Cindy and I are in post-NAMA recovery. However, we may be physically tired but we’re emotionally charged. Those of you in agricultural marketing and communications will be too once you hear this week’s program which features an interview with Curt Blades, Successful Farming. They just finished the 2009 Farmer Use of Media Study and Curt shares some of their findings. …
Rabobank Farm & Ranch Confidence Survey
Rabobank has released results of its 2009 Farm & Ranch Survey. A couple of highlight include: * More farmers are using risk management tools * 1/3 of farmers expect crop input costs to decrease * More farmers looking to buy used equipment Rabobank recently launched a survey to gauge farmers’ confidence, and found that, while farmers’ outlook on the economy …
Indiana Family Farms Debuts
Gary Truitt, Hoosier Ag Today, has unveiled a new ZimmComm-designed website called Indiana Family Farms. Consumers today are interested in knowing more about how their food is produced. Environmental, safety, and welfare issues are figuring more and more in consumer buying decisions. Yet, most Americans know very little about how their food is produced or the men and women who …
LeaveMyFoodAlone.org
I have not read the propsed H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 but I’ve sure seen a lot of online discussion about it. Farm blogger Alex Tiller sent me a note to alert people to a petition site called LeaveMyFoodAlone.org. As of March 31, 2009, we have received over 2500 signatures for the petition! (the site was launched …
4th graders spend a day with agriculture
212 fourth graders from schools in and around my hometown of Mitchell, S.D. enjoyed an educational day out at the Davison Country 4-H grounds on Tuesday. At the 2009 Mitchell Ag in the Classroom event, there were eight educational stops along the way. First, the fourth graders heard a speech by Central Electric about electrical line safety and how to …
Small Oil Well
I don’t know how many of these little oil wells I’ve seen driving around the countryside. Coming back from Kentucky this week I got up close and personal with one at a highway rest stop in southern Indiana. It was very windy out but you can get a good sense of what it’s like being close to one. Does anybody …
Green Field Work
I saw about 8 farm machines working in the field during a 400+ mile drive today through Missouri/Illinois/Indiana and Kentucky. Of those, 6 were green. Just in case you were wondering. I’d say that when it comes to being green (I just got another email release from another company proclaiming their green-ness) farmers and companies like John Deere have been …
Farm Field Work
It’s a beautiful day in mid Missouri so I got out on the Katy Trail and found that there’s some field work going on. As Jeff Caldwell put it on Twitter, “Man, is that a beautiful sight to see!” #farm. Amen. I hope we have a great spring planting season and thanks to all farmers for what they do. Picture …
Agriculture Week According To The Chairman
Welcome to Ag Week and the ZimmCast. This week we’re all about celebrating American agriculture and thanking our farmers and ranchers who feed and fuel the world. In this week’s program I spoke with Greg Webb, ADM, who is currently Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America. He says the purpose of this week and National Agriculture Day on March …
On the Road Again…
After a busy week of tests and projects, I finally headed out of Brookings to start SDSU’s Spring Break. While I’m not headed to Cancun like a lot of my classmates, I have a week of fun things planned to do, both work and play. While I was on my way home yesterday, I stopped at Schlagel Farms to work …