I hope this isn’t a trend we’ll be seeing in the industry. It’s a very short announcement sent out today by Deere & Company: Deere & Company said today that 160 employees of the John Deere Des Moines Works will be placed on indefinite layoff later this month due to reduced market demand for the factory’s products. Deere said the …
#agchat Session on Twitter
I participated in a very cool use of Twitter tonight. Let’s call it #agchat. That’s the hashtag we used for our tweets to post into the conversation and to reply to each other. As of this post we have 248 tweets posted. Post Update: by ending time we have 331 tweets. The idea is to do this on Tuesday evenings …
The Derry Brownfield Show
I had a very enjoyable lunch today with my good friend Derry Brownfield. I know a lot of you know of Derry. He’s that farm broadcaster who is rude, crude, obnoxious, politically incorrect . . . (self description). I worked with Derry for almost 10 years and we covered a lot of miles together. Derry is still hosting his daily …
Earth Day Beef Rap
Nothing fuels an Earth Day dinner better than beef. I think that’s what Beef Ambassador Allison Grainger and friends are telling us in this Earth Day Beef Rap video. Let me know what you think. I’m sure Allison will be watching.
Rabobank Farm & Ranch Confidence Survey
Rabobank has released results of its 2009 Farm & Ranch Survey. A couple of highlight include: * More farmers are using risk management tools * 1/3 of farmers expect crop input costs to decrease * More farmers looking to buy used equipment Rabobank recently launched a survey to gauge farmers’ confidence, and found that, while farmers’ outlook on the economy …
Farmer Tweets
Just in case you’re wondering if your company should be involved in social media, let me give you another example. This comes from Iowa Farm Bureau. It’s all about a farmer who’s on Twitter to help promote agriculture. I’m really glad to see how Farm Bureau is getting into the online conversation. In fact, I’ll be speaking to their gathering …
Indiana Family Farms Debuts
Gary Truitt, Hoosier Ag Today, has unveiled a new ZimmComm-designed website called Indiana Family Farms. Consumers today are interested in knowing more about how their food is produced. Environmental, safety, and welfare issues are figuring more and more in consumer buying decisions. Yet, most Americans know very little about how their food is produced or the men and women who …
Virgil Smail Executive Director of USCP
Virgil Smail has been named the Executive Director of the United Sorghum Checkoff Program. With a strong history of industry and commodity association management, Smail will bring great experience and leadership to the USCP. As President and CEO of the American Institute of Baking, Smail was responsible for drastically expanding institute programs and worked with a Board of Directors representing …
Karen Simon’s Travel Journal
Another ag group shows a great use of a blog. This time it’s Karen Simon, Iowa Soybean Association. She just returned from a 10 day trip to China. I actually was following her progress on her Twitter feed but she kept an online journal. This is one of her photos I borrowed from her online photo set. She also posted …
Spot Your Career Online
Clint Deitch has kicked off AgCareer Spotter and Cindy spoke to him about it by phone last week. So you can hear all about it in this week’s program. BTW. You can find Clint’s job listings via Twitter. Careerspotter.com, provider of online industry specific career centers, recently launched AgCareerSpotter.com targeting the agribusiness industry. Developed by agriculture human resources recruiters, AgCareerSpotter.com …