I’m always on the lookout for how someone’s using a blog in the ag world. The ever alert Cyndi Young, Brownfield Network, sent me a link to this site. It’s for Perkins Livestock Sales, Inc. It’s their website and they post information on it about their sales and that they think will be of interest to their customers. Shows you how you can use a blog!
FFA Live On RFD-TV
Only one more FFA convention in Louisville, KY. Get a preview of what it will be like on FFA Live on RFD-TV
FFA Live! on RFDTV Announces Aug. 29 Show
INDIANAPOLIS – Mark your calendars now for the next FFA Live! show on RFD-TV. The show will run from 8-9p.m. eastern (7-8 p.m. central) on Monday, Aug. 29, and will have a special feature on Expedition Chesapeake—a 30 day, 355 mile on the water
journey through the Potomac River Basin ending at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Agriculture teacher Eric Fitzgerald and 16 of his students (all FFA members) from Turner Ashby High School in Rockingham County, Va., studied the connection between the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay and the critical role farmers can play in reducing pollution in our waterways when they are provided with tools and resources to do so. Eric and two students will share their experiences and some of the valuable scientific information they collected with the help of a probe supplied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
National FFA officers Emily Horton and Jay Kelley will reveal plans for the 78th National FFA Convention, Oct. 26-29— the last convention in Louisville, Ky., before FFA makes the move to Indianapolis.
For more information contact William F. Stagg, 317-802-4243.
WTO Makes Several Appointments
A couple of announcements from the World Trade Organization. You know there’s a very important meeting in Hong Kong this December and AgWired hopes to cover it live.
Hong Kong Commerce Secretary elected chair of the Sixth Ministerial Conference
The General Council, on 29 July 2005, elected Mr. John Tsang, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology of Hong Kong, China, as the chair of the Sixth Ministerial Conference.
Elected vice-chairpersons were: Austria’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Labour Dr. Martin Bartenstein; Barbados’ Senior Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Antoinette Miller; and Nigeria’s Minister of Commerce Idris Waziri.
Meanwhile, the General Council chair Amina Mohamed announced that the new New Zealand ambassador, Crawford Falconer, is the consensus candidate to replace Mr. Tim Groser as chairperson of the agriculture negotiations and the Cotton Sub-Committee from 1 August 2005.
And in another important announcement:
Lamy announces his four Deputy Directors-General
Director-General Designate Pascal Lamy informed the General Council of the four people he has chosen to be his deputy directors-general. Mr. Lamy, who assumes office on 1 September, told the General Council in a statement that he has selected Alejandro Jara of Chile, Valentine Rugwabiza of Rwanda, Harsha Singh of India and Rufus Yerxa of the United States. Their terms of office will begin on 1 October.
Live Webcast of Indiana Crop Outlook
If you want to know the latest about the Indiana crop then you’ll want to be online August 12.
Brownfield Streams Indiana Crop Report at the State Fair
Indianapolis, Indiana August 1, 2005—Brownfield, America’s Ag News Source will stream a “live” Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service crop report briefing on Aug.12 at 9:00 a.m. in the Our Land Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
The briefing will cover the crop estimates released that day by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Discussing Indiana’s agricultural situation will be Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, who serves as Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development; Andy Miller, Director of Indiana Agriculture and Chris Hurt, Purdue Extension Economist. Dean Randy Woodson of Purdue Agriculture will be the moderator and Brownfield farm broadcaster Gary Truitt will host the event.
“The weather this summer has made crop yields very difficult to estimate. This will be the first official estimate of this year’s crop and will set the tone for the market for the rest of the marketing year,” said Truitt.
The event is open to the public and will also be carried live on the web by Brownfield. Producers who want to listen to the Webcast will find a link on the Brownfield homepage at www.brownfieldagnews.com.
For more information contact Lane McConnell: 573.556.1242 or Cyndi Young: 573.556.1229.
DTN Going Mobile
While people in some of the traditional media are still trying to hold on to the good old days DTN is working hard to transition to the future. I haven’t seen them publish a farmer media usage study and yet they’re moving forward. I used to work there so I know it’s not any easier for them to change than anyone else. They were the cutting edge of information delivery with the satellite-delivered weather, market and news data. But people need to be mobile. That was always one problem with the “old system.” You had to be there in front of the monitor to get it. Now you don’t!
DTN Launches Mobile Product
DTN Mobile™ provides real-time market information, weather and ag news via cell phone, SmartPhone or PDA
OMAHA, Neb. — DTN, a leading business-to-business provider of real-time information services, announces the launch of DTN Mobile™, a service that gives agriculture professionals access to real-time market information, weather, and news via mobile phones and PDAs.
