I think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Business must be good at Brownfield. They’ve just added a new farm broadcaster and friend of mine, Julie Harker.
“We are excited to welcome Julie to the Brownfield team,” said Brownfield Farm Director Cyndi Young. “Her tremendous journalistic skill set and ability to communicate effectively to any group will help us further our mission to tell the story of agriculture to a broader audience.” Julie Harker was born in Chicago but grew up in the Missouri Ozarks. She came into radio in college where she got a job as an announcer at KSMU, a campus radio station at Missouri State University. She interned at KTTS, in Springfield, Mo., then moved to northwest Arkansas where she worked in local radio. Her radio path led her back to Missouri where she became a news writer at a station in Branson. That led her to Learfield, where for seven years she was an anchor/reporter with the Missourinet and for the past nine years has been a writer/editor for Learfield Data.
Okay, Cyndi. How many are on your team now?
United Soybean Board Reviews Communications Contract
It’s always good to review how things are going and after 11 years it’s probably about time. However, I’m sure this can be an interesting time if you’re Osborn & Barr Communications.
Osborn & Barr Communications (O&B) today announced it will fully participate in a United Soybean Board (USB) periodic review of its communications contract. The USB decision to commence this review was reached during a regularly scheduled USB Board Meeting held this week.
“USB is mandated by the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, under which it operates, to annually evaluate its programs and program contractors,” stated Eric Niemann, USB chairman and Kansas soybean farmer. “Our responsibility as USB directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture requires us to periodically request additional marketplace information that will enable the board to decide how best to achieve its goals and strategic priorities. This request is a normal course of doing business and reflects our fiduciary responsibility to ensure we are receiving the greatest value for our investment.”
Niemann clarified that USB has not requested additional marketplace information or issued a request for proposal involving any of its primary contractors for more than 11 years. O&B has provided strategic and tactical communications support for USB since 1995.
This review will include an open request for proposals from qualified companies. Further details of the periodic review process will be announced by USB as they are developed. O&B will continue its role as a primary USB contractor, fulfilling all its current and any future assignments throughout USB’s 2007 fiscal year.
Marcia Zarley Taylor Exec. Editor DTN
DTN just announced that it has hired Marcia Zarley Taylor as executive editor.
She will play a key role in DTN’s efforts to expand its editorial coverage of the rapidly changing agriculture market driven by the expansion of renewable fuels. Widely regarded as one of the most authoritative voices in American agriculture, Taylor will bring additional depth and leadership to DTN’s industry leading news and market coverage.
Taylor comes to DTN from Top Producer magazine, where she served as editor-in-chief since 1990. Before joining Top Producer, she was the Washington, D.C. editor with Farm Journal and a farm management editor with Successful Farming magazine. She also took a sabbatical to teach as a visiting professor in agricultural journalism with the University of Missouri- Columbia.
Rhea & Kaiser Reaps Some NAMA Joy
It’s Rhea & Kaiser’s turn to brag about their NAMA regional awards. It looks like they made out very well with 14 first place honors.
In the Chicago regional competition, Rhea & Kaiser secured two Best of Show and eight first place awards in advertising, public relations and specialty categories. In Raleigh, Rhea & Kaiser was presented a Best of Show and five first place awards in advertising and public relations categories. Additionally, Rhea & Kaiser received a first place nod in the West Coast region for a Bayer CropScience advertising campaign. “We applaud the work of our teams, whose collective talents make it possible for Rhea & Kaiser to continue to excel in the agri-marketing communications industry,” said Van Kaiser, executive vice president and creative director.
Rhea & Kaiser achieved Best of Show in Chicago for two Pfizer Animal Health campaigns – “The Power of One: EXCEDE Launch Meeting” in the public relations events category and “REVOLUTION Kitty Commitment” in the advertising specialty categories. The agency won Best of Show in Raleigh for collateral work on the Bayer CropScience “SCALA Wine Brochure.”
Ethanol Song & Statistics
What a great week of biofuels blogging this has been. The National Ethanol Conference is now over and saying goodbye was RFA President/CEO, Bob Dinneen. One of the last things he did was play a video (I’ll try to get a copy) supplied by Ron Fagen, Fagen, Inc. It’s actually a music video so when you listen just imagine what pictures go with it. I’m guessing the song is titled, “I Love Ethanol.” It starts out with a little bit of IRL race car sound so give it a few seconds to develop.
