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

My Kind of “Going Green”

Chuck Zimmerman

Wexford Irish Cream AleI hope you’re getting ready to wear the green for St. Patrick’s Day. While you’re at it you can’t go wrong with a Wexford Irish Cream Ale. Just in case you were having trouble selecting something to go along with that corned beef and cabbage. That’s the way I’d go green. Not too worried about my carbon footprint either.

It’s been not only a catch up weekend for me but I upgraded Cindy’s and my office computer monitors. I’m now looking at 24 inches of high definition LCD real estate and it sure is easier on these eyes. It’s a holiday week coming up but I’m sure we’re going to have lots of good stuff here on AgWired.

Food

NCBA Staff Reorganization

Chuck Zimmerman

NCBATerry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association issued a statement today in regards to some changes on the staff. Here’s a portion of his letter:

Yesterday, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) announced a staff reorganization to continue to serve cattlemen, our state partners and the cattle industry in an ever-changing environment. We have simplified our organization into these areas:

– Governance, Leadership and State Services, led by Kendal Frazier
– Marketing and Communications, led by Kim Essex
– Member and Corporate Services, led by Polly Ruhland
– Research and Education, led by Dr. James O. Reagan
– Government Affairs, led by Terry Stokes, interim

NCBA’s mission is to increase profit opportunities for cattle and beef producers by enhancing the business climate and building beef demand. As a reflection of the changing industry, this restructuring occurred at the direction of NCBA’s officers to make NCBA efficient and effective at achieving this mission. Read More

Ag Groups, Beef

The Distinguished Dr. Greg Stapleton

Chuck Zimmerman

Greg StapletonsBASF Senior Technical Service Representative Greg Stapleton has just been awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Industry at the Southern Weed Science Society (SWSS) annual meeting in Jacksonville, FL.

In making the nomination, fellow members stated that Dr. Stapleton has been very active in SWSS on many different committees. During the presentation of the Distinguished Service Award for Industry, the weed scientists expressed great appreciation for Dr. Stapleton’s diligent efforts in hosting the annual SWSS Weed Contest.

Agribusiness, BASF

Springtime Migration

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm BirdsI think it must be getting near spring time if the Sandhill Cranes are flying over Nebraska. Here’s a formation doing a flyover when I gassed up on my way back from Omaha today.

There were countless numbers of birds in the air this morning. According to Wikipedia:

The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is a large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. It has one of the the longest fossil histories of any extant bird[1]. But although a 10-million-year-old crane fossil from Nebraska is often cited as being of this species[2], this is more likely from a prehistoric relative or the direct ancestor of the Sandhill Crane but may not even belong in the genus Grus, while the oldest unequivocal Sandhill Crane fossil is “just” 2.5 million years old[3]. Still, this is nearly half as old again as the earliest remains of most living species of birds, which are not known from remains older than the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary some 1.8 million years ago. As these ancient Sandhill Cranes varied as much in size as the present-day birds, even those Pliocene fossils were sometimes described as new species[4]. Grus haydeni on the other hand may or may not have been a prehistoric relative of the living species, or it may actually comprise material of the Sandhill Crane and its ancestor[5].

Farm BirdsThe common name of this bird references habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska’s Sandhills in the American midwest. This is the most important stopover area for the Lesser Sandhill Crane, Grus (canadensis) canadensis, with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.

I passed a field and stopped for a quick photo to add to my collection.

They all swirled around and around before finally landing in this field off of I-29 right near the Nebraska/Missouri border.

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Producers and custom applicators will want to check out the significantly improved operator comforts available in the 2008 4000 and 7000 Series Spra-Coupe® from AGCO Corporation’s Application Equipment Division. Changes were implemented to reduce the roll of the machine and improve force absorption of the suspension by taking oscillation out of the front end. Engineers also switched to a rigid-mount front axle, using linear-rate springs rather than variable-rate springs and nearly doubled the travel on the front axle. For more about the changes, visit the Web site.
  • Nufarm Americas Inc. and North Carolina based Etigra announced that they have reached agreement for Nufarm to acquire the assets of Etigra. This proposed acquisition will strengthen Nufarm’s existing position in the turf and specialty segment.
  • Indiana’s Hoosier Ag Today has announced the creation of a new programming dealing with the energy sector. The daily Energy Update will include crude oil, gasoline, e-85, and ethanol prices, along with analysis and trends in the energy market. The prices being paid by Hoosier ethanol and biodiesel plants for corn and soybeans will also be included. The report can be heard on HAT radio stations across the state as well as online.
  • AGCO Corporation’s application equipment division is moving to complete realignment of its sales and service network for the Ag-Chem brand. These changes mean large commercial producers who own and operate Ag-Chem application equipment can turn to their local Caterpillar (http://www.cat.com) dealer as the one source for their application equipment sales and service needs. Across the country, 22 dealers have assumed responsibility for new machinery sales of Ag-Chem’s RoGator® high clearance sprayers and TerraGator® flotation applicators.
Zimfo Bytes