I guess it’s just a beef kind of day here on AgWired. I did have a little drive to Indianapolis thrown into the mix. I’ll be here for meetings tomorrow morning before returning home. Hence the light posting. I did get an announcement from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board about the Beefmobiles gearing up to hit the road again. These folks travel like an agriblogger and they’re invited to write to me on their travels. I’ll post them here.
Alane Blogs Chamberlain
As you may know we built a blog for the Missouri Beef Industry Council. I am happy to see the staff starting to use it to write about the activities they’re involved in. Like today when Alane Lidolph did a post about Chef Richard Chamberlain’s visit to St. Louis. And right before here Dawn Thurnau did a post about a Cook’s Chili Challenge they helped sponsor in Columbia, MO. Good stuff!
Cattleman Blogger
It almost seems like today’s cattle producer needs to be part IT professional. I’m guessing that the beef from these animals will be traceable no matter what happens down the road.
Swine Transportation and Handling Program
In its first year of delivery, enrollment in the Assiniboine Community College’s Swine Transportation and Handling program in Brandon, Manitoba has topped 200. The College launched the program about one year ago and so far, over 200 drivers have completed the training. The course has two components, the National Pork Board’s Trucker Quality Assurance program in the United States and a Canadian component developed by the ACC.
Bioheat Your Home
If you’re using oil to heat with you might as well do it the enviro-friendly way with Bioheat. It’s also United States and farmer friendly.
Zimfo Bites
- FMC Corporation and Dow AgroSciences LLC announce the companies have entered into a long-term supply agreement, whereby FMC will have access to cloransulam-methyl and Dow AgroSciences will have access to sulfentrazone for the commercialization of premixes involving the two active ingredients for weed control in soybeans. Each company will launch their own brand of herbicide for the 2007 growing season, Dow AgroSciences under the Sonic brand name and FMC under the Authority First DF brand name.
- CNH AMERICA LLC, announced today that a majority of its employees belonging to the International Association of Machinists in Fargo, North Dakota voted to ratify a new five and a half year contract, effective November 1, 2006 through April 27, 2012. The agreement was reached by the company and the union on October 30, 2006, and ratified by a majority of its 520 IAM represented employees today.
- Research conducted by several Midwest universities confirms that hybrids with the Herculex(R) RW Rootworm protection trait or Herculex(R) XTRA gene were consistently superior to other corn rootworm management options — transgenic or soil insecticides. In 14 university trials, Pioneer hybrids with the Herculex RW gene were twice as effective in protecting against root damage, on average, as hybrids with the YieldGard Rootworm gene developed by Monsanto.
- Kubota Tractor Corporation announces a global Kubota decision to approve the use of “B5” biodiesel fuels in specified Kubota diesel-powered products. Biodiesel fuels, most often offered in a blended-petroleum format, are derived from vegetable oils such as soybean and are offered in the United States as an alternative source for energy. The approved blends of biodiesel fuel for use in Kubota diesel-powered products range up to a “B5” blend that consists of 5% biodiesel and 95% petroleum diesel.
- Auto technicians and consumers now have an additional resource for ethanol information at the click of a mouse. The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council has developed a cutting-edge online training course to provide useful information on the homegrown renewable fuel. But the interactive training module is far from a dry technical manual. Animations, illustrations, and audio narration contribute to the learning experience.
- Zagat Survey today released the results of its new 2007 America’s Top Restaurants Survey. The guide, covering 1,389 eateries in 42 major cities, is based on 21 million meals experienced by over 123,000 surveyors.
More Meatrix
The next installment of The Meatrix is out. It’s called Meatrix II 1/2.
ISU Vet Students Earn Scholarships
Here’s a couple of ISU students who got the win while playing in St. Paul.
New Record for Monthly Visitors
October was another record month for traffic on AgWired. Our statistics show over 15,000 unique visitors and almost 100,000 page views.
I am not only amazed but thankful to all the people who visit, comment, share, email ideas and provide their support. I don’t know where we’ll wind up in the future but I promise to keep bringing you all the information I can.
I’m sure you know we haven’t done any formal advertising of AgWired. Other than my periodic email to those of you who are in my personal contact database I’ve got to believe that good old word of mouth is spreading the message that we’re doing something unique and I hope valuable to a growing audience.
We’re going to keep on making AgWired a more and more valuable online destination for anyone involved in, or interested in agricultural marketing. Keep an eye on us.
New Grain Scale
As long as nobody wants to weigh me I’m okay. However, if you want a pure grain weighing product, here’s a new one. I imagine a lot of these are in use right now.