Steve Drake named Agri-Business Leader of the Year

Melissa Sandfort

image.gifThe St. Louis Agri-Business Club named Drake & Company President and CEO Steve Drake as its Agri-Business Leader of the Year. Since 1981 the St. Louis Agri-Business Club has been recognizing outstanding leaders in agriculture by honoring them as Agri-Business Leader of the Year. The award recognizes the individual’s service to agriculture through personal accomplishments and outstanding leadership, a willingness to serve others and a passion for the future growth of agriculture. Furthermore, the individual must display community leadership through participation in civic, church, and other organizations and public service activities.

Drake was raised on a bull farm in Ohio, and attended Ohio State University, where he earned degrees in agricultural economics and international Journalism. He moved to St. Louis in the late 1970s to become Vice President of Public Affairs for the American Soybean Association. In 1992, he founded Drake & Company, an accredited association management company. Based in Chesterfield, DrakeCo manages nine non-profit organizations and foundations, several of which have an agricultural focus.

Through his organization, Drake and his team have brought the national headquarters of the Alpha Zeta Fraternity and Foundation, the National Christmas Tree Association and the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association to the greater St. Louis area. Drake was also instrumental in founding the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation and the Country Living Association, both of which are managed by his firm.

Drake has been recognized by the Public Relations Society of America with its Silver Anvil four times. He has also received the Agricultural Relations Council Founders Award twice. Drake has served as the President of the Agricultural Relations Council and currently serves as the Vice President of the AMC Institute.

Agribusiness

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • The American Angus Association® Board of Directors has selected five individuals for induction to the Angus Heritage Foundation. The 2007 inductees include John Barton, Kansas City, Mo.; Bob Hartley, Vinita, Okla.; Blanford Pierce, Creston, Ill.; and T.D. Steele, Roanoke, Va. Fred Francis, formerly of Wilmington, Ill., will be inducted posthumously. A special recognition of the inductees was held during the American Angus Association’s Angus Annual Banquet, Nov. 12 in Louisville, Ky.
  • The 2008 American Agriculture Calendar is ready. This 13-month planning calendar is available free of charge, while quantities last. Just email your mailing address to sales@ncmsonline.com, “Calendar Request” in the subject line, and this beautiful full color, 13-picture calendar will be on its way to you.
  • Osborn & Barr adds extensive knowledge and varied experience to its media department with the appointment of Pat Rosner to vice president, director of integrated media. Rosner brings more than 20 years of media experience to her new role at O&B, having worked with both business-to-business and consumer media. As director of integrated media, Rosner will oversee the strategic planning and media execution of all O&B accounts, including Monsanto, the United Soybean Board, Intervet and Michelin Ag Tires.
Zimfo Bytes

The Marantz PMD 620 is Now Available

Chuck Zimmerman

Marantz PMD620I gave a heads up to all the farm podcasters out there recently about the Marantz PMD 620. It’s now on the market and my order is in. So you can expect to see this bad boy connected to the golden ZimmComm microphone soon.

One of the cool things about this unit is the speaker built into it which is a very handy feature some of the other small form digital recorders we use doesn’t have.

I’m looking forward to it. So now you know another great gift idea for the farm broadcaster/podcaster on your list! Here’s where I got mine.

Media

Cheese Fuel

Laura McNamara

thenorthwestern.comA Wisconsin entrepreneur says producers don´t have to rely on corn, or even cellulosic waste, to create ethanol. Joe Van Groll, Owner of Grand Meadow Energy, LLC, says he can create ethanol from cheese water waste. Joe says this new method for creating ethanol is a great alternative. He points out that the ethanol industry is the target of negative publicity because critics say the use of corn takes water out of the water table and the food supply and shifts it to the energy market. But, Joe says water
is already a waste byproduct of the cheese making process, with 75 percent or greater water. Joe says using that waste to create ethanol removes that water, purifies it and puts it back into the environment.

Joe also uses canola oil for the production of biodiesel. He says there is no one “silver bullet” for creating renewable fuels. You can read more about Joe´s alternative production of alternative fuels at thenorthwestern.com.

Corn, Ethanol, Farming, Food, Technology

Managerial Insights With Moe Russell

Chuck Zimmerman

Managerial Insights With Moe RussellOne of the projects I’ve had an opportunity to play a part in this fall has been a series of video presentations with Moe Russell, Russell Consulting Group. They’re for Farm Industry News and sponsored by Asgrow. It’s called the Business Skills Series. Here we are in our last recording session.