Listen to the song here (5 min): nec-07-love-ethanol.mp3
The RFA released a new economic analysis on the impact of the U.S. ethanol industry today which I thought you might want to read. The report shows that in 2006 the industry is providing the federal government with a sound return on its investment. According to the analysis, ‘Contribution of the Ethanol Industry to the Economy of the United States,’ (pdf file) the federal government received tax revenues of $2.7 billion simply from the construction and operation of ethanol biorefineries. The tax revenue generated exceeded the amount of money the federal government provided in tax incentives to oil refiners who use ethanol.
Don’t forget that you can see all my photos from the Conference with this link: 2007 National Ethanol Conference Photo Album. If you haven’t checked it out, then you can see a lot more at the National Ethanol Conference Blog. Let me know what you think about having a conference blog. This is one of several that I’ve worked on now. How about bringing in the pioneers to do it for you?
RSS Feeds From NCGA
The National Corn Growers Association just announced that they are now using RSS to distribute information. Just use this link to subscribe like I did with my NewsGator Outlook plugin. Why don’t we see more of this? It’s good for getting information to members and the media. Sure, not all farmers know how to use RSS. Not all of them have a computer either. But a growing number of them do. I think NCGA’s timing is great with Commodity Classic coming up next week. I’m sure this will be a great mechanism to help keep us all informed.
Beginning today, you can enjoy the convenience of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) News of The Day coming to your personalized home page. NCGA now provides free RSS feeds, bringing the latest news, Ag Roundups and other information direct to your computer. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is an XML-based format for content distribution. RSS feeds are free content feeds from Web sites, such as www.ncga.com, that contain article headlines, summaries and links back to full-text articles on the Web.
RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when content that interests you appears on the NCGA web site. Instead of visiting a particular Web site to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically tells you when something new is posted on the site.
The State of the Ethanol Industry
If you want a fact-filled rundown on just how things are going in the ethanol industry then look no further than today’s State of the Ethanol Industry speech by Renewable Fuels Association President/CEO, Bob Dinneen. He was introduced as the Reverend of Renewable Fuels and if you listen to the end of his speech you’ll know why. I love this quote from Bob, “We have met the nattering nabobs of negativity, and we have soared.” In a word, he says the ethanol industry is sound.
Here’s a couple quick facts from Bob’s speech. In 2006, the ethanol industry:
- Increased gross output by $41 Billion;
- Supported the creation of 163,000 jobs, including 20,000 in the manufacturing sector;
- Put an additional $6.7 Billion into the pockets of American consumers;
- Added $2.7 Billion in new tax revenue for the federal governmant and $2.2 Billion for state and local treasuries.
Here’s a link to the text of the speech: State of the Ethanol Industry (Word doc)
Listen to Bob’s speech here (25 min): nec-07-dinneen-open.mp3
A Cactus Evening Sky
The real business gets kicked off tomorrow here at the National Ethanol Conference. Today was kind of a social and fun day which ended in over 2,000 people enjoying a very nice reception. We were dry inside but it rained outside.
I wandered out for some fresh air as the sky was getting dark and thought this picture kind of sets the mood for being in Arizona.
Renewable Fuels Blogging
This is one of many vehicles on display here at the National Ethanol Conference in Tucson, AZ.
The Renewable Fuels Association is having their annual marketing meeting where up to 70 percent of the ethanol that’s sold during the summer months gets negotiated.
If you’d like to keep up on the action then check out the National Ethanol Conference Blog we installed for RFA and you can guess who’s the biofuels blogger.
Sirius & XM Combining Forces
This has been rumored for quite a while and today the announcement came officially that Sirius and XM are going to become one.
XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 4.6 shares of SIRIUS common stock for each share of XM they own. XM and SIRIUS shareholders will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company.
Mel Karmazin, currently Chief Executive Officer of SIRIUS, will become Chief Executive Officer of the combined company and Gary Parsons, currently Chairman of XM, will become Chairman of the combined company. The new company’s board of directors will consist of 12 directors, including Messrs. Karmazin and Parsons, four independent members designated by each company, as well as one representative from each of General Motors and American Honda. Hugh Panero, the Chief Executive Officer of XM, will continue in his current role until the anticipated close of the merger.
I think it will be interesting to see if the rural audience gets some new programming out of this deal.
The combined company is committed to consumer choice, including offering consumers the ability to pick and choose the channels and content they want on a more a la carte basis. The combined company will also provide consumers with a broader selection of content, including a wide range of commercial-free music channels, exclusive and non-exclusive sports coverage, news, talk, and entertainment programming.