m healthy!
If you attended this year’s IFAJ Congress for your first time I’d love to know your thoughts on meeting with fellow ag journalists from other countries. Did you find it helpful? What did you get out of the relationships you made?
Conversely, if you’re an IFAJ member outside the U.S. who attended, what are your thoughts? Was it a good Congress? What do you think about these crazy Americans? Feel free to post comments.
Now that everyone is home safe and sound from Ft. Worth, you’ll have a little time to read the new books by the IFAJ/AMS lunch speakers. Participants were first treated to a presentation by Julie Wainwright, who is the owner of Smartnow.com. She worked her way up to found Pets.com (how can you forget the sock puppet) and then undergo a very public bankruptcy right as the Internet bubble burst.
But after a few false starts and five big mistakes, she is now back on her feet and spreading encouragement to others. I can’t speak for everyone who attended, but her message definitely resonated with me which is why I’m looking forward to reading her new self-published book, ReBoot My Five Life Changing Mistakes and How I Have Moved On, available on Amazon.com.
While Wainwright’s presentation was fairly serious, on Tuesday we were thoroughly entertained by Scott McKain, who is the vice president of Obsidian Enterprises and the co-founder and principal of The Value Added Institute, a think tank that explores client loyalty. Speaking of which, how do you maintain client loyalty? Through being distinct. McKain has written exhaustively about this topic and is a best selling author.
There are Four Cornerstones of Distinction according to McKain including clarity, creativity, communication and customer experience focus. I don’t have time to go into details but his presentation was not only extremely funny, it was even more insightful. McKain very much believes in the mission of ag journalists, so much so that he has done two things. First, he has made his presentation available; and second, he has made the audio and e-versions of his new book, Collapse of Distinction: stand out and move up while your competition fails, available for free.
It’s been an amazing week here in Ft Worth for the largest ever IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit. We’ve had some fun times and made long-lasting new friends from around the world but its time to ride into the sunset and say goodbye.
Thanks for letting AgWired be a part of your celebration with special thanks to Novus International, Pioneer and Successful Farming for sponsoring our coverage. You can check out pictures from all the events in our IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album, and come back to AgWired.com often as we’ll be posting stories about the events during the next few weeks.
We’ll see you next year in Belgium. Cheers!
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
There’s been a lot of stampeding and kicking it up on the dance floor here in Ft. Worth this week during the IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit. And one company that is really kicking it up is BASF with their new product Kixor. Kixor is currently under development and is being designed for broadleaf weed control. Once it is perfected and available for producers, farmers will able to apply the herbicide prior to crop emergence for burndown or for season-long residual broadleaf control.
To learn more, I spent a little time at the campfire with Dan Westberg, Technical Services Manager for BASF.
“Kixor herbicide technology is a unique chemistry that is specifically designed by BASF to solve the toughest broadleaf weed control problems facing growers today,” explained Westberg. “If you look across the board there are a little over 70 broadleaf weed species. Many of those are resistance or hard to control.”
When the technology comes to market, it will have a wide range of crops it can be used on including corn, sorghum, soybean, wheat, all of the cereals, cotton, follow, treat fruit, and more.
One of the best attributes of Kixor will be the short amount of time for it to take effect – three to five days.
“Kixor herbicide technology will be very unique in that it has both burndown activity and also soil residual activity. So, depending on which crop it will have a very effective burndown and for some crops we can provide a very effective residual effect especially corn,” said Westberg.
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
Small grain farmers and agricultural researchers were taken by surprise this year due to a huge outbreak of head scab. But many farmers were spared to much damage through the application of various fungicide products including those who used Caramba. Caramba is a fungicide developed by BASF and now for the first time this year available to producers and its benefit is to increase yield protection and reductions of DON levels in grain.
Dr. Gary M Fellows was able to sit down with me during the Ag Media Summit and tell me more about Caramba and Twinline.
“Caramba is the number one product worldwide for the control for head scab in small grains, and we launched it this year which was a good thing because this was the worst year for head scab that we’ve seen in the past 25 years,” said Fellows.
“The neat thing about Twinline is that its powered by Headline. What we’ve done is taken Headline and moved it up to the next level and that’s Twinline. And so we’ve actually increased it activity its given it a little longer in curative control as well as preventive control we’ve always had. In the trials that are starting to come off, the wheat harvest in the south is almost done, we’re seeing great yields in Twinline compared to all the other competitive products and compared to untreated.”
