Novus International Makes News

Chuck Zimmerman

Novus In The NewsNovus International is making news again. To start with they’ve got a new Executive Director – Dr. Scott Fleetwood. Then they’ve also just announced a new website. You’ll be hearing a lot more from Novus this summer as they sponsor AgWired coverage of World Pork Expo!

Novus International, Inc., a leader in animal health and nutrition, is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Scott C. Fleetwood as Executive Director, Markets and Products. Fleetwood will have overall responsibility for the marketing of the swine, poultry, ruminant, industrial and feed quality business units of Novus.

Fleetwood joins Novus from EMD Crop BioScience where he served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. At EMD, Fleetwood was responsible for sales, marketing, accounting, regulatory, customer service and production activities associated with inoculants for North America. He led the development of strategic alliances, negotiating agreements and trade-channel relationships.

“Scott brings an extensive background to Novus in agriculture related marketing and the bioscience behind our industry. He is a welcome addition to our team,” stated Giovanni Gasperoni, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Sales. Read More

Agribusiness

Great American BBQ Tour

Chuck Zimmerman

The Great American Barbeque TourIt’s getting to that time of year when we can grill outside comfortably and I can’t wait. The Kansas City Barbeque Society is using springtime to kick off their Great American BBQ Tour and Ernie and Linda Poland will be the tour team. Now there’s a sweet (and smoky) gig!

KCBS announced today that Ernie and Linda Poland, proud KCBS members and active volunteers for the society, have been selected as the demonstration team for The Great American BBQ Tour. The tour, which kicks off March 28 at the Pork ‘n Brew BBQ Cookoff in Rio Rancho, NM, will feature demonstrations of bbq tips and techniques for backyard bbq’ers, as well as introduce KCBS’s national partners and conduct live interviews of KCBS teams at events across the country.

Ernie and Linda PolandThe Polands, who have been members since 2003, are no strangers to barbeque. In fact, they are certified judges (Ernie is a Master Judge!) and table captains who were also approved as Contest Reps after their training program in 2007. They were scheduled to work as Reps at three events this year before accepting the tour’s opportunity as KCBS ambassadors.

“We are thrilled about this opportunity to represent KCBS in a new and exciting way,” commented Ernie, who has a lot of food training and experience from his previous career as an Army Officer and more recently as the Director of Residence Halls and the associated food services at Purdue University. Linda and Ernie are both Purdue graduates. “As an ambassador for KCBS, we will take this job very seriously, and we hope to not only teach, but to learn a lot along the way from the great cooks and teams who represent our society.” Read More

Food

Kruger Rewards Customer Promoter

Chuck Zimmerman

Kruger SeedsThis is a concept I like. Have a contest to reward someone who’s out there being your company evangelist. What do you think? Should we run something like this for AgWired? What would be a good prize?

Weigh wagons brimmed with harvested seed as Jerry Smith told fellow growers at the local elevator how Kruger Seeds consistently ranks at the top in unbiased state university trials. This dedication in telling others about Kruger prompted Smith to enter the Kruger Seeds Booster Club Sweepstakes. His entry was randomly selected as the grand-prize winner of $12,000 worth of Kruger seed. Smith, a 600-acre corn and soybean producer in George, Iowa, is part of the 90 percent of Kruger customers that recommend Kruger seed to fellow growers.

“We held this sweepstakes as a way to recognize and thank those customers who, by word of mouth, promote Kruger,” says Tom Lizer, general sales manager of Kruger Seeds, Inc. “Their continued support has helped Kruger grow into a leading seed company that continually provides top-notch genetics and high-yielding products to its customers.”

Boosters, or current Kruger customers, were encouraged to recruit new customers with the help of their dealers. Jerry’s newly recruited customer and his dealer were winners, too. Mark Smith, who farms 600 acres of corn and soybeans in George, Iowa, won $1,000 worth of seed for becoming a new customer.

