MO Governor Matt Blunt has requested a disaster declaration for farmers in over 100 counties in Missouri due to drought conditions. In this week’s CornTalk, the weekly interview program of the Missouri Corn Growers Association, our guest is Judy Grundler with the Missouri Department of Agriculture who discusses the crop conditions around the state, what the crop losses mean for Missouri, and the details of the crop disaster declaration.
NAFB Convention Registration Available
If you want to attend this year’s National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention you can register online. The convention will be held as usual at the Westin Crown Plaza in Kansas City, MO, November 9-11.
Some NAMA News
If you’re a National Agri-Marketing Association member you may already know this if you read your NAMA e-News. If you’re not a member then . . . (become one!)
2005 Agroterrorism Assembly
Agroterrorism is a hot topic right now. Aon Corporation looks like they not only have a handle on the issue but are being very proactive in helping create public dialogue.
Energy Legislation Good News For Pioneer
I haven’t mentioned that President Bush signed the Energy bill into law earlier this week since you’ve probably seen it all over the news. However, it has a big impact on agribusiness and ultimately marketing for companies like Pioneer Hi-Bred. You know it means a lot to groups like the National Corn Growers Association, among many others but I haven’t seen many company releases until now. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with all this push for renewable fuel. Some are already predicting that we’ll see more production and use than the legislation mandates.
Monsanto Completes Enviro-Chem Sale
Monsanto announced this deal in April and it looks like they finally got it done.
Use Google News As A Clipping Service
Want an inexpensive news clipping service? Want to keep up with the news on a specific subject? Have you tried Google News? For a while now you’ve been ableto set up a Google News Alert for any keywords which generates an email to you with links to stories Google find for those words. You can have it set up for delivery as it happens, once a day or once a week.
Iraq Seed Industry Needs Help
I don’t know if this provides some opportunity for a U-S business but according to the latest FAO release there’s a real shortage of quality seed in Iraq. Perhaps some of our companies here could help out? Anyone know of this already being done?
Blogosphere Behavior Analyzed
Now for some serious research on the online activity of blogs. The folks at Comscore Networks have released the results of a study that you might find interesting. It doesn’t have a breakout for farmers but I think you will gain some insight into even their media usage from this. I am still asked by professional marketing people “what is a blog?” and even after explaining I’m sure some of the folks I’ve spoken with still wonder if anyone would visit a “blog.” Well they do and in a serious and growing way. For example, in this study they report a 45 % increase in visits from internet users to the 400 blog domains they analyzed in the last year! I found this study thanks to a link on the Fast Company weblog. Here’s some tidbits from their news release and you can also view the full report here.
Cows As Living Billboards
Not only is this an interesting way to advertise but it’s in my home county of Sarasota, FL. I was alerted to the story on Adrants and the images and story information comes from NBC6.net. Basically the Golden Palace online casino dyed the cows and to make the PETA people happy they dyed “Go Veg” on the other side. The owner says “the cows are just happy they weren’t branded.”