Although Twinline is only for small grains such as wheat they are working on a comparative product for corn but we’re going to have to wait to get the details.
We had several fellow journalists here at IFAJ and Ag Media Summit from Australia with us and they are not expecting a great wheat harvest. However, although not a record breaking year, the United States, says Fellows, should have a good harvest.
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
I spent some time with Jerry Harrington, Sales and Marketing PR Manager for Pioneer during the Ag Media Summit today so that I could learn a little more about some of their new products. Pioneer is launching several new products this year for producers, two of which are for corn farmers and one for soybean farmers.
“We’re waiting for approval on cadre of new technologies. One is Optimum GAT in corn which is broad spectrum herbicide resistance…and we expect regulatory approval this year with eventual product introduction. There’s also Optimum Acre Max 1 which is our new in the bag refuge program which makes setting up refuge easier for farmers in corn,” said Harrington.
He continued, “And thirdly high oleic soybeans. High oleic soybeans, known as brand name Plenish, is the first oil trait with a human benefit. That is its soybean oil that has greater stability in cooking and its also healthier for the end use audience. We’re looking forward to approvals on all three of those in the second half of this year.”
Producers and media can get more information Optimum GAT, Optimum Acre Max and Plenish on Pioneer’s website.
Although I could not attend the combined IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit that doesn’t mean I’m not in touch. I just got off Skype with Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest, and Co-Chair of the event. He had a short break before the afternoon activities get underway.
Greg says the mix of U.S. and international visitors has worked out great and the event is a success. Many of our international guests commented that the “cowboy spirit” they’ve experienced is just what they hoped it would be. Greg says he’s caught that spirit too. Sounds like a lot of hats and boots are going home from this conference.
So listen to my chat with Greg to hear how this year’s event has been going. Just click on the audio player below.
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.
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
Time flies when you’re getting close to an event as exciting as the AG CONNECT Expo, who just celebrated its one year anniversary of “existence”. What does that mean you wonder? Last year the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) announced the first ever AG CONNECT show on January 13-15, 2010 in Orlando, Florida. This international show is designed for agriculture industry professionals to share global agricultural ideas and management trends. Participants will be able to interact with exhibits of the latest industry innovations, products and technology as well as a participate in a comprehensive education program and extensive networking opportunities with industry experts worldwide. And what better time for producers to head to Florida then just before they begin to prepare for Spring planting.
The Ag Media Summit was a perfect place for me to catch up with Charlie O’Brien, V.P. of Ag Services for AEM and find out the latest news about AG CONNECT and to learn why everyone should be there.
“It’s really an opportunity to bring agriculture together in one place. They have an opportunity from a trade show perspective to see the latest and greatest innovations and technologies that are available in agriculture. We also have a full complement of education that’s going on. We have more than 50 educational sessions that are available to the attendees. Those are trying to bring out the latest and greatest of what’s happening in agriculture. Agriculture is used whether its precision farming or farm management or succession farming. And we also have the opportunity for networking.”
Everyone who participated in A Media Summit had the opportunity to meet hundreds of journalists from around the world and AG CONNECT will be a great place for them to learn more about global agriculture. You can get more information about AG CONNECT and register at www.agconnect.com.
This year IFAJ and AMS brought an all-day photography school to the conference. The photography school was taught by Michael Schwarz of the Blue Pixel Group. We started the day off at the historical Fort Worth Stockyards, where we were free to roam the grounds and take pictures that inspired us. Our assignment was to capture old time Texas and anything that would represent that. Participants shot photos of everything from long horns to cowboy hats. At 11:30 the daily cattle drive was taken through the main street of the Stockyard and was a great photo opportunity for us as well as something new to see.
After the cattle drive we headed back to the hotel for the critique session. Each participant picked out their favorite 5 pictures and as a group we reviewed all of them to share our thoughts. The best 50 were chosen and we made our own storytelling slide show of our days adventure. Apart from being a little hot the day was a fun filled learning experience.
You can check out my photos from the Stockyards on our photo album here:
We’re less than an hour away from the opening of the InfoExpo Grand Opening and Reception. I took at sneak peak at the booths, food and beverages and people are going to be treated to a great time.
There are a few companies adding the final touches…and a few companies already getting down to business!
There is a lot of discussion around the best way(s) to sequester carbon but the biggest discussion involves the issue of what is the best way to do this and what will be the long term effects. Several people took the stage during one of Sunday’s afternoon sessions called: Carbon Sequestration – The Path to the Promise.
