The Georgia Peanut Commission also broke ground recently on a new building. Contact them if you’d like to purchase a commemorative brick that will be used in the construction.

The new headquarters will be the first net-zero energy building for state government in Georgia. The cost for the new building will be covered from the sale of the existing building, energy grants, sponsorships and a commemorative brick program.

2011 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

2011 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

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

The Porters farm hay and are also involved in swine, poultry and beef cattle. Tommy says he always wanted to farm. He had the opportunity to say a few words during the luncheon and first of all thanked God for the opportunity to “tend just a small portion of His land.” You could tell how much this recognition meant to him from the emotion in his voice.

Listen to Tom’s award remarks here: Thomas Porter Award Remarks

2011 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

Listen to my interview with Chip here: Chip Blalock Interview

I’ll be working with my sponsor this morning and finding show stories when I can. I also have a photo album started: 2011 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

We’re in the later stages of the New Holland Boomer 555 Contest. This social media driven promotion is going very well. You can learn all about it on the blog.

Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter at #SAE2011.

“The Sunbelt Expo: Know on the Go mobile app was developed by Penton Custom Media and has been used at some of the largest trade shows in the nation,” says Greg Frey, vice president at Penton Media and publisher of Farm Press. “We believe this new technology will greatly enhance participants’ experience at this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo.”

He’s Robert Dasher of G&R Farms in Glennville, GA. He’s a pioneer in the Vidalia sweet onion industry.

Dasher was announced as winner during the Willie B. Withers Luncheon at the 2010 Sunbelt Ag Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga. The award honors excellence in agricultural production and management and leadership in community and farm organizations. The award also recognizes family contributions in producing safe and abundant supplies of food, fiber and shelter for U.S. consumers.

Switchgrass is native to the United States everywhere east of the Rockies. Ceres, has been working on varieties that will yield better in different growing environments though. Cory says that they don’t expect it to displace corn in Iowa but in the southeast with the difficulties in cotton and tobacco it becomes a viable alternative on open acres. He provides some estimates of what the crop can mean financially as the market for a fuel crop like switchgrass develops.

Cory describes the current market as a “developing market.” They have a map that shows developing opportunities where plants will be located to process energy crops. He says that biomass is a local business so you need to be located near a biorefinery. He also points to the USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program that provides monetary assistance to facilitate the transition of eligible land to energy crops.

You can listen to my interview with Cory below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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At the Sunbelt Ag Expo I spoke with Chris Sidles, National Accounts, who tells us what the company offers and why they created a new name. To start with he says they’re a full service direct marketing and database management company.

Their ag database has 2.5 million U.S. farmers and ranchers. They can pull specific farmographic data like number of acres, type of crop and how they own that farm. They also cross reference the farm data with their residential database of 220 million consumers as well as a business database of 14 million of which about 1 million are specific to ag. Clients range from technology to seed to irrigation and includes small business and Fortune 500 companies.

Chris says they help a client understand their customers and figure out ways to increase their footprint and market to new customers. Strategies can include direct mail, telemarketing and email blasts. They are also looking at ways to include new social networking strategies into their campaigns.

I’d like to thank AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast.

The program ends with some music from Music Alley. It’s a song titled, “Down On The Farm” by The Ellison Bier Band. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.

She says the college has 24 majors and over 50 specializations ranging from agriculture education to animal sciences to family youth and community sciences. They also have a famous soon to be graduate who will be leading the #1 ranked Gator football team tonight, Tim Tebow!

You can listen to my interview with Charlotte below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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Here’s to hoping I’ll be back again next year. I still have a few stories to post and will get them on over the next couple days.

Don’t forget to check out who was tweeting about this year’s show by searching Twitter for #SAE09.

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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The company was showing various levels of precision integration. They had two different land leveling systems. One used a GPS control and one used a 2D laser system. They also had their new TrueGuide passive implement steering system in use. This system puts an antenna on the implement to tell the tractor where it is so the tractor knows how much to move in relation to the desired line to optimize the placement of the implement. They also had their TrueTracker System on multiple tractors and implements.

