It is arrival day for attendees of the 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress in Sweden. Kelly Schwalbe, BCS Communications and myself took the morning to try a little golf. It is a beautiful day and no matter what our score was, it was an awesome round of golf at the Troxhammar Golf Cub. We played with flashes of …
Seeking Nominations for Charles Eastin Award
The National Farm-City Council is now seeking nominations for its second annual Charles Eastin Outstanding Service Award. The award pays tribute to an outstanding individual within the United States who has contributed to Farm-City activities as an advocate for accurate communications between rural and urban audiences. The national award is in honor of Dr. Charles “Charlie” Eastin, DVM, who played …
Most Believe Ag Journalists Are Ethical
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Do ag journalists (broadcast/print/web) adhere to good ethical practices in reporting?” This is just in time for the ag journalists gathering in Sweden for the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress. I’ll be sharing the results with them. Our poll results: Sixteen percent said they all do; sixty-eight percent said most do; and sixteen …
Zimfo Bytes
South Dakota Wheat Growers of Chamberlain, SD was named the National Environmental Respect Award winner for 2012. The global agrochemicals market is now at your fingertips with the launch of FarmChemicalsInternational.com. Longtime weekly newsmagazine Newsweek will go digital only, and plans for the beginning of that shift will be announced as early as September. Kubota has launched a Family Safety …
Preview of 2012 IFAJ Congress
The 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists is about to kick off in Sweden. We’re somewhere to the west of Stockholm at the moment with farm tours coming up later this week. To get my coverage started I spoke with soon to be past IFAJ President Mike Wilson, Farm Futures, during the IFAJ leadership dinner this evening. Mike has been …
Managing Enteric Disease
Dealing with a tough subject at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar was Dr. Michael Appley, Kansas State University. He talked about antimicrobials and the control of enteric disease and the future of using them including the issue of resistance. He says producers need to know how and why they use them. But he also says that a lot …
TopCon’s New System 350
What’s new at TopCon Precision Agriculture is their System 350 which features their X30 console. TopCon was one of the exhibitors at the Ag Media Summit. The console features: Mini-view windows with drag-and-drop positioning Interaction keypads with “expandable menus” Dashboard readouts provide constant, convenient basic data Integrated LED lightbar for manual guidance Full-screen views available for more detailed information Advanced …
Farm Foundation Webinar on RFS Waiver Impact
There’s been a lot of talk about waiving the Renewable Fuels Standard for ethanol, especially since the USDA’s latest estimate shows the drought knocking down the projected corn crop 13 percent. Our friends from the Farm Foundation will be hosting a web conference, Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 10 a.m. CDT. Three Purdue University economists will take part in the …
Time For Hog Producers To Check Protocols
Working as a herd health and production veterinarian for Standard Nutrition Services is Keith Kinsley, one of the presenters at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar. Keith’s topic was “A Review of Nursery Scouring.” I asked Keith what he wanted the attendees to take away from his talk and he says that it’s not always scours that is the …
Monsanto Working on Drought Tolerant Cotton
Doug Jost is a Technology Development Representative for Monsanto and was visiting with us at the Ag Media Summit. Doug says what they do for the company is “test our new technologies usually in an experimental form and not commercialized yet . . . from cotton varieties to roundup formulations to drought tolerant cotton, things like that.” When it comes …