He drove the tractor onto the auction stage before getting behind the microphone.

On hand representing New Holland was Executive Vice President, Abe Hughes. In an effort to get the bidding up Abe added a brand new New Holland Rustler to the winner of Lil Tug.

All the proceeds from the auction of the tractor are going to support the Fisher House Foundation which helps military families. Jay really helped work on the crowd and as you’ll hear from the audio clip, he did a great job. BTW. The tractor was just recently signed by President George W. Bush who is a big supporter of the Fisher House.

So, Lil Tug finally sold for $535,000! Awesome price and all for a good cause. You can hear a portion of the sale here: Auctioning Jay Leno's Lil Tug

This sale kind of brings closure to a long standing New Holland project I had the opportunity to be involved in at the start when I met Jay in his garage back in 2007.

• Daniel Del Vicario, Merrimack, NH
• Wounded Warriors In Action Foundation (WI), Apollo Beach, FL
• Joe Caffee, Geneva, IN
• Melissa Horejsi, Webster, MN
• Duncan Smith, Mtn. Grove, MO
• Standing Stone Brewing Co., Ashland, OR
• KR Equestrian, Schomberg, ON
• Tristen Crooks, Weyburn, SK

This social media driven promotion has exceeded all expectations for results which have mainly been measured by number of entries as well as other social media interaction.

Entries can be in the form of a written essay, photo or video explaining what you’d do with a new Boomer tractor with front end loader if you won one. Here’s an example of a recent video entry.

“This discount and contribution program will further enhance the charitable efforts accomplished by the Fisher House Foundation,” said Abe Hughes, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for New Holland Agricultural Business in North America. “Agriculture has always been one of the backbones of America and it is very fitting that our industry steps forward once again to contribute to not only the courageous members of the Armed Forces, but also to a great role being taken by the Fisher House Foundation.”

I spoke with Abe during the NAFB convention. You can hear more about the programs in our interview: Interview with Abe Hughes

2011 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Many thanks to Lana Bell from Killarney, Manitoba for her entry into the contest. Lana came up with lots of things she would do with a new Boomer tractor. As you’ll see in the video, she plans to let her husband on the tractor in year five of the lease, “maybe.”

So it’s not too late to get your entry in and let New Holland know what you would do with a new Boomer tractor. Just fill out the entry form which you can find right here.

I had a nice time this morning working with New Holland on behalf of their Boomer 555 Contest. I’m collecting some interviews for this social media campaign like this one with Joe Capps from Opelika, Alabama. He told me what he would do with a new Boomer tractor. The contest runs through the end of November so it’s not too late to get your entry in.

2011 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

We had a ribbon cutting of a different kind. Mike cut the ribbon on a batch of balloons which then floated over the show. Mike made opening remarks to a crowd that gathered for the official opening ceremony. He introduced the visiting agricultural journalists to everyone and told the farmers not to be surprised if someone taps them on the shoulder and asks for an interview with an “accent!”

It’s a beautiful day out here and I’ve added a bunch of new photos to the photo album that include the new permanent building that was dedicated this morning for New Holland.

2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

Tier 4A engines with the addition of five new CR Series Twin Rotor® combines and three new CX8000 Series Super Conventional combines equipped with ECOBlue™ Selective Catalytic Reduction engine technology.

Listen to their presentations in the video:

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

You’ll notice that the picture also includes a New Holland Boomer. I can’t forget to mention the New Holland Boomer 555 Contest we’ve been helping promote. New Holland is giving away a five year lease on a new Boomer 30 with front end loader to eight regional winners. Here’s where you can enter. While at the Farm Progress Show I spoke with Abe Hughes, New Holland Agriculture Sales & Marketing Vice President about the contest.

Listen in to my conversation with Abe about the Boomer 555 Contest: Interview with Abe Hughes

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Well today the Farm Progress Show officially honored Gene for his years of hard work, dedication and easy disposition no matter what challenge is presented. On stage in the media tent to present him with a plaque are (L-R) FPS Show Manager Matt Jungmann, Jeff Lapin, President, Farm Progress Companies and Don Tourte, Farm Progress director of sales and national events. After receiving his plaque Gene took the microphone to make a few remarks I think you’ll enjoy.

