Agriculture Secretary Vilsack today renewed a historic agreement with U.S. dairy producers to accelerate the adoption of innovative waste-to-energy projects and energy efficiency improvements on U.S. dairy farms, both of which help producers diversify revenues and reduce utility expenses on their operations. The pact extends a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. “Through this renewed commitment, USDA …
Some Agriculture Heart Humor
“Humor for the Heart of Agriculture” was just what we needed to conclude the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference. To give it to us we listened to Agriculture’s Professional Funny Man, Damian Mason. Damian also conducted a breakout session titled, “Agriculture: Trends, Topics and Tomorrow.” You see, he’s more than just funny, he can get a little serious too since he has …
Chicken Issues in the News
The US Poultry & Egg Association served as another sponsor of the Chicken Media Summit, held in north eastern North Carolina last week. Members of the media were welcomed with warm, sunny skies as members of the poultry industry took us under their wings to share a little of their passion for the chicken community. After a wonderful meal at …
VAULT HP Fixes More Nitrogen for Soybeans
One of the biggest concerns for any ag operation is getting the most out of your inputs. During the recent tour of BASF‘s newly acquired Becker Underwood St.Joseph, Mo. seed facility, Russ Berndt, product manager for legumes and northern crops for Becker Underwood, talked about the symbiotic relationship soybeans have with the living organism rhizobia, a soil bacteria that fixes …
Unleash Your Creativity
The second general session at the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference was all about “Unleashing Creativity” with Josh Linkner. Josh just happened to be walking by the ZimmComm booth in the Connection Point when I had a chance to visit with him to get a take-away message from his keynote presentation. Josh told me that we are often faced with what seems …
What Consumers Want
The National Chicken Council was one of the sponsors for the recent Chicken Media Summit held in New Bern, North Carolina. The event opened the doors for media to tour the complete life of a broiler and ask questions from experts from the poultry community. I sat down with Senior Vice President of the National Chicken Council, Bill Roenigk, after …
Why GROWMARK Loves NAMA
At the National Agri-Marketing Conference last week I had the chance to catch up with Amy Bradford, GROWMARK manager of corporate communications, to find out why NAMA is important to them. Amy says the opportunity to network with others in the industry, but even more important is the support of future agri-marketing professionals. “NAMA is very supportive and committed to …
Let’s Have a Digilogue
“Digilogue — Where High Tech Meets High Touch” was the title of the opening keynote presentation at the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference. Our speaker was Anders Sorman-Nilsson, Thinque. Anders spoke to us about three major trends impacting the agricultural economy now and into the future. Those include the idea of digital disruption, that even though everything is being digitized we can’t …
Update on BASF Becker Underwood Integration
Becker Underwood and BASF hosted ag media representatives on Friday for a tour of the plant facility in St.Joseph, Missouri with an update on inoculant and polymer technology, as well as progress on the integration of Becker Underwood into the new Functional Crop Care division of BASF. BASF officially closed the deal to acquire Becker Underwood last November and announced …
Changes in Agricultural Marketing Agencies
We’re back in the swing of things at ZimmComm World Headquarters. Actually, make that in post-Agri-Marketing Conference recovery mode. Cindy and I have a number of interviews to share with you this week from the conference and I’ll get started in this week’s program. I sat down with Lynn Henderson, AgriMarketing Magazine, toward the end of the conference and talked …