Marketing MANA

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-154 - A Mana BreakI’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 DowningDave 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: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 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

Agribusiness, Audio, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Land O’Lakes, Inc. recently announced a number of changes to the senior leadership team reporting to Land O’Lakes President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Policinski. JP Ruiz-Funes joined Land O’Lakes, effective Jan. 7 as senior vice president, Corporate Strategy and Business Development. Barry Wolfish has moved from his previous position in Corporate Strategy and Business Development to create the new role of senior vice president, Corporate Marketing Strategy. Mike Vandelogt replaced Dave Seehusen as executive vice president and chief operating officer, Winfield Solutions Seed Division. Dave Seehusen has moved to executive vice president, Land O’Lakes Ag Business Development and Member Services.
  • Monsanto announced that it is working with glufosinate-tolerant traits in its cotton technology programs. The company’s work with glufosinate-tolerant traits paves the way for the development of the industry’s first three-way stack of herbicide-tolerant technologies across its cotton business including Roundup Ready Flex, Dicamba-tolerance and Glufosinate tolerance. The glufosinate trait is under license from Bayer CropScience and reflects the company’s multi-partner stacking strategy. The USDA estimates that more than 80 percent of the cotton acres planted in 2007 included the Roundup Ready or Roundup Ready Flex traits.
  • Steve Murphy, the chief executive officer of the National Pork Board since 2001, has submitted his resignation to the board. A short list of some of the National Pork Board’s successes under Murphy’s leadership includes: Getting the organization to embrace anticipatory issues management; protecting the future of one of the most successful brands in the country – Pork. The Other White Meat; reconnecting producers with the idea of working together through shared contributions and shared vision to accomplish goals they could not achieve alone; developing a staff that is accountable to both producers and to sound business principles. Murphy will continue until the board can find a successor.
Zimfo Bytes

List of 8 for 2008

Laura McNamara

cooklight.pngCooking 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.

Food

Headlining a New Developments Session

Chuck Zimmerman

Greg StratmanOne 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
is made possible by: BASF


Beltwide Cotton Conference Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

Sharing Nikon Storey’s

Chuck Zimmerman

Bill StoryBill 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.

Beltwide Cotton

Go With NewsGator and Keep Up

Chuck Zimmerman

NewsGator Go For BlackberryHow 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.

Internet

Mepkin Monks Stopping Egg Production

Chuck Zimmerman

Mepkin AbbeyThe 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.

Wackos

Zimfo Byte

Melissa Sandfort

Zimfo Bytes

  • U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the wheat industry’s overseas market development organization, is moving its Washington, D.C., office to a new location in Arlington, Va., effective Jan. 12, 2008. The new office address for mail and shipping is 3103 10th Street, North, Suite 300, Arlington, VA, 22201. The general telephone number, (202) 463-0999, will not change, but there will be a new fax number: (703) 524-4399. To prepare for the move, USW plans to shut down telephone, fax, email and Web access at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. All services will be restored by 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Monday, Jan. 14, 2008.
    • Zimfo Bytes

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • The American Feed Industry Association and the Poultry Protein & Fat Council will sponsor a Conference On Pet Food Ingredient Quality Jan. 22-23, 2008, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. The topics to be discussed are: It’s a Small World: Global Perspective on the Pet Food Industry and Ingredient Training; Melamine: Catalyst to Focusing on Ingredient Quality – Looking Back Over 12 Months; Consumer Marketing: Pet Food Public Relations; Ingredient and Feed Quality Assurance, Control and the Laws and Regulations Dictating Them; and Quality Aspects of Poultry Meals and Fat in Pet Food. Visit the official show site for more information.
    • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., (BIVI) announces that Bill Knoch has joined the BIVI swine division as sales representative, responsible for the Indiana, Michigan, and Kentucky and Tennessee territory. He joins BIVI with 13 years of sales experience, the last nine years as senior territory account manager in the animal health industry. Knoch will reside near Indianapolis, Ind.
    • While at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) Convention in Reno, Nev., from Feb. 6 through Feb. 8, AgriLabs will give away a total of $1,500 to be used for youth scholarships. Each of the three days the convention’s trade show is open, one lucky attendee will be selected to choose an organization to receive a $500 scholarship grant. In turn, the organization — which must be a state affiliate of either the NCBA or the American National CattleWomen (ANCW), or the ANCW Foundation — will use the $500 for an educational scholarship for a deserving youth during 2008. To qualify for the drawings to determine which organizations will receive the $500 scholarship grants, convention participants simply need to register at the AgriLabs booth, No. 801.
      Zimfo Bytes

      Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

      Laura McNamara

      Houston Livestock Show and RodeoThe Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo boasts 21 star entertainers for this year’s event. Tickets go on sale starting tomorrow (Saturday, January 12).

      The 21 different star entertainers scheduled to perform at the 2008 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo represent a wide variety of musical genres. Together, these superstars have garnered numerous music industry honors, including 18 GRAMMY(R) awards, 73 Country Music Association awards and 90 Academy of Country Music Awards.

      Here are few from the lineup…

      Monday, March 3 Tim McGraw

      Tuesday, March 4 Faith Hill

      Wednesday, March 5 Kevin Fowler

      Thursday, March 6 Alan Jackson

      Friday, March 7
      Black Heritage Day sponsored by Kroger Food Stores John Legend

      Other entertainers scheduled to perform throughout the event include Martina McBride, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, John Fogerty, Toby Keith, Clay Walker, Brad Paisley, Duelo/Los Horoscopos de Durango, Miranda Lambert, Big & Rich, Fergie, Dierks Bentley, Pat Green and Brooks & Dunn.

      Ag Groups, Farm Shows, Farming, Livestock, Rodeo