DTN Mobile, customers now have even greater access to a complete package of market analysis and commentary, real-time quotes, and highly-localized weather and agriculture industry news—even when out in the field. A companion to DTN’s online and satellite services, DTN Mobile enables users to always stay in touch with the information they need while on the move.
“DTN Mobile extends the great value our customers receive from DTN”, according to Robert Gordon, chief executive officer, DTN. “They can now access the time-critical information that they rely on each day while out in the field or away from the office”.
In addtion to DTN Mobile the company has also annouced several other new products including:
DTN Dairy™, the industry’s only source of comprehensive dairy-specific market, weather and news information available directly to customers with a single subscription.
DTN Grains™, which delivers real-time market, weather, agriculture news and production information specifically tailored to individual U.S. grains producers.
DTN Livestock™, the industry’s only direct source of comprehensive livestock-specific market, weather and news information available to producers with a single subscription.
For more information contact Sandi Scott.
ZimmCast With Kim Lang
This week’s ZimmCast is an interview with Kim Lang, Valmont Irrigation. It’s one of several I conducted at the recent Agricultural Media Summit. Kim talks about a niche product they’re testing on carrot farms in California. In order to gain greater acceptance and entry into this lucrative market her company has created a product to sort of “open the door.” Then I’m sure they hope to find access to other markets for their products.
You can listen to my interview with Kim here 
Here’s a picture of what a dual span system looks like. This is the product Kim talks about in her interview.
Some of you may know this but Kim was my boss once upon a time at DTN. That’s a few years ago now. I just found out that Kim’s going back to DTN, starting August 22 as Director of Advertising! How about that for coming full circle?
Get Your AgWired Tee Now
At the NAMA convention in April, our t-shirts were very popular. So much so, that we re-designed them and now have them available for you to purchase ($12.99, includes shipping in U-S)!
You can see the front and back here, modeled by two of the lovely Zimmerman daughters. Their fee was reasonable after intense negotiation.
If you want one of them, and you know you do, the easiest way to buy is to use the credit card option in the left sidebar. If you don’t want to make an online credit card payment just send me a check and I’ll get it sent out. They only cost $12.99 and that includes shipping anywhere in the United States. Outside the U-S we might have to add for shipping.
Ag Media Summit Photo Album
So if you weren’t able to attend the Agricultural Media Summit you can still get the flavor of it by visiting the articles that I posted this past week. This is one of those opportunities to use an AgWired category archive. In this case you can visit this link – Ag Media Summit Archive – and you’ll pull up all 30+ articles I did from both the Agricultural Relations Council Meeting and the AMS.
I just uploaded my pictures to a Flickr album as well. Feel free to view them here: Ag Media Summit/ARC Photo Album
If you see a picture you want send me an email and I can send you a higher res file. Feel free to use any of them.
Consumers Believe U-S Beef Safe
Consumer confidence in beef is still strong according to the latest Talking News Release from the Missouri Beef Industry Council.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN BEEF REMAINS HIGH
(Columbia, MO) Missouri beef producers are happy to know that the vast majority of Americans believe they are producing a safe product, and that the industry and the government are doing a good job of protecting them from BSE, or mad cow disease.
According to David Dick, a Sedalia cattleman who is chairman of the Missouri Beef Industry Council (MBIC), a consumer tracking survey conducted June 27-29 found that only about 7 out of every 100 Americans has any concern about the safety of the nation’s beef supply.
“The survey came back in 92, almost 93 percent confidence in the product. And that comes from our efforts to make sure that they are a well-informed consumer.” (Full Release)
For more information contact Steve Taylor.
Farm Computer Use Report Being Re-issued With Corrections
The National Agricultural Statistics Service just released their newest Farm Computer Usage report but don’t start using it just yet. It’s being re-released next week! I wondered why I couldn’t find it on their website and here’s what it says – “The Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report released on July 29, 2005 by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be reissued on August 12, 2005 due to corrections in the data.’
I was going to report on how it shows that for the first time farmer internet access is over 51%. There’s lots of interesting information in the report but now I wonder what will change. The stories I’ve seen so far seem to be focusing on the fact that the increase in internet access is a smaller percentage than previously seen in earlier reports and that this might mean that farmer’s use of computers and the internet is levelling off. I don’t think I’d jump to that conclusion just yet. For one thing you have to dig into the data and there’s quite a bit of it.
For example if you just look at the total overall numbers you have to realize who was surveyed and basically that’s anyone farming that makes over $1,000 from farming. There are income breakouts that you should look at because the numbers are very different at different income levels.
Unfortunately I can’t point some of them out since I don’t know what’s going to change. I also can’t link to the report but I will when the release is available.