Farmers in several regions of the U.S. are discovering a new potential cash crop – camelina. Camelina is beginning to find favor with both the biofuels industry as a strong potential feedstock for biodiesel, as well as with farmers who are discovering they will be able to grow the crop profitably. One such farmer is Steve Camp, whose farm is …
Register for Export Exchange
Registration is now open for the Export Exchange 2010, an international trade conference focused around the export of U.S. coarse grains and the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The event is co-sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association and the U.S. Grains Council and will bring together more than 150 international buyers of U.S. DDGS and coarse grains …
Busy BASF
Playing catch-up here on news from the past week out of BASF Crop Protection First, the company recently released “Top Plots: Episode 2” starring award-winning corn and soybean farmer Gary Porter of Mercer, Missouri. In the video, Porter shares how he began farming with his father in the 1970’s in an area not known for deep fertile crop ground – …
No-till Cotton Provides Conservation Opportunity
During the Conservation in Action Tour one of our farm stops was the Carter Farm where we met Jon Black (pictured left). He gave us a presentation on no-till cotton which he is standing in. I caught up to him on the phone afterward since we didn’t have time for an interview there. Jon says continuous no-till farming is the …
Farm Podcaster Tool
With a name like Olympus LS-11PKG it must be a good gadget for the Farm Podcaster. I haven’t tried one but they’re on special now at BSW. The Olympus LS-11 handheld PCM recorder features two high-sensitivity microphones and 8GB of internal memory as well as up to 24-bit/96kHz linear PCM recording in multiple formats for better than CD audio quality. …
There Is Truth In Food
When it comes to food we all need a little bit of truth. Well, maybe a lot of truth. So TruthInFood.com sounds like a good idea. To learn more about this intriguing project I spoke with Mike Smith, Food Chain Communications. Mike and I had a great conversation about understanding why people from both production agriculture and the urban consuming …
Zimfo Bytes
Nominations are now open for the AG CONNECT Expo 2011 Advocating for Agriculture Awards. Syngenta Seedcare announced that the EPA approved Avicta 500 FS nematicide for use on soybeans. Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association (www.wvma.org) member, René Carlson, DVM, was installed as the American Veterinary Medical Association president-elect. FMC Corporation announces the appointment of Frank Knight as business development manager for …
Novus in the Beef Market
While there is no big trade show at the Cattle Industry summer conference, the major animal health partners in the beef and dairy industry still have a presence, and one of the newer players there was Novus International. Novus introduced itself to the beef industry during the Cattle Industry Conference in January, with the help of a mechanical steer named …
Public Relations Etiquette
When I bring up PR etiquette in a conversation it usually generates a few chuckles. Now why would that be? Maybe I should refer to this as public relations professionalism. Whatever you want to call it the recent Ag Media Summit provided several opportunities to comment on it. During the event’s InfoExpo I had two situations that provide a real …
Social Networking and Blogs #1 Online Activity
This is no surprise to ZimmComm New Media but it may surprise many agrimarketers. According to a post on Nielsen Wire titled, “What Americans Do Online: Social Media And Games Dominate Activity,” social networks and blog dominate people’s web use. Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just …