Propane, Running All Around My Brain

Chuck Zimmerman

PropaneThe folks at PERC (Propane Education & Research Council) have teamed up with AgWeb.com to offer growers a tool to compare energy costs. The release says AgWeb.com has about 250,000 visitors per month. That’s a lot for any website much less one targeting agriculture. AgWired’s getting there but we’re not that high. So what about all those growers who want to use this tool but don’t or can’t get online? They can order the ag cost estimator in a printed format by contacting PERC at (866) 840-1075 and requesting item #PRC001020!

Ag Groups

Meat Me In Brisbane

Chuck Zimmerman

World Meat CongressWho wants to sponsor me to cover the 2006 World Meat Congress? Huh? Huh? This sounds like my kind of convention. That’s what “congress” means in other countries, “convention.” How about breakfast, lunch, appetizers, dinner and it’s all meat!!! That would be my kind of menu for a convention. No need to have carrots, celery sticks, etc. Just a bunch of meat on a stick. Of course you need something cold to wash it down and for my money I’d make it a XXXX or a Fosters.

Ag Groups

Argentine/Peru Ranches Tour

Chuck Zimmerman

National Cattlemen's Beef AssociationYeah, right. Uh, we’re going to go to Peru to check out the uh, ranches. “Honey, it will help enrich our understanding of global agriculture and maybe we can learn some new techniques to apply here on our ranch.”

Ag Groups, Beef

Normally I Love Microsoft

Chuck Zimmerman

Please excuse the fact that I didn’t post more today. At about 12:30pm I noticed a serious Microsoft Word issue on my desktop computer that is completely baffling. It’s now 6 hours later. I’ve spent over 2 of those on the phone with 4 different Microsoft technicians who waver between a software update problem and that it’s not their problem. Unbelievable! If you’re using Microsoft Office I wouldn’t recommend updating with the latest Microsoft Word Security update like I did this morning. One of the techs admitted that that update might have caused this problem. Might? *&$^#)*%&

Uncategorized

Listen To The Expo Marketing Manager

Chuck Zimmerman

Chuck & Lisa BehnkeHow’d you like to be responsible for all the media and marketing for a farm show that attracts about 65,000 people? We’re talking international reporters and visitors. Well in the case of World Dairy Expo it’s all the work of Lisa Behnke, Marketing Manager (pictured to the right of yours truly). She’s hard at work now getting ready for all the media representatives who will be covering Expo. Of course she also does other things and I think you’ll be able to tell from my interview with her that she’s proud of World Dairy Expo and committed to making it even better.

Audio, Farm Shows, World Dairy Expo

Valent Not In Spray Oil Business

Chuck Zimmerman

ValentHere’s the kind of story you don’t see often in a news release. Valent announced yesterday that it has “exited the spray oil business and will no longer market Volck Supreme Spray Oil, Volck Clear or Premium Ag 100.” Usually you get an announcement that a company is now doing something, not withdrawing. Interesting. I applaud them for making an important announcement and using a news release to do so. This is a story and worthy of a release!

Agribusiness

Colorado Steaks Are Blazin’

Chuck Zimmerman

Blazin' Colorado SteaksThe National Beef Cookoff is over and there’s lots of winners and prizes. The big winner is: Linda Morten, TX with the “BEST OF BEEF” GRAND PRIZE in the GRILLED BEEF CATEGORY with her recipe called “Blazin’ Colorado Steak.” It’s what’s going to be supper in the Zimmerman household this weekend! Instead of going into anymore about the contest and all the winners, etc. I think you just need to add this to your cookbook:

Ag Groups, Beef

Make Your Website Un-Ugly

Chuck Zimmerman

This week I’ve been involved in some interesting discussions on website design so I thought I’d pass along a couple links to some interesting information if you’re involved in a web project. Thanks to a link I found on Paul Conley’s blog you can read some very interesting research on a Poynter Institute study called Eyetrack III. This was research about news sites which was done with 46 people. Lots of good stuff in here. This is from Paul’s post called “The Ugly Truth About Ugly Sites.”

Internet