Here’s Gene’s comments after receiving his recognition: Gene Hemphill Remarks

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The press conference focused on several new product areas like:

. . . Tier 4A engines with the addition of five new CR Series Twin Rotor® combines and three new CX8000 Series Super Conventional combines equipped with ECOBlue™ Selective Catalytic Reduction engine technology.

. . . anniversary edition of New Holland’s FR9000 Series self-propelled forage harvesters.

And much more.

Listen to or download the full press conference here. New Holland Press Conference

Here’s video of Abe’s comments at the press conference.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

You can listen to Abe Hughes, New Holland Agriculture Sales & Marketing Vice President, talk about the project during a press conference at the Farm Progress Show here: New Holland Press Conference Audio

It started four years ago when a little blue tractor rolled off of the New Holland assembly line in Dublin, Georgia, prepared to proudly face its future of doing the work it was built to accomplish. The little blue tractor knew it could faithfully carry out the smaller chores as it would watch the big muscle tractors leaving the machinery shed with the power needed to tackle those more demanding jobs in the fields that stretched to the horizons.

But, as fate would have it, the story didn’t quite turn out that way. Instead, the little blue tractor was placed on a truck and headed westward across the nation, past massive fields, over mountains, and finally taken off the truck outside of a large garage in Burbank, California. A short time later the little blue tractor was driven into the large garage and introduced to scores of vehicles of all ages, shapes and sizes — the likes of which it had never seen.
And so it was there, in the famous Jay Leno Garage, that the little blue tractor won over many friends during the following years as it dependably and gently pushed and pulled the other vehicles, guiding them to new locations within the garage whenever rearrangement was needed or vehicles needed servicing. The crew in the garage grew fond of the little blue tractor, which was especially excited when they carefully painted on the side of its shiny hood the name they had been calling it for months – The ‘Lil Tug! Life was good in the little blue tractor’s new home, the biodiesel fuel they fed it was great, and they even made certain that the ‘Lil Tug stayed shiny clean and presentable.

In the meantime, the little blue tractor that came from humble beginnings in Georgia to become the ‘Lil Tug celebrity tractor is perhaps rehearsing its auction speech by repeating its mantra: “I Knew I Could! I Knew I Could! I Knew I Could!”

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

With Gene in command again this year, New Holland is sponsoring the media tent and our coverage of the show on AgWired. Cindy and I will be arriving on Monday and we’re there for the duration. You should start seeing content from the show by Monday evening. We’re looking forward to seeing many friends and clients. In fact we’ve got a record number of sponsors for our coverage of the show this year for both AgWired and Precision Pays. More on that later.

Getting back to Gene, the FPS took him by “surprise by unveiling a poster recognizing me for my 25 years of service to the Farm Progress Publications for my work with the media. I think there were a few young journalists in the audience that might not have been born then — or a least they looked at me with questioning eyes when I mentioned the 15 typewriters we had at the first media tent. LOL.”

Thanks to Mike Wilson of Illinois Prairie Farmer, a Farm Progress publication, for taking the photo of Gene with FPS Show Manager Matt Jungmann (left) and Don Tourte, Farm Progress director of sales and national events (right).

Here’s me with my good friend Gene Hemphill, New Holland. We’ve been talking about some exciting projects that you’ll learn more about in the future.

In the meantime, I’ve updated the photo album for you. Are you in there?

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

RULES

The New Holland Oscar in Agriculture program is designed to recognize and encourage excellence in broadcast reporting on
a wide variety of issues.

Broadcasters interested in applying for the Oscar should consider submitting entries that:

• Relate broadly to food, agriculture, natural resources, rural affairs and related matters of vital public interest;
• Have the necessary components to potentially cause or encourage positive changes, or neutralize negative
issues impacting agriculture;
• Encourage a call to action by listeners to improve themselves, their communities, their industry or the
communities in which they live.
• The purpose of this award is to recognize excellence in reporting skill, thoroughness and attention to audience
interest. Each entry should describe the approach used to develop the reporting and coverage of that issue.
• The nomination should also include enough examples of articles or taped programs to illustrate the scope of
the work.
• All work submitted must have been aired since September 1, 2010.

JUDGING

The New Holland Oscar in Agriculture program is administered by Kansas State University.

