The merger between Farmers Cooperative Company (FC) and West Central Cooperative has been officially approved by a vote of the members. The merger will become effective on April 1, 2016. “In this merger vote, our members were presented with a rare opportunity to combine two strong, financially-stable cooperatives in a merger of equals to maintain local ownership for generations to …
Special Edition Gator Unveiled by Deere
A special edition of the Gator utility vehicle is being offered by John Deere. The XUV825i was designed with livestock and crop producers in mind and offers extra storage, making tools organized and easily accessible. It also features two cargo tool boxes and LED roof lights for greater visibility. “The Special Edition Gator was designed for those customers who require …
OSHA Overreach Halted By Congress
In July the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent a memorandum to end the exemption of retail stores to the Process Safety Management (PSM). PSM is a set of procedural, operational and organizational standards to intended to prevent the release of hazardous chemicals at manufacturing facilities. The rescinding of this exemption would force virtually all ag retailers that store …
Merger Leads to Executive Changes at DuPont
DuPont has announced several executive leadership changes as a result of last week’s confirmed merger with Dow. James C. Collins, executive vice president, will lead the DuPont Agriculture business segment. Marc Doyle has been named executive vice president and will lead the Electronics & Communications, Industrial Biosciences, Nutrition & Health, Performance Materials and Safety & Protection business segments. Richard C. …
ZimmCast on AgVocating with Bayer CropScience
Welcome to ZimmCast number 495! Wow, just five more until we hit the big 5-00! This week’s ZimmCast is from last week’s American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2015 and Seed Expo and it’s about AgVocating, a word that has become a part of the agricultural dictionary in the past couple of years and has a pretty obvious meaning combining …
Why Agribusinesses Should Have a Crisis Plan
A recent ZimmComm poll asked the question, Does your agribusiness/operation have a crisis communications plan?” and I was surprised and honestly a bit disturbed as a former public relations person, that so many respondents didn’t believe a crisis communications plan was necessary. And this in light of the rise in undercover videos, avian flu outbreaks, meatless Mondays, (cow farts causing) …
ASTA FuSE Blazing New Trails
The American Seed Trade Association’s Future Seed Executives (FuSE) subcommittee is blazing new trails for 2016. FuSE chair Sarah Neuharth with DuPont Pioneer says the goal of the committee is to educate and support seed industry professionals with fewer than seven years of seed industry experience. “I think a lot of people don’t understand or recognize that FuSE can be …
#ARA15 Continues To Grow
Leroy Startz, Chair of the ARA Conference Planning Committee since 2009, spoke with Chuck Zimmerman while at the ARA Conference & Expo in Palm Desert, CA recently. After wrapping up a busy week, Startz was pleased with the overall event. He highlighted the importance of early planning to put together a successful, relevant week for ag retailers. Early planning helps …
LibertyLink Real Yield Game Winner
Farmers are already winning by playing the Bayer CropScience LibertyLink Real Yield Game. I spoke with winner Dane Kief, Rankin, IL and asked him how he learned about the LibertyLink Real Yield Game. He said, “Like a lot of other farmers I spend a lot of time on Twitter. I was just kind of scrolling through and saw it.” Dane …
Notter Discusses Millennials at #ARA15
While at ARA, Jamie Notter, Culture That Works, gave a presentation on organizational culture to the retailers attending. He specifically spoke about the value in attracting millennials and how to build a successful working relationship with them as most management teams have an older management style that millennials don’t relate to. Attracting millennials as employees or customers is less about …