20 Years of Colossal Pork BBQ

Chuck Zimmerman

Great Pork BarbeqlossalThere’s been a lot of years of BBQ pork goodness at World Pork Expo. This year the Great Pork BarbeQlossal will celebrate a milestone.

The Pork Checkoff’s 20th annual Great Pork BarbeQlossal contest is the Saturday of World Pork Expo, which runs June 7-9 in Des Moines, Iowa. This annual contest highlights barbeque techniques from across America.

“More than 90 teams are expected to compete in this year’s Great Pork BarbeQlossal contest,” said Jay Foushee, a pork producer from Roxboro, N.C. “To celebrate 20 years, we are going to recognize all the past BarbeQlossal winners and invite them back to compete again. We have yet to have a repeat winner.”

Due to popular demand, the Big Green Egg scramble competition is back. On Friday evening, six selected teams will be provided with a mystery basket that includes a mystery pork cut. The teams will grill on a Big Green Egg grill and compete for the grand prize of a Big Green Egg grill.

For the Checkoff’s Great Pork BarbeQlossal contest, teams will highlight grilling and barbeque techniques in at least one of the four cooking categories: Whole hog; shoulder; loin/loin end and ribs. In order to earn grand champion honors and a share of the $37,000 in cash and prizes, contestants must cook a shoulder, loin/loin end, ribs and an entire hog with a dressed weight of 45 pounds or more cooked while in one piece or in two halves.

Ag Groups, Pork

Mac Conversion Update

Chuck Zimmerman

AppleHello from South Florida. This has been my first trip with the Macbook Pro and I thought it would provide a good context for an update on my conversion experience. First of all, I thought that in a week or so with the new box I was pretty well prepared for this but it has been a challenge. When you’re on location doing “live” posting of images, video and audio you’ve got to be able to edit, upload and post fast. Almost as fast as say an Indy car at full throttle.

My biggest challenge has been audio editing. The built-in Garage Band software isn’t quite as intuitive as I thought and then there’s the file conversion factor. I start with an MP3 file and need to end with an MP3 file. To use Garage Band I have to convert the file to edit it, then convert it back to post it. I don’t like that. I’ve also found the conversion process a hassle since there are so many settings in each program to deal with. I was using iTunes to do the converting and found out that I have two different iTunes libraries on my hard drive. I have no idea why. So I downloaded the free audio editing software, Audacity. Then I found out it needs an extra MP3 plugin with I had trouble finding and installing. It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to download/install/use the software and this was done in a working newsroom with high performance race cars screaming by outside. I’ve also found some compatibility issues between the MP3 files created in Audacity and some other programs. So, I’m still working on this issue.

For image editing I’m using Photoshop Elements and that works great as I mentioned before. For video, I only shot one little video clip but editing it with iMovie HD was a snap. Very cool tool. It uploaded to YouTube and works just fine. The only thing was I was missing some kind of little plugin for Quicktime that took me about 45 minutes to find and download. My little Casio Exilim shoots .avi files and all I could get to start with was a white screen with audio until I found this little plugin through an online user forum. Works great now though.

So there you have it. I made it through my first road test with the Mac and survived. Now my last issue besides the audio editing thing is being able to use my Sprint broadband account with the Mac. I think I know the answer to it but I haven’t got it taken care of yet.

Uncategorized

Eldon White Leaving NAMA For Texas

Chuck Zimmerman

TSCRAHere’s a news flash for you. I guess it’s appropriate that we have the NAMA convention in Dallas this year! I will have to come back and add a picture of Eldon for you. I know I’ve got one somewhere in my photo archive at the home office. I’m getting ready to travel home from south Florida today. So Eldon is going back to the livestock association management business. I say congratulations and look forward to working with him one more time at this year’s NAMA convention.

Eldon J. White was introduced March 25 as the new executive vice president of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association during the group’s 130th annual convention in Fort Worth. He is expected to assume his new duties in May. Currently, White is the executive vice president of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) based in Overland Park, Kan. He has 28 years of agriculture related association management experience, including nearly 16 years serving as the chief staff officer for up to six associations concurrently. “We conducted a comprehensive search to come up with the right individual to lead this association to the next level,” reported TSCRA President C.R. “Dick” Sherron. “Eldon White has extensive association experience, he was raised on a cattle ranch and he’s worked for the National Cattlemen’s Association and the American Sheep Industry Association.”

White was raised on a stocker operation outside of Ogden, Utah. His dad was an order-buyer for a commission company, and White learned the business early by going with him to sort cattle. The family ranch also bred registered Quarter Horses for racing and during his high school years, Eldon worked as a jockey.

Ag Groups, NAMA

Dan Wheldon & Ethanol Win Race

Chuck Zimmerman

Dan WheldonWell, my man Jeff Simmons may not have won the race but ethanol still came out a big winner. Did any of you watch the ESPN coverage? I’ve heard that they spent lots of time talking about the fuel.

Here’s the winner of the first Indy car race of the year, Dan Wheldon. It’s the third time in a row that Dan has won the race. He did it in dominating fashion too and afterward said it was a lot of fun running the race.