ELIGIBILITY

The intent of the New Holland Oscar in Agriculture program is to provide recognition to an individual who is a professional agricultural communicator and is a voting member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

You can find out all you need to know, including contest rules and regulations, on the Boomer555.com blog. This is a new ZimmComm project btw. I’m going to be the Boomer™ 555 Contest blogger throughout this campaign, updating you frequently with announcements and sharing selected entries and feedback from the folks I meet. Yes, that does mean I’ll be out and about. Follow along on Twitter and Facebook too.

Here’s a picture of a Boomer 30. Picture that on your place!

So, let’s learn more about the contest from Doran Herritt, New Holland Brand Marketing Manager. We spoke by phone. Doran says New Holland decided to conduct the Boomer™ 555 Contest as part of their introduction of the new 5 year limited warranty on the new Boomer tractors. The 5′s represent 5 months to enter to win a 5 year lease on a Boomer 30 with a five year warranty. Doran encourages you to think creatively about how you would use a Boomer tractor/loader and enter the contest. Whatever you can dream up is okay. It’s time to get Boomer555 Fever!

You can listen to my conversation with Doran here: Doran Says - Get Boomer555 Fever

If you aren’t familiar with the New Holland Boomer Tractors then learn all about them on the New Holland website.

As we reported on Precision Pays, Virginia-based company LightSquared
has proposed to set up 40,000 wireless broad-band stations across the nation on a frequency that is right next to the one used by GPS. Opposition to the plan became organized in the form of the Coalition to Save Our GPS, which consists of a wide variety of industries and companies, including agricultural interests and technology providers such as New Holland, Deere, GROWMARK, Leica Geosystems and Trimble Navigation.

This week, the company announced a solution to the GPS interference issue by moving to a lower block of frequencies that is “largely free of interference issues with the exception of a limited number of high precision GPS receivers that are specifically designed to rely on LightSquared’s spectrum.”

Agricultural interests are concerned about that exception. A study released by the Coalition to Save Our GPS estimates that LightSquared’s plan could result in “direct economic costs of up to $96 billion to U.S. commercial GPS users and manufacturers.” Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble, says the analysis “also highlights how LightSquared’s recently announced ‘solution’ to the interference problem, which LightSquared admits will not reduce interference for high precision GPS uses, is no solution at all. High precision GPS uses represent nearly $10 billion in historical investment by GPS users over the last five years and $30 billion in annual economic benefits.”

“The use of GPS technology is vital to thousands of people who make their living with agricultural and construction equipment. It is simply not acceptable to allow this new network to interfere with these important industries when all indications are that there is no practical solution to mitigate this interference,” said Ken Golden, director of global public relations at John Deere. “In agriculture, the loss of a stable GPS system could have an impact of anywhere from $14 to $30 billion each year. That could significantly erode the strong competitive global position of U.S. farmers in the world agricultural economy.”

Meanwhile, the 2012 agriculture appropriations bill recently passed by the House includes language specifically to register concerns about the LightSquared network and directs the USDA “to ensure the FCC is aware of these concerns.”

Mike says they have a show manager who works on the layout and lot space but they have marketing and sales staff who make decisions about what to do and where to exhibit as well. He says Commodity Classic is different than others like the recent NFMS. It moves around year to year for one thing and if often in a facility not used to having farm equipment on display. So all the various shows have their own character and challenges. It’s a team effort to put on these displays. The show manager will often contract with local helpers to help set things up and take them apart at the end of the show. Mike says he was at six shows last year and the company does about twice that not counting dealer events.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: Interview with Mike Harvey

2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

Tyler says these machines are ready to get out in the field after being introduced last fall. He says the Guardian name ties into the crop protection capabilities of the sprayers. And these are big Guardians! Besides the rear boom they also offer a front boom sprayer which Tyler gets real excited talking about.

You can listen to my interview with Tyler here: Interview with Tyler Roberts

2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

We’ve covered some miles over the years and I’m very proud to be working with Gene once again here at Classic. This evening New Holland also sponsored the annual reception for the media. We had some nice social time with the leaders of the NCGA, ASA, NAWG and NSP. They all made brief remarks, thanking the ag media and of course New Holland. I’ll add mine to theirs. Photos are in the photo album.

2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

The winner is Brock Millan, Millan Farms, Mitchell, SD pictured in the seat of the vehicle along with Gene Hemphill, New Holland (left) and Mike Adams, AgriTalk, who emceed the giveaway at 5pm in the New Holland booth at the trade show. There are more photos in our photo album and I’m uploading a video of the event on to YouTube which I’ll add later. Congrats to Brock!

