I’m participating in a live NAFB webinar, first look at the combined results of the first two waves of their 2008 National Producer Media-Use Wave Study. There’s one more to go.
We’ve got people on the webinar from all over the U.S. listening to Mike Parry go though his slides. I’m not sure how much is for public release yet. NAFB will probably release some information publicly soon. Update: A full release of the Study will be done at the NAFB convention this fall after the third wave of survey is completed. Very interesting information!
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:
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has just released some initial results (pdf file) from the first segment of their new producer media use study. I think you should take note of how important text messages are to producers. That really stands out to me. Same for web-based information. The word “grown” is key. It’s growing!
The fact that farmers value radio so high on a daily basis is something that I’ve always understood. Farmers are about as mobile as anyone else and the radio is a convenient source of news and information. I just wish more radio stations carried farm programming.
While Web-based information use among the nation’s largest agricultural producers and ranchers has grown, thanks to increased access to high-speed Internet connections, radio remains the primary and most-used source of daily agribusiness information.
This is according to the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, based on the first “wave” data from its ongoing comprehensive 2008 National Producer Media-Use Wave Study. The survey, which includes in-depth interviews with three distinct samples of 800 national Class 1A producers and ranchers in each sample, comes 10 years after a 1998-99 “wave study” sponsored by NAFB. Class 1A producers have $100,000+ in sales/gross farm income.
Trailing radio in importance as a source of daily agribusiness information – based on the
first sampling wave conducted in February – are Web sites, television, and cell phone text
messages, in order.
At the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Washington Watch program there is a session called the Issues Forum in which ag groups make representatives available for interviews. During this session I interviewed Sarah Olson, Communications Coordinator, National Milk Producers Federation. Sarah is relatively new to NMPF and says that as they look to the future, communications will change. For example, she says they’re taking a close look at social communications mechanisms like blogs.
Besides my interview with Sarah, this week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s called “Song Writers With No Issues” by The Dubois. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 169 (13 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
Last week I had the pleasure to spend a couple of half day sessions doing some media production training with Jennifer Morrill at American Farmland Trust in Washington, DC. It worked out very well since I was attending the NAFB Washington Watch.
At the Washington Watch Issues Forum I also got to interview AFT President, Ralph Grossi. (Jennifer took the picture.) As you might guess, we talked about the farm bill. Ralph explained how AFT has been involved in the farm bill process for over 2 years. One of the things he says they’ve been able to do is bring people to the table to discuss the legislation who might not have otherwise.
You can listen to my interview with Ralph here:
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For those of you who wonder what I mean when I mention a “mult box,” here’s a picture of NAFB’s in heavy use at yesterday’s Washington Watch session. It’s what allows multiple people to easily connect to the audio feed from a podium for example. If you want to help the media out then you need one of these at your press conference.
Today’s a travel day for the agriblogger. I’m looking forward to some email catch up on the plane and a little analysis of some of the new things we’re doing like AgWired Mobile and AgWired Live TV. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
For you aspiring new media ag journalists I thought I’d summarize a one person multi event coverage week. Here’s some stats from the last few days:
370 digital photos, 215 of them loaded into 2 Flickr sets
15 audio interviews/press conference recordings
2 live video/audio streamed press conferences
1 YouTube video
posting/udpating on 5 different blogs
1 recorded/edited podcast
2 client site media production training sessions
12 mobile service story updates
Not too bad for an old guy, eh? If I can do it, then I know that you can do it too. Need help, just give me a call.
This morning NAFB members are getting fully updated on the farm bill as well as other issues here in the Russell Bldg. First up on our program was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who was looking a little tired as he took the podium.
The Senator told us that he expects (hopes/dreams) that we’ll actually have a farm bill by today or tomorrow after the House and Senate conferees spent all day yesterday, including meeting with the Administration, on hammering out a final agreement. We’ll see. However, he did provide the group with quite a few numbers and statistics on what we should expect from the final bill.
I asked him what specialty crop producers could expect and you can hear his answer here:
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NAFB members are currently sitting in an office of the Senate Bldg. listening to a series of legislators discuss policy and what’s happening on the farm bill from their perspective.
Here’s the happy, smiley group as we walked up the hill past the Capitol to this building.
We’re going to be here all morning and fortunately my AT&T card is working like a charm! The photo album is up to date so feel free to visit and get a better sense of what this group is doing in Washington, DC.
