The ZimmCast takes an Irish turn this week. I visited with agricultural journalist, Damien O’Reilly. Damien works for the Irish National Television and Radio Broadcaster, RTE where he hosts a weekly show called, “Countrywide.” The show is the evolution of “Farmweek” which was very production agriculture focused. The change in the show allows for more rural lifestyle content while still …
STP 300 Winner Justin Aligaier
The inaugural STP 300 Nationwide Series race is in the books. The winner is Justin Aligaier, Brandt Racing, in the #31 car. He actually ran out of fuel right after crossing the finish line. These guys plan it right down to the end! The Family Farmer/Marquis Energy car driven by Kenny Wallace finished 7th. And since all these cars are …
Master AgVocate Kenny Wallace
I finally caught up to NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace today during the hospitality event for Illinois corn and soybean growers. Here’s Kenny revving up the crowd before afternoon qualifying. I’ve been following some race car advocates for clean burning ethanol for a while but I think Kenny has them all beat. I wish I had recorded his remarks to the …
Marquis Energy Sees Great NASCAR Ethanol Opportunity
The President of Marquis Energy is Mark Marquis, seen here introducing NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace to the crowd attending yesterday’s event held at the Hennepin ethanol plant. I spoke with Mark and learned that Marquis Energy is a real family type business that he had built after growing up on a family farm in this area and branching out into …
Dealing With Disruptive Change In Dairy Industry
Disruptive change sounds disturbing. However, perhaps it’s more of a challenge. Mandi McLeod, System Insights, Ltd., New Zealand, talked about it and its impact on the dairy industry during the Alltech International Symposium. She’s seen here being interviewed by Ireland’s RTE voice Damien O’Reilly. I spoke with Mandi after Damien to learn what is going on with dairy farming in …
Hunting The Wild Cicada
I don’t know about where you are but the cicadas have made their presence known here in Missouri. Hunting is not the right word. I just walked out in the front yard to take a picture of this bad boy. They really just started showing up. Nothing, then boom, they’re everywhere. I’ve passed white fences and walls that are covered …
Alltech Gets New Media
This week’s program features a conversation I had at last week’s Alltech International Symposium with Billy Frey, Digita Marketing Manager. Billy was on the program with a session titled, “Precision Marketing: Don’t “get what you pay for,” only pay for what you get. His session was part of a new educational track called the New Ag Network. This track was …
Alltech Cafe Citadelle
Alltech is a company that’s doing a lot of things. I’ve mentioned their Haiti aid project which includes Alltech Cafe Citadelle, 100% pure arabica shade-grown, hand-picked, Haitian Coffee. At this week’s Alltech Symposium I got an update on how that project is going from Chris Gayton, Project Development Manager. He says that Alltech wanted to do something that would have …
Crisis Management Coalition
Peter Kerr has worked with a lot of people in agriculture and he found that many are not prepared for a crisis and can’t afford to hire a public relations firm to help them deal with one when it happens. So what he’s doing is bringing together farmers and agribusinesses in a coalition to “help each other out.” He has …
Missouri Ag Helps Tornado Victims
Like so many others in this state, Missouri farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses are doing what they can to help the victims of the tornado in Joplin. In less than 24 hours yesterday, the Missouri Department of Agriculture collected more than $19,000 in donations for relief efforts. Staff members from the Missouri Department of Agriculture spearheaded a donation drive for the …