Agribusiness, Seed

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • MarketSense Inc. has announced the hiring of Heather LaCouture as a senior research analyst. In this role she will manage both quantitative and qualitative market-research projects for clients in the veterinary- and human-healthcare industries. She will be based in Princeton, N.J.
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.,(BIVI) is requesting proposals for its annual Porcine Circovirus Associated Disease (PCVAD) Research Award Program. The program grants three $25,000 awards annually to the authors of the selected research proposals. Proposals must be received by July 1, 2008, to be considered. Visit the Web site for more details.
  • AgriLabs has introduced First Arrival® with Encrypt®, a feed supplement that enhances the natural immunity of calves, helping them cope with scours. Specially formulated for newborn calves, First Arrival is built around targeted egg-yolk proteins to help combat 11 scour-causing pathogens. It also features Encrypt, an innovative formulation of organic, non-charcoal carbon sources to help improve gut health.
  • Diamond V® has named Heather Steffen as a Resource Coordinator for North America. In her new position, Steffen will be responsible for supporting field staff in the implementation of the overall business plan. Diamond V has also appointed JuLee Combs as a Senior Resource Coordinator for North America. Combs will be responsible for supporting field staff in the implementation of the overall business plan.
Zimfo Bytes

Plant Pathology Journalism Award

Chuck Zimmerman

American Phytopathological SocietyJust like last year, the Plant Pathology Journalism Award excludes websites, which might exclude some quality entries. I’m not a plant pathologist so maybe there’s no one writing on the web about this subject? I guess they only consider you a journalist if you’re printed or broadcast. Applications are due by April 15 for work in 2007.

The plant pathology award, sponsored by The American Phytopathological Society (APS), recognizes outstanding achievement in increasing public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of plant pathology. Plant pathology is concerned with the improvement of plant health through the identification, prevention, and management of plant diseases. The award consists of a $1,000 cash prize, a commemorative plaque, and travel expenses to attend the APS Annual Meeting for presentation of the award.

Eligibility is limited to science writers and journalists of information concerning the science of plant pathology or issues related to plant health appearing in mass media, including print (newspapers and periodicals only) and broadcast media readily available to the general public. Books, websites, and institutionally-sponsored publications are not eligible. Individual items and series are both eligible.

To apply, submit the following: letter explaining how the work submitted contributes to public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the science of plant pathology; a statement of when and where the work appeared, including circulation/audience estimates; and four copies, either published or taped, of the submitted work.

Submissions should be sent to: Plant Pathology Journalism Award, The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. For more information or questions, please contact Amy Steigman, +1.651.994.3802.

Media

The AgWired We

Chuck Zimmerman

I just had to write about this since I’ve been doing more and more consulting on the use of new media and social networking for agribusiness. It is the idea of “community” instead of an “audience.” In most of my presentations I try to work in this concept since I think it’s at the root of what’s driving the success of online networking whether it’s MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, blogging or podcasting. You are part of the AgWired community. We’re in this together and this blog allows us to interact. You may not see or read all the comments that get posted but they’re a small part of the feeback I get from emails, phone calls and face to face conversation. I’m really not trying to force what I think is important on you (usually) but post information that you think is important to the community. That’s why I ask questions and seek your thoughts and suggestions all the time. Do you agree?

The age of instantaneous internet communications via computer, mobile phone, iPod or whatever is your gadget of choice, is here to stay. Farmers are engaged and there’s no going back. There’s increasing evidence of this everywhere you turn, including at whatever farm show you happened to attend this winter. However, there are still a lot of people involved in agrimarketing and communications who just don’t get it or maybe they’re just hoping that they can hang on to “the way it’s always been done” until they retire.

I’ve been hearing a lot about a new book titled, “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” by Clay Shirky. I’ve got a copy on order. I found the following excerpt on this idea of community vs. audience from “Teaching Online Journalism.” I think Clay’s made an excellent point and wonder what you think about it. By the way, new media teaching is really catching on in our J-schools as evidenced by this excellent blog.