NAFB’ers were treated to a wonderful dinner at Agraria last night. It’s a restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union.
Our emcee for dinner was Tom Brand, KFEQ, who was formally announced by Ken Root, WHO. The photo was taken with my camera by Leah Guffey, WFMB.
Sponsors include the National Farmers Union and The Fertilizer Institute. This is a unique restaurant which not only serves an excellent meal experience but is focused on purchasing products from farmers.
Agraria Restaurant is owned by and sources the highest quality products from family-farmers across the country. Enjoy our modern American cuisine derived from the families whose passion for farming not only provides the wholesome ingredients presented on our menu, but also embodies the very fabric of the American way of life.
Okay, this is my last post with Secretary Schafer here at the NAFB Washington Watch. While I was streaming it live, taking stills and recording audio I also shot a video clip so you can see what the room is like when we meet here in the USDA board room.
I know there’s a story about the huge table that we sit around but I just don’t remember it. If you know the source for the table please leave a comment.
You can download and listen to the first 10 minutes of the Secretary’s remarks here: Secretary Schafer’s Remarks (10 min MP3)
Or listen right now with this link:
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The board room here at the USDA Admin Building is a great place to have a meeting.
Here’s farm broadcasters participating in the NAFB Washington Watch program. It’s a very intimate setting and besides having a mult box to plug our audio recorders into we get to ask lots of questions. I’m recording our sessions and will be editing out some audio to post later.
One of the highlights of meeting with our Secretary of Agriculture is getting out picture taken with him.
Here’s the whole NAFB group with Sec. Schafer just a few minutes ago on a break before we went back into session.
This afternoon we’ll be going out to USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. That’s a first for the NAFB Washington Watch and it will be my first time visiting the center.
Here’s our Secretary of Agriculture speaking to the NAFB group here at their Washington Watch program a few minutes ago.
You’ll notice the Macbook Pro sitting in front of him. That was streaming his remarks live on AgWired Live TV using the built-in camera and microphone.
Here’s what it looked like on the Mac screen from my vantage point. You can still watch the event since I also recorded a portion of it.
I’m posting from the Mac while our next group of speakers from USDA is speaking. This group includes FAS, FSA and RMA.
I just completed the first test of AgWired Live TV with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, addressing members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. I didn’t have time to pre-advertise it but I did record his opening remarks which you can watch here. I think you’re going to be seeing more of the future of farm broacasting.
The NAFB Washington Watch program is about to start their visit with Secretary of Agriculture Schafer here at the USDA Admin Offices. Here’s the BARN broadcasters Andy Vance and Lindsay Hill with the Secretary.
Actually they’re all filtering in to the board room now so I’ve got to go. More to come.
NAFB members heard from Jennifer Duffy, The Cook Political Report, at dinner this evening. Jennifer says she started covering this year’s election in early 2006 and she’s going to be ready for a 3 month vacation after it’s over.
I spoke to her prior to dinner and learned that her job is to analyze and try to figure out the outcome of various elections. She says the farm audience has played a very important role in various elections on a national level. Here at the NAFB Washington Watch dinner her remarks were mostly about congressional races and the political environment in Washington, DC.
You can listen to my interview with Jennifer here:
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I really don’t think Ken Root, WHO, is kneeling at the altar of wheat here but it is a different way to do an interview. He’s one of the many farm broadcasters here at the NAFB Washington Watch who participated in this afternoon’s Issues Forum session.
Various commodity groups attend with representatives who can talk about issues pertinent to their audience and members. The farm broadcasters get a couple of hours to conduct interviews for their programming.
I wandered around and interviewed about a half a dozen various attendees and asked them why they participate in Washington Watch.
Listen to different commodity group representatives provide the answer here:
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The National Association of Farm Broadcasting leadership took a few minutes after the opening meeting of their annual Washington Watch program to talk with me about the event. Pictured here (l-r) are Randy Koenen, Red River Farm Network, Pam Jahnke, Fabulous Farm Babe and Greg Akagi, Kansas Ag Network.
Randy explains what happens at a Washington Watch, which includes a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and various representatives of commodity groups. They all agree that this meeting is like professional development on the job since NAFB members attending get to personally interact with legislators and others involved in farm legislation. They conduct interviews and learn more about what’s going on in the nation’s Capitol which helps them do a better and more up to date job reporting back to their listeners.
