At last week’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences an appreciation luncheon was held for Karen Marshall, just retired Senior Director of Industry Affairs for Monsanto.
Several people spoke about their respect for Karen and her years of service to the cotton industry including Charles Parker, President of the Cotton Foundation and a cotton grower from Senath, MO. Here’s Charles giving Karen an appreciation plaque from the Foundation.
I’m a subscriber to Meatingplace.com and interested to see that we’ll now have content from a new contributing editor, Lisa Keefe.
Veteran business writer and editor Lisa M. Keefe will join the Meatingplace franchise Jan. 14 as Editor of its flagship monthly magazine. As Editor, Keefe will determine editorial strategy, content and tone for the industry-leading print magazine, as well as contribute original reporting to its daily news service on Meatingplace.com.
Keefe brings more than 20 years experience as a business journalist covering a broad range of manufacturing and service industries. Most recently, she was Editor of Marketing News, covering multiple facets of the marketing and advertising industry. Prior, she was an editor and reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a leading newsweekly in the Windy City. Other assignments have included The Orlando Sentinel and Forbes.
During her career, Keefe has accumulated 16 national and regional awards for editorial excellence.
I’m really glad that Makhteshim Agan is using the name MANA Crop Protection since it’s a lot easier for me to say. They held a media breakfast last week that I attended and it provided an opportunity to get to know them better.
I interviewed Dave Downing, Senior Product/Marketing Manager – Herbicides and now know a lot more about the company. For example, it’s been around for over 60 years and until recently basically supplied active ingredients to many well-known ag chem companies. However, the company decided a few years ago to start marketing their own proprietary brands and products.
Dave says they have over 50 products of their own on the market now for all crops. He says that what they’re doing is providing generic alternatives to growers at a reasonable price. I like his analogy of taking your doctor’s prescription to the pharmacy. When asked if you’d like the less expensive generic most people select it. Dave says that kind of thing is happening now in the agricultural chemical business.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s called “Standing In The Cottonfiels” by Boo Boo Davis. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 154 (19 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:zimmcast154-1-14-08.mp3
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
Cooking Light Magazine has announced its list of the ‘Top 8 foods to Love in 2008.’ I particularly like 1 and 6.
Cooking Light, the world’s largest food and healthy lifestyle title, has named the top 8 must-eat foods as well as 8 super tips to help you live well.
1. Coffee: Caffeine consumption not only increases alertness and improves performance but may also protect memory.
2. Farmed Atlantic Salmon: Salmon ranks highest in omega-3 fatty acids, shown to lower the risk of fatal heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and cognitive decline.
3. Milk: Dairy products offer a package deal of phosphorous and calcium to benefit hair and skin.
4. Edamame: Soy protein has been shown to boost collagen levels and improve skin elasticity.
5. Kale: Those leafy greens deliver plenty of vitamin K in addition to vitamins E, C, and folate for bone strength.
6. Chocolate: Crave-worthy cocoa and dark chocolate are both good sources of beneficial antioxidants.
7. Flaxseed: Adding a tablespoon of flaxseed instantaneously adds omega-3 fats, lignans and fiber to any food, such as muffins, salads or yogurt.
8. Eggs: Eggs are not only high in calcium and quality protein, but also provide biotin, a structural component of both bone and hair.
One of the New Developments From Industry sessions at Beltwide was done by Greg Stratman, BASF Technical Services Representative (left). Of course he talked about Headline.
One of the questions he says he gets most often from growers is about the yield increase they can get by treating foliar diseases. He says that when it comes to the work they’ve done with field trials they’re seeing developmental progress with cotton growers just like they’ve seen in corn and soybeans. He describes the mood of cotton growers he’s been talking to as cautiously optimistic.
Download my interview with Greg here: Greg Stratman Interview (8 min mp3)
You can also listen to the interview with Greg immediately here: basf-beltwide-08-stratman.mp3
AgWired coverage of the Beltwide Cotton Conferences
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Bill Storey is a broadcaster in Tennessee who stopped by the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. He works for the Tennessee Radio Network. He’s also a photographer so we shared Nikon stories. He says he takes a lot of event photos for Clear Channel that they put online.
Bill says it’s almost impossible to take his picture with a flash and get his eyes open. I guess so. Kind of looks like you’re sleeping on the phone Bill.
He wasn’t though. He was hard at work.
How many of you are subscribing to news feeds? If you’re in agricultural communications and claim to be a professional on top of things then I hope all of you are. There are so many ways to do this today that excuses like, “It’s too complicated” or “I can’t keep up with all the information” just aren’t valid. If you’re using excuses then you’re being left behind. I’m here to help you catch up or get ahead!
Let’s start with the fact that NewsGator products are now free. I’m using their NetNewsWire on my Mac, NewsGator Inbox on my pc and NewsGator Go on my Blackberry. They all sync with each other automatically so that if I read feeds on one device I don’t have to wonder if I’ve read them on another. Of course they also have a web version which I can use from any computer, anywhere, and it syncs as well.
I know a lot of you have a Blackberry, Treo, Centro, Tilt, MotoQ, Helio, iPhone or Blackjack. If so, then get NewsGator Go. It works and can’t be more simple to use. That’s what’s showing on my phone in the picture. They also have a version for Blackberry Enterprise Server.
NewsGator isn’t the only game in town though. You can subscribe in your browser now whether that’s Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or whatever. You can also subscribe with Google, (Google Reader). I set up and use a customized Google homepage (iGoogle) and have it set up to receive feeds from all our managed websites. That way when I go to my home page I can immediately see, 1.) if all my site feeds are working, 2.) the latest posts to make sure they’re being updated properly by whoever I have posting. I also have Google Reader set up but don’t go to it as often as my other feed resources. One of the cool things about Google Reader is your ability to share your feeds with friends who use it too.
So now that you’re subscribing to news feeds so you can keep up with what’s going on whenever and wherever you want how about creating your own news feed? Think blogging and podcasting. Doesn’t matter if you’re a magazine, radio station, farm group or chemical manufacturer. Your members and customers are doing this. Just because no one can tell you how many farmers subscribe to news feeds, including blogs and podcasts doesn’t mean they aren’t. Why do people think farmers are somehow different than the non-farming public? Here’s a good recent article you might want to read.
This is all powered by the use of rss and no one is having to enter demographic data to subscribe. So for those of you who think I can only use feeds as a communication tool for my business or organization if I can “measure” exactly who is subscribing then I would have to say you just don’t get it. This is why it’s called new media. Your customers and members are going to get their information from somewhere. These tools make it easier for them. So if you don’t supply it, guess where they’re going to get it.
The whackos at PETA must be loving the fact that they’ve shut down the livelihood for a group of peaceful monks. This is a good example of how dangerous these idiots are and why they shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Basically, the monks at Mepkin Abbey supported themselves by selling eggs. However, after a serious amount of PETA harassment they’re shutting down their operation. Read the whole story on the National Catholic Reporter.
“While the monks are sad to give up work that has sustained them for many years, a hard and honorable work of which they are proud, the pressure from PETA has made it difficult for them to live their quiet life of prayer, work and sacred reading,” Gumula wrote. “The monks have also found it difficult to extend hospitality, which is their hallmark, under such conditions.”
The December statement said the monks are looking for “a new industry to help us meet our daily expenses” and hope to remain in an agricultural business, which suits Benedictine tradition of work that fosters contemplation and care for the environment.
Yeah. It does piss me off. Way to go PETA bullies. Pick on a group of peaceful monks who I’m sure are praying for your souls and have already forgiven you for your persecution. It’s amazing to me that anyone gives them money but we’ve got a lot of whackos with a lot of money out there.