In this monthly episode Moe talks about risk management. The production has been done locally here and I’ve also worked with Joel Jaeger, YourFarm/Commodity Update on the project. You can watch the latest episode here:

<a href="http://www.yourfarm.com/slideshow/r/?00213">Agriculture presentation provided by YourFarm.com</a>. You may need to install or update the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" target="_blank">Adobe Flash Player</a> plugin to view this content.

We’ll be taping two more episodes later this morning.

Agribusiness, Farming, Publication

Farm Broadcasting’s Future

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-146 - Future of Farm BroadcastingSome highlight audio clips are featured in this week’s program. I asked past NAFB President, Pam Fretwell and new NAFB VP, Greg Akagi, what they think is the future of farm broadcasting. I think you’ll hear that both are certain there is a good future.

I’m also including the full presentation that Paul McKellips made at one of the NAFB convention luncheons. Paul is a great guy and his story is fascinating.

Because it’s Thanksgiving week the program concludes with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This week’s song is “La Vida – Live in Turkey” by the Steve Kercher. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 146 (23 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:zimmcast146-11-20-07.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

Audio, NAFB, ZimmCast

Some More NAFB Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

Derry BrownfieldLast week I covered some of the awards given out at the NAFB Convention. One of the things they do is present tenure awards each 5 years after you become a broadcast council member (used to be called voting members). Besides that they give them out more frequently to really old timers like Derry Brownfield, Brownfield Network here (just joking Derry) who received a certificate for 41 years of membership, presented by Rae Nell Halbur, KFIZ!

Some other awards presented at the convention included DuPont Crop Protection and the United Soybean Board/Checkoff receiving the 2007 Herb Plambeck Creative Excellence Awards for their original advertising campaigns.

You can find a list of all their awards in this Word doc.

NAFB Convention Photo Album

NAFB

Dupont Supports Ethanol Production

Laura McNamara

DupontEthanol production has taken off and DuPont is now offering corn growers a way to measure the demand for corn in ethanol production. Dupont says its QualiTrak technology will help spur the growth of the ethanol industry.

Ethanol plants have a new tool to enable them to increase the amount of ethanol they produce per bushel of grain. DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred today introduced QualiTrak(SM), a new measurement and reporting system that facilitates the flow of predicted ethanol yield information to both plant personnel and corn growers.

QualiTrak is the only system that predicts and reports ethanol yield data in gallons per bushel.

The measurement function of the QualiTrak system incorporates the Pioneer proprietary Ethanol Yield Potential calibration technology used with FOSS grain analyzers. This calibration accurately predicts ethanol yield on all commercial grain, regardless of seed source. The reporting function provides comprehensive comparative information for all loads of grain delivered to a plant. This data can help both growers and processors evaluate and compare each delivery.

Agribusiness, Corn, Ethanol, Farming, Technology

Big Sign Big Equipment at Case IH

Chuck Zimmerman

Case IH Plant SignI’m not sure I’ve ever seen a news release about a new sign but Case IH sent one out. This is one big looking monster of a sign. I guess the size of your sign is an indication of the size of your equipment?

The Case IH Benson manufacturing facility is sporting a big, bright new sign these days — 33 feet tall by 20 feet wide. Nearly twice as tall as the former sign, “It truly is impressive,” says Plant Manager Kim Heiden.

“It predominantly features the Case IH logo, which symbolizes the company’s renewed focus on our customers and the brands that serve them,” Heiden adds. “In fact, the bold red ‘Driver I’ in the logo represents our one-on-one working relationships with customers. It’s also a tip of the hat to our International Harvester roots.”

Heiden says the first shift starts at 6 a.m., “So most of our workforce comes in before the sun comes up. The sign literally lights up the night for us.”

Agribusiness, Tractor

FAO State of Food and Agriculture

Chuck Zimmerman

FAO State of Food and Agriculture ReportThe FAO has released it’s annual State of Food and Agriculture report. This year they’re advocating payments to farmers.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre. The report concludes that demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation – will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand. As one among several other possible policy tools, payments to farmers for environmental services hold promise as a flexible approach to enhancing farmer incentives to sustain and improve the ecosystems on which we all depend. Nevertheless, challenges must be overcome if the potential of this approach is to be realized, especially in developing countries. Policy efforts at international and national levels are necessary to establish the basis for such payments. The design of cost-effective programmes requires careful analysis of the specific biophysical and socio-economic contexts and consideration of the poverty impacts programmes may have. By clarifying the challenges that need to be addressed in implementing such an approach, this report is intended to contribute to the realization of its potential.

Uncategorized