Matt says that they take applications that are not possible for human beings and put them into a machine to do it for us. This ultimately increases efficiencies that have produced up to 20 bushels per acre increases in corn.

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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One stop in their building was with a display for the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals & Fuels. On hand to tell their story was Sheilachu P. Gomez, Assistant Director, pictured here. She says the Center is primarily for the development of the technology to convert biomass to ethanol and organic acids. They have two patents that have been purchased by two companies already (an ethanol patent to Verenium and organic acids patent to Myriant). They have a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol production to optimize biomass conversion at the campus and have a planned plant to be located in Perry, FL. The last is a partnership with Myriant and Buckeye. In the future Sheila says they’re looking more into the value added products of the production process.

You can listen to my interview with Sheila below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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I noticed more security around the second day than the first. Perhaps that was due to more kids out?

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

At Expo Tyron coordinates all the requests of the media here covering the event. In the photo he’s giving us an overview of the show during our media breakfast. Tyron says the show is “excellent.” The weather has cleared up from the rain of last week and he thought the setup went a lot easier than normal. He says the first day crowd was estimated between 40 – 50,000 which was very good for an opening day. The challenge now is the good weather which has farmers out in their own fields. I asked him about the peanut crop and he says that after the largest crop in history last year the crop was reduced this year. Challenges during the planting season meant that there are actually 3 separate crops being harvested this year with the last one coming in later in November.

You can listen to my interview with Tyron below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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I’ll continue posting over the next day or so. Stay tuned.

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

I’ll be out on the grounds today finding more stories and taking more photos. So keep an eye on my photo album as I add to it.

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

He says it’s the 20th year that the company has sponsored the awards program. He says business is good for his company which makes cigars and smokeless tobacco products. The bulk of their business is domestic but they also sell products in 80 other countries.

You can listen to my interview with Mr. Ryan below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

You can listen to my interview with Jimmy below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

Here at Expo the exhibit area is conducting seminars and has a demo pond which Kedric says has a bass species that is trained to eat pellet fish food but will still strike a fishing lure.

You can listen to my interview with Kedric below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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Carrie says the organization is the “hub” for all the member farms. Each farm gets a web page that’s part of the organizational website. They also have an annual show in March and do seminars throughout the year. One of the main projects they’re working on is to get enough animals in the country to convince the millers to take their fiber and run it through the milling process. So far there hasn’t been enough to make that happen. Apparently alpaca fiber would require different milling equipment than wool.

You can listen to my interview with Carrie below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

He says their shrimp are from the Atlantic Ocean so they’re “farmers of the sea.” They harvest between four to six million pounds of shrimp a year. Their food booth is actually a good fund raiser for their association.

You can listen to my interview with John below:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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He cut the ribbon this morning at their tent to kick off this year’s Expo and I talked with him. He says their Got To Be NC Agriculture program is one of the ways they’re promoting NC farm products to consumers.

Steve says that agriculture is a $70 billion industry in North Carolina. In the picture with Steve above you can see a tobacco plant on the left. He says NC is the number one tobacco producing state in the country. They’re also number one in sweet potatoes.

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

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The Willie B. Withers Luncheon honors excellence in agricultural production and management, leadership in community and farm organizations and recognizes family contributions in producing safe and abundant supplies of food, fiber and shelter for U.S. consumers. Lightsey is the sixth overall winner of the award from Florida.

I’ll post a video clip of Cary’s speech as soon as I get it uploaded. We’ve been internet challenged today but I think it’s getting better now. Post Update: Here’s that video:

Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

Of course I’ve got a photo album started which you can find here: Sunbelt Ag Expo 2009 Photo Album

You can watch his presentation here:

You can also listen to his presentation and download it below.

If you’re tweeting the event please use the #SAE09 hashtag.

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .

I’ll try to get in early and see what kind of news there is to be had. Of course you can count on a photo album and lots of interviews. I’ve got a new video camera to try out too so this is going to be fun. See you then.

If you’re tweeting the event please use the #SAE09 hashtag.

AgWired coverage of Sunbelt Ag Expo is sponsored by .