Up later this afternoon is an Issues Forum session where commodity group reps come in to be available to talk about issues. I’m guessing the Farm Bill is going to be discussed a lot this afternoon.
Listen to my interview with the three amigos here:
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Earlier today the NAFB Board met and then this afternoon the held a business meeting to bring members up to date on Association activities.
According to Executive Director, Bill O’Neill, the National Association of Farm Broadcasting is conducting waves of farmer media use surveys this year. It’s their NAFB 2008 National Producer Media-Use Study. He says they’re focusing on larger producers and ranchers (Class 1A, $100,000+ in sales/gross farm income).
I’ll be attending next week’s NAFB Washington Watch program courtesy of the organization to cover it here on AgWired.
He’s got these notes from the first wave (the others will be conducted in April and September):
While Web-based information use among producers has grown thanks to increased access to high-speed Internet connections, radio is holding place as the primary and most-used source of daily agribusiness information. The study’s initial results also reveal that agriculture’s listening patterns have changed little in 10 years, as all Class 1A producers are listening to radio 5.57 days per week — and those who listen specifically to agricultural programming are listening 6.42 days per week.
A new generation of younger producers (below age 50) is indicating more reliance on radio for specific information, and they are spending more time listening. A strong percentage of high-speed Internet users listening to farm radio are tuning to a specific broadcaster. Online, fragmentation is highly evident among producers attempting, without the aid of a reference list, to pinpoint their “most valuable Web site” for agricultural information. (more…)
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting is holding its annual Washington Watch program at the end of April and for the first time in a few years I’ll be attending. On this week’s program we’ll learn about it from program chair Lindsay Hill, BARN.
I know I’m a little late this week but maybe I can get back on my Monday schedule next week.
Washington Watch is all about farm broadcasters getting together in DC to meet with the Secretary of Ag as well as a lot of Under Secretarys and others at USDA. Lindsay says NAFB will be doing something new this year by busing everyone out to the Ag Research Center in Beltsville, MD.
Also on the agenda is an Issues Forum where various ag groups provide representatives to talk about the big issues of the day facing agriculture. I think you’ll enjoy our conversation.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s called “Barnside Shed” by Justin Gordon. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 165 (12 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
I’m participating in a live NAFB webinar, first look at the combined results of the first two waves of their 2008 National Producer Media-Use Wave Study. There’s one more to go.
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.
At the 
Last week I had the pleasure to spend a couple of half day sessions doing some media production training with Jennifer Morrill at 
For those of you who wonder what I mean when I mention a “mult box,” here’s a picture of NAFB’s in heavy use at yesterday’s Washington Watch session. It’s what allows multiple people to easily connect to the audio feed from a podium for example. If you want to help the media out then you need one of these at your press conference.
This morning NAFB members are getting fully updated on the farm bill as well as other issues here in the Russell Bldg. First up on our program was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who was looking a little tired as he took the podium.
NAFB members are currently sitting in an office of the Senate Bldg. listening to a series of legislators discuss policy and what’s happening on the farm bill from their perspective.
NAFB’ers were treated to a wonderful dinner at 
Okay, this is my last post with Secretary Schafer here at the NAFB Washington Watch. While I was streaming it live, taking stills and recording audio I also shot a video clip so you can see what the room is like when we meet here in the USDA board room.
The board room here at the USDA Admin Building is a great place to have a meeting.
Here’s the whole NAFB group with Sec. Schafer just a few minutes ago on a break before we went back into session.
Here’s our Secretary of Agriculture speaking to the NAFB group here at their Washington Watch program a few minutes ago.
Here’s what it looked like on the Mac screen from my vantage point. You can still watch the event since I also 
The NAFB Washington Watch program is about to start their visit with Secretary of Agriculture Schafer here at the USDA Admin Offices. Here’s the 
NAFB members heard from Jennifer Duffy, 
I really don’t think Ken Root, WHO, is kneeling at the altar of wheat here but it is a different way to do an interview. He’s one of the many farm broadcasters here at the NAFB Washington Watch who participated in this afternoon’s Issues Forum session. 
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting leadership took a few minutes after the opening meeting of their annual Washington Watch program to talk with me about the event. Pictured here (l-r) are Randy Koenen, 
Peanut producers are meeing in Panama City, FL and Cindy has them covered.
