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 …
LeaveMyFoodAlone.org
I have not read the propsed H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 but I’ve sure seen a lot of online discussion about it. Farm blogger Alex Tiller sent me a note to alert people to a petition site called LeaveMyFoodAlone.org. As of March 31, 2009, we have received over 2500 signatures for the petition! (the site was launched …
Farm Fresh Blog From Iowa Farm Bureau
And another farm group blog has been born. This time it’s Iowa Farm Bureau with the Farm Fresh Blog. Welcome to Farm Fresh, Iowa Farm Bureau’s blog about the people who bring you your food, fuel and fiber and the issues they face. With so much information available to consumers today, it can be daunting to separate fact from fiction. …
Pistachio Recall Website
Food recalls seem to be fairly frequent lately and it seems like the general public really doesn’t get good information about what is actually being recalled. I would blame that at least in part to journalists trying to be “sensational” with the effect of scaring the crap out of people who then tend to over react. Okay, got that out …
Farm Podcaster Tool
The farm podcaster who is all about quality may want to look into the Tascam DR-100. This bad boy looks pretty sweet to me. I like the fact that it has built-in XLR inputs. It’s a little larger than a Marantz PMD 620 (still on sale for $100 off!) but still small form factor. Records on an SD card. The …