I recorded the press conference with Dan afterward and was able to ask him how he felt about racing with 100% ethanol. He said that Honda deserves a lot of credit but that any time you can do something to help the environment, it’s a “good thing.”

You can listen to the whole press conference here: Listen to MP3 Dan Wheldon Press Conference (10 min MP3)

Or you can just listen to my Q&A with Dan: Listen to MP3 Dan Wheldon About Ethanol (15 sec MP3)

Audio, Ethanol

Ethanol Car Has A Short Night

Chuck Zimmerman

Jeff Simmons and FianceThe Team Ethanol car driven by Jeff Simmons is out of the race after what looked like a slide coming out of a turn which turned the car around and then two other cars crashed into it. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. Jeff is seen here with his fiance just prior to the race.

I’m going to stick it out though since no matter who wins tonight, ethanol will be the winner.

Remember to check out my XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 Photo Album.

Ethanol

The Ethanol Green Flag

Chuck Zimmerman

Green E FlagThis year the IRL is giving new meaning to the “green flag.” The official green flag has the ethanol logo.

I was in the pits at the start to take this shot. It’s the best of my bunch. If you want to see all of them don’t forget to check out my photo album. I’m also posting more frequently on our Domestic Fuel site.

The race started just a little over an hour delayed. Jeff Simmons in the Ethanol Car has been running very well and moved up several positions from his start. As of this post he’s in 14th.

Ethanol

Troy Price New VP of Sales For New Holland

Chuck Zimmerman

Troy PriceTroy Price has been named to a newly created position of Vice President of Sales to oversee the New Holland North American sales organization.

In that position, he is responsible for promoting sales growth and increased profitability of the North America market, directly managing the sales team. He will report to Lorenzo Sistino, President of New Holland worldwide, and will be based in New Holland, Penna.

Price most recently served as Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing for CNH Capital’s agricultural and construction sales and marketing finance operations. Before joining CNH Capital, he was Vice President of Energy Rentals for General Electric Company’s North American Operations. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Indiana State University. Price was raised on an Indiana family farm his grandfather began in 1927. He and his brother now jointly manage the corn and soybean operation.

Sistino also announced that, on an interim basis, he would personally assume the responsibilities of David P. Clarke, former Vice President of New Holland Agricultural Business in North America, who is pursuing other opportunities.

Agribusiness, New Holland

Ethanol Car Leaving The Pits

Chuck Zimmerman

Media TentAt the moment it’s cool inside the overflow media tent which where I got assigned to. My little spot is right in front on the end of the table. It was the last place open when I got here yesterday. You can’t escape the word ethanol here as the logo is everywhere and it’s on the “suggested stories” list handed out to all media.

Here’s an update on how things are going with the Ethanol Car. After last night’s qualifying session the car’s time was disqualified due to failing a post qualification technical inspection. This happened to both Jeff Simmons in the #17 car and Scott Sharp in car #8. Both are Rahal-Letterman Racing entries. This means that Scott will start the race this evening in the #19 position and Jeff in the #20 position. Tough break but hopefully they’ll overcome it during the race.

Just to stoke up a little excitement I thought I’d share a short YouTube video with you of the Ethanol Car heading out of the pits to take practice laps.

Ethanol, Video

Interview With Ethanol Car Driver Jeff Simmons

Chuck Zimmerman

Jeff Simmons HelmetIt has been a hot sunny afternoon in south Florida. Fortunately the Indy cars get to do qualifying for race start position tonight under race time conditions since the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 is a night race tomorrow. Jeff Simmons has a new helmet this year which I think is pretty cool looking.

This afternoon I caught up to Jeff at the Rahal-Letterman hospitality area and interviewed him to get his thoughts on running a race that Paul Dana didn’t get to run last year. As you may recall it was just a year ago that Paul Dana was killed in practice prior to this race when it was run on Sunday. I had conducted the last media interview with Paul the evening before. So for some of us, Jeff included, this is an emotional race. As you’ll hear him say, he’s got to put that behind him and focus on racing.

You can listen to my interview with Jeff here (4 min MP3): homestead-07-simmons.mp3

Audio, Ethanol

XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 Time

Chuck Zimmerman

XM Satellite Radio Indy 300In case you’re wondering where I am, I am in Homestead, FL. Yesterday was travel day. So here I am just as the practice laps are completed at the Miami-Homestead Speedway the day before the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300. That’ll take place tomorrow evening at 8pm eastern time and you can see it on ESPN2.

I’m getting ready to attend a Rahal-Letterman press conference in a few minutes where I’ll get a chance to interview Jeff Simmons and find out how the car’s running today. This is the kickoff of the IRL season and I’m looking forward to it.

Team Ethanol Car on a Practice LapI’ve started a photo album for the event which already has quite a few photo in it. You can find it here: XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 Photo Album

This is the first time these cars will be competing using 100% ethanol for fuel. In his practice today Jeff Simmons in the #17 Ethanol Car clocked a 209.302MPH on his 9th practice lap which puts him in position 15 for the practice best times today. Dan Wheldon in Car #10 was fastest with a speed of 213.014.

I’ll have a lot more over the next couple days so stay tuned. Just for clarity’s sake, I’m working with coverage sponsor, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Ethanol