Theodor Friedrich with the Crop and Grassland Service of the FAO, along with Nathan Rudgers, with 25×25 Carbon Work Group, shared the podium to discuss the ability of farmers to capture and store atmospheric carbon in their soils as a way to reduce carbon emissions. This practice to be both a boon to the air and the soil as this could provide a new financial stream for farmers.
Friedrich focused on the role of soil in carbon sequestration noting that when soils are put into production they lose CO2. However, he said, this also makes them a big carbon sink and warned that a key element to the success of this process would be agricultural management of the soils. In the end, he cautioned that in regards to climate change, “agriculture must be a part of the solution, not part of the problem.
From there Rudgers took the stage to focus on how forestry can play in important role in carbon offset programs (cap and trade). He noted that under the cap-and-trade, regulated entities must reduce emissions or purchase offsets to cover them. He commented that his organization is looking at woody biomass which, “can be a robust contributor to energy solutions.”
As I mentioned in the first part of my post, I had the opportunity to tour around Ft. Worth with journalists from around the world during the IFAJ conference. After leaving the Rocky Top Therapy Center we headed to the Texas Motor Speedway for a little fun on the track.
I’ve been to the speedway before and actually enjoyed watching the awe of our international friends more than anything. The speedway seats nearly 200,000 fans on a race weekend and is the host of two Nascar races and an IndyCar race. I could hardly believe this, but the speedway was completed in 1997 and in April ’97 had their first Nascar race. After the weekend was over, the owners made so much money they were able to pay off the speedway. Amazing!
After watching some participants of the Richard Petty Driving School (a program where people can pay to learn how to drive a one of the race cars that compete in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series) with much jealousy, we headed to Superior Livestock Auction located in the historical Ft. Worth Stockyards. From the information that I can gather, they actually auctioned off livestock and other animals in the stockyards until the mid to late 90s. Now, many livestock auctions are handled online and Superior Livestock Auction is the company that pioneered the online auction. You can also watch the actions live on RFD TV and they will also soon be broadcast on cable. Nothing like the ability to buy a lot of Angus without leaving your couch.
One of the coolest parts of the IFAJ/AMS Big Ol’ Western Welcome Party was pretty hot – branding boards with personal brands. Dozens of ag media types, both American and international, took the branding iron in hand and left their marks.
Our buddy Harlen Persinger – photographer extraordinaire – really got into it and designed a nice brand for himself. Check out the photo album for lots more photos.
There were at least 600 people who attended the party last night at Fort Worth Stockyards that included great music and dancing, as well as some good ol’ Texas barbeque. It was really a fun time for all!
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2009 is sponsored by: and
Although I lived in Dallas-Ft. Worth for several years, there is always more to see. I spent the day touring around Ft. Worth as part of the IFAJ conference and visited the Rocky Top Therapy Center (www.rockytoptherapy.org) located in Keller, Texas, the Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth and Superior Livestock Auction, located in the historic Stockyards.
Although the entire day was enjoyable, I was really fascinated with the Rocky Top Therapy Center which uses animals, and specifically equine therapy to help more than 250 emotionally, mentally and physically challenged individuals each week. They use more than 53 horses and 250 volunteers who donated more than 180,000 hours of their time to help these children last year.
We were given a special equine therapy demonstration by several amazing children who all began the program in wheelchairs and now each one of these kids can walk. You can see a video of the therapy here.
Also featured at the ranch is a playground featuring the largest treehouse in the country. For the first time ever, both children and adults have been able to experience the pleasure of sliding down a topsy-turvy slide.
It was a great experience and you can learn more about Rocky Top Therapy Center at www.rockytoptherapy.com. In case you’re interested in donating time or money, they have a fundraiser coming up in October and you can get more information on their website.
To see more photos from the ranch as well as rest of my tour, check out our IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.
Follow the fun at the 2010 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.
Trends In Agriculture
Learn more about Trends in Agriculture by attending NAMA's fall conference.
This year the National Agri-Marketing Association will be holding it's Trends In Ag conference in Minneapolis, MN due to a hotel scheduling conflict in KC, MO. I talked about the situation with Jenny Pickett, NAMA CEO, who also talks about the program which has the theme, "Agriculture In a Globally Local World."
Jim Evans, Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, has written a great article about the use of blogs in agricultural communications. It’s titled, “Why and how journalists around the world are using blogs to cover agriculture” and you can find it on the IFAJ website. Here’s an excerpt:
“One of the things we’ve seen all summer with the economic situation, people have moved away from traditional steaks and those kinds of more expensive product. We’re working with retailers to help them feature those kinds of items. We’re helping consumers understand how to use something like the flatiron were they can still have the steak experience but at a lower cost.”