A good deal of user-generated content isn’t actually “content” at all, at least not in the sense of material designed for an audience. Instead, a lot of it is just part of a conversation.

Mainstream media has often missed this, because they are used to thinking of any group of people as an audience. Audience, though, is just one pattern a group can exist in; another is community. Most amateur media unfolds in a community setting, and a community isn’t just a small audience; it has a social density, a pattern of users talking to one another, that audiences lack. An audience isn’t just a big community either; it’s more anonymous, with many fewer ties between users. Now, though, the technological distinction between media made for an audience and media made for a community is evaporating; instead of having one kind of media come in through the TV and another kind come in through the phone, it all comes in over the internet.

As a result, some tools support both publication and conversation. Weblogs aren’t only like newspapers and they aren’t only like coffeeshops and they aren’t only like diaries — their meaning changes depending on how they are used, running the gamut from reaching the world to gossiping with your friends.

I also think of communities as being somewhat small and where people share common interests. I think that’s another reason the traditional marketers and communicators are having problems with blogs and podcasts. They try to measure their success in the same way they measure a mass media buy. How many impressions did I make? Of course you don’t really know the answer to that question since you don’t know if they were really listening, watching or reading. I’d much rather reach a small audience of actively engaged participants than waste a lot of money reaching a larger “audience” of people who aren’t really paying attention and may not even be interested in what I have to sell. I think people who subscribe to or regularly read a blog are much more likely to support the companies that are supporting the “community” and more likely to pass that enthusiasm along to others.

These are people like you who are choosing to be here and/or subscribe. You are the AgWired We.

Podcasts

Four NCBA VP’s Leaving

Chuck Zimmerman

NCBAHere’s a little update on that NCBA staff reorganization that I posted on last week. I was wondering who was leaving the organization until I got an email with the information this morning.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is loosing four of its vice presidents. Jay Truitt will leave his post as Vice President of Government Affairs in Washington, D.C. and three Vice-President positions are being eliminated in the organization’s Denver office. Those positions were filled by Mark Thomas who headed Global Consumer Marketing; Don Rickets who was in charge of governance and federation relations; and Tim Downey who oversaw strategic projects. CEO Terry Stokes will run the Washington office in the interim.

So now you know too.

Ag Groups, Beef

Farm Blog Aggregator

Chuck Zimmerman

Power Guides Blog Map for FarmingI’m not sure who created and manages the Power Guides but since they commented here I thought I’d point them out. It’s one of those anonymous things which I really don’t like although I can see that there is someone named Steve who posted on their blog. If you say you’re open to the “community” aspect of blogging then at least let us know who we’re dealing with. Apparently whoever this is decided to create a few topical sites to aggregate the posts from other people’s blogs with the subject of farming as one of them. Steve did a little searching and found at least 70 blogs on this topic with AgWired being one of them. Here’s an excerpt from what he says about them.

The range of farming blogs is pretty wide ranging and includes Beef, Agriculture, Fruit Growers, and also ranges from small homesteads to farms with thousands of acres. Most of our farm blogs are US based but we do have a few from Europe and Australia . Many of the farms listed are small organic farms producing chickens, beef and vegetables . I am not a farmer but reading some of the blogs opened my eyes as to the different problems farmers face which can include wells running dry, large numbers of still born lambs or calves.

The map is a Google map on which he’s mapped where some of us agribloggers are located although I don’t see AgWired on it.

Farming

The Model Beef

Chuck Zimmerman

CW America's Next Top ModelThe CW Network will replay last week’s episode of America’s Next Top Model called, “Where’s The Beef.” I think I’ll probably miss it.

Thanks to the Meatingplace.com for letting us know.

Not only were they posed with sides of beef hanging in a cooler, they were dressed in meat. The cuts were arranged, accessorized and stretched into halter tops and panties (yes, you read that right).

For the full video experience, watch the first encore presentation of the episode this Sunday at 7 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. CDT, on your local CW channel

Beef