Each October since 1964, cooperatives across the United States have been celebrating the cooperative difference, business model and the contributions of cooperatives to their communities, during National Cooperative Month. One of the best examples of an agricultural cooperative that makes a difference is GROWMARK, based in Bloomington, Illinois, and chairman of the board Dan Kelley says cooperatives touch our lives …
Novus Hosts St. Louis Agribusiness Club
The St. Louis Agribusiness Club held its lunch meeting today at Novus International headquarters. It has been a while since I’ve had a chance to attend one of these meetings but a “bye” week from the agriblogging highway made it work out. Our speaker was Thad Simons, Novus International President/CEO. Thad talked about the challenges of feeding a growing world …
Charleston|Orwig A Year Later
It was just a year ago that Cindy interviewed Mark Gale, Charleston|Orwig, while attending World Dairy Expo. That started a series of ZimmCasts with the leadership of advertising and public relations agencies. Now we’ve come full circle. At this year’s World Dairy Expo I visited with Brittany Unterweger, Account Supervisor for the agency. The agency was having a very busy …
Badger NAMA Meets At World Dairy Expo
Badger NAMA, the local chapter of the Nation Agri-Marketing Association, held its annual reception/meeting during the 2011 World Dairy Expo. Here’s chapter president, Travis Maier, Morgan & Myers. I spoke with him about how the chapter is doing. He says chapter membership steady at over 120 and has actually been growing. This meeting is one of their main ones during …
Senator Pat Roberts Comments at John Deere Opening
You can always count on Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) to liven up any gathering and leave them laughing. At the John Deere Olathe opening last Friday, Sen. Roberts did just that. “Anyone know a good copyright lawyer?” the senator asked as he took the podium after speeches by Deere’s John Lagemann and Dave Everitt and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. “I’ve …
National Beef Ambassadors Ready To Travel
ZimmComm loves beef. That’s why we are a sponsor of the National Beef Ambassador program. This past weekend I was a judge for the competition although I had to do it from ZimmComm World Headquarters and not in Wooster, OH. It was very interesting seeing how the contestants responded to an anti-beef blog post. That was one of the things …
John Deere Opens Olathe, Kansas Facility
John Deere officially opened a sparkling new LEED-certified sales and marketing center in Olathe, Kansas on Friday with the help of employees, government officials, and other special guests. “This 126,000 square foot facility has been laid out to enhance the work environment for employees and has the most up-to-date technology so we can communicate and train work groups around the …
Corn Grower Leaders Reflect on Serving Industry
As the National Corn Growers Association prepares to start a new fiscal year this weekend, some old faces (not OLD old!) are being replaced with new ones on the Corn Board. “Off the Cob” podcaster Cathryn Wojcicki did interviews with three retiring board members to find out what they learned and experienced through service and to ask for any advice …
Fall Burndown Will Help Start 2012 Off Right
To say that 2011 has been a rough year is an understatement, but the combines are rolling and the soybean harvest is underway. The first harvest figures for the season were reported by USDA this week and it is running behind schedule with just 5% complete so far. Nearly every state is behind both last year and the five year …
Meet New NAFB Executive Director
One of the major agricultural communications activities of the year is coming soon. It’s the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) convention taking place November 8-11 at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, MO. This will be the first convention for Tom Brand as new NAFB Executive Director. But it is far from his first convention since Tom has …