“A year ago when food prices were increasing and there were food riots around the world, we commissioned a study from three economists at Purdue on what are the real drivers to food prices. They reviewed literature, assessed the global demand for food and what were the driving factors including fuel, petroleum prices, world stocks, supplies of grain and more.”
Our photo album for the IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit has been giving us fits the last few days. Flickr is great but every once in a while . . . 
I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Whitney, and she is a talented and well spoken woman who has already taken the ag communications industry by storm. For those companies looking for a rare talent, you’d better get in line now, because I suspect that Whitney will be off the market in a blink of an eye!
Thanks to Carly and Joanna, pictured here about to go into Billy Bob’s, our online photo album from this year’s IFAJ/AMS is very full. You’ll find almost 900 pictures in there. Please feel free to use them and if you need a high res version we’ll do our best to get one to you.
Quasimojo played once again at this year’s event. I’m thinking we should be recording these for future release. What do you think?
All registrants to the IFAJ Congress 2009 received a great wild west souvenir to take home with them. These leather note pad holders were all printed with our names. I was registered although I did not get to attend.
If you attended this year’s IFAJ Congress for your first time I’d love to know your thoughts on meeting with fellow ag journalists from other countries. Did you find it helpful? What did you get out of the relationships you made?
Now that everyone is home safe and sound from Ft. Worth, you’ll have a little time to read the new books by the IFAJ/AMS lunch speakers. Participants were first treated to a presentation by Julie Wainwright, who is the owner of 
While Wainwright’s presentation was fairly serious, on Tuesday we were thoroughly entertained by Scott McKain, who is the vice president of Obsidian Enterprises and the co-founder and principal of The Value Added Institute, a think tank that explores client loyalty. Speaking of which, how do you maintain client loyalty? Through being distinct. McKain has written exhaustively about this topic and is a best selling author.
There’s been a lot of stampeding and kicking it up on the dance floor here in Ft. Worth this week during the IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit. And one company that is really kicking it up is 
Small grain farmers and agricultural researchers were taken by surprise this year due to a huge outbreak of head scab. But many farmers were spared to much damage through the application of various fungicide products including those who used Caramba. Caramba is a fungicide developed by BASF and now for the first time this year available to producers and its benefit is to increase yield protection and reductions of DON levels in grain.
“We’re waiting for approval on cadre of new technologies. One is 
Although I could not attend the combined IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit that doesn’t mean I’m not in touch. I just got off Skype with Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest, and Co-Chair of the event. He had a short break before the afternoon activities get underway.
The Ag Media Summit was a perfect place for me to catch up with Charlie O’Brien, V.P. of Ag Services for AEM and find out the latest news about AG CONNECT and to learn why everyone should be there.
This year IFAJ and AMS brought an all-day photography school to the conference. The photography school was taught by Michael Schwarz of the Blue Pixel Group. We started the day off at the historical Fort Worth Stockyards, where we were free to roam the grounds and take pictures that inspired us. Our assignment was to capture old time Texas and anything that would represent that. Participants shot photos of everything from long horns to cowboy hats. At 11:30 the daily cattle drive was taken through the main street of the Stockyard and was a great photo opportunity for us as well as something new to see.
Theodor Friedrich with the Crop and Grassland Service of the FAO, along with Nathan Rudgers, with 25×25 Carbon Work Group, shared the podium to discuss the ability of farmers to capture and store atmospheric carbon in their soils as a way to reduce carbon emissions. This practice to be both a boon to the air and the soil as this could provide a new financial stream for farmers.
As I mentioned in the first part of my post, I had the opportunity
After watching some participants of the Richard Petty Driving School (a program where people can pay to learn how to drive a one of the race cars that compete in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series) with much jealousy, we headed to 
One of the coolest parts of the IFAJ/AMS Big Ol’ Western Welcome Party was pretty hot – branding boards with personal brands. Dozens of ag media types, both American and international, took the branding iron in hand and left their marks.
Our buddy Harlen Persinger – photographer extraordinaire – really got into it and designed a nice brand for himself. Check out the photo album for lots more photos.
Also featured at the ranch is a playground featuring the largest treehouse in the country. For the first time ever, both children and adults have been able to experience the pleasure of sliding down a topsy-turvy slide.
Learn more about Trends in Agriculture by attending NAMA's fall conference.