Post Update: Here’s video of the whole giveaway ceremony:

Visit our photo album often: 2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

Brad says customers really designed these tractors by giving feedback in a series of customer clinics and “virtual reality” applications. The virtual reality allowed for a lot of models that could be tested with customers without using real steel.

PowerStar tractors will be available in both cab and ROPS versions. The entire three-model line (75 hp – 100 hp) will provide outstanding maneuverability, unparalleled comfort and excellent fuel efficiency for part-time farmers as well as livestock, dairy and other operators who are looking for a highly versatile tractor.

You can listen to my interview with Brad here: Brad Moore Interview

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

Bruce says their displays are the high point of the latest products they’re showcasing at winter shows like NFMS. New Holland works closely with Trimble on precision products. Bruce says New Holland is now doing more company branding though, like on the new FM 750 Display. He says that farmers visiting the show can come by for a personal walk through.

You can listen to my interview with Bruce here: Bruce Ristau Interview

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

During the National Farm Machinery Show New Holland had a special location just to conduct Tier 4 tractor clinics and answer questions. Sean is conducting a session with some of them in the photo and you can hear him present following my interview with him.

You can listen to my interview with Sean that is followed by audio of him doing one of his presentations in the booth to a group of customers here: Sean Dorosz Interview

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

I spoke with Abe earlier in the day at the New Holland exhibit. He says he has put together a leadership team and plan to rejuvenate the New Holland brand. Abe says there is a lot of buzz at the New Holland booth because of all the new products they’ve introduced recently, many of which are on display here at the show. He says that you should see that New Holland employees are “now speaking with a passion and an energy.” Looking ahead Abe says there is good news but some cautionary notes. On the good news side, commodity prices are up and global food demand is up. On the cautionary side though he says that raw material shortages are showing up. He encourages dealers and farmers to get their orders in as soon as possible

Enjoy his enthusiasm for the brand in our discussion.

You can listen to my interview with Abe here: Abe Hughes Interview

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

The tour includes the new PowerStar tractors, hay and forage equipment, precision ag products as well as the new line of skid steer loaders.

Thanks to Gene Hemphill for taking our photo from the floor.

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

With the new 200 Series, New Holland maintains the best-in-class forward dump height and reach with the Super Boom® loader vertical lift design – and introduces breakthrough productivity improvements. The new skid steers culminate five years of customer research, design and engineering improvements.

“New Holland skid steers are built around our customers’ needs. Our engineers used input from hundreds of customers to design the new 200 Series line-up,” said Dave December, marketing manager at New Holland Construction. “The New Holland skid steer loaders have been engineered from the ground up. No matter what your line of work, agriculture, landscaping or construction, you’ll work faster, smarter and more profitably with our new skid steers.”

You can listen to my interview with David and Jorge here: Skid Steer Introduction Interview

There are a number of other photos of the new skid steers in my photo album: 2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

In our interview you can hear all about the New Holland Construction Super Boom Road Show which is an open house customer event held at New Holland dealerships across North America. The event includes a skid steer challenge featuring New Holland’s new 200 Series skid steer loaders.

The Super Boom Road Show will take place at 35 New Holland dealerships across the United States and Canada. Highlighting each event is a skid steer challenge where equipment operators compete for the best time on a special course. Prizes and cash are awarded to the top finishers. In addition, the operator who wins each local competition will be flown to Louisville, Ky., to compete in a final competition during GIE+EXPO 2011 (Oct. 27-29) to determine the North American champion. The grand prize winner will receive a new, fully-loaded New Holland 200 Series skid steer loader – valued at $35,000 – for their sponsoring company, plus $5,000 and New Holland gear for the operator.

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

Sean had two main points to make. The first is their choice of Tier 4 engine technology. New Holland is using the SCR or selective catalytic reduction technology and they believe it is the correct solution for larger tractors. The engines will start showing up right after the first of the year.

The second one is moving past Tier 4 to zero emissions with a hydrogen powered tractor. We saw that on display at the Farm Progress Show and it’s not only incredible due to the engine but in looks. You know how important it is to look good in the field!

You can listen to my interview with Sean here: New Holland Interview

NAFB Convention Photo Album