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 …
GROWMARK Helping Cultivate Master Farmers
Rick Nelson is not just a farmer from Paxton, Illinois – he’s a Master Farmer – and as such, he is helping to cultivate other master farmers in the state. I talked with Rick at the Farm Progress Show in the GROWMARK tent, since Rick is also Vice Chairman of GROWMARK, and we talked about the Cultivating Master Farmers program …
USFRA Releases Consumer/Farmer Survey Results
Today the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance released the results of a survey they conducted in July/August. They surveyed 2,417 consumers and 1,002 farmers/ranchers, both on a nationwide basis. The graphic below shows a comparison of the top five things consumers want more information about with the top five things farmers/ranchers think are most important to educate consumers about. You …
Canadian Agriculture 101
While attending the 2011 IFAJ Congress one of our panel discussions was titled, “Canadian Agriculture 101.” First up was Jack Wilkinson, farm community leader and member of the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame, pictured at the podium along with Richard Doyle, Executive Director, Dairy Farmers of Canada and President, International Dairy Federation and Jay Bradshaw, Syngenta Canada. I thought I’d …