I spent last night as the watchman, I mean watchwoman, over the county fair grounds during the Davison County 4-H Achievement Days being held this week in Mitchell, S.D. This job meant I had to keep the cattle, pigs, sheep and goats in their proper place, which is sometimes no easy task. Over the night, I tied up 15 calves, …
Geared with New Gadgets
Thanks to some much appreciated financial support from graduation monies, I have purchased some new gadgets to help me get my start. I bought a new MacBook and a Zoom H4 Recorder. Now the trick is getting accustomed to these new gadgets, and fast! A busy writer doesn’t have much time for reading instruction manuals, right? And, now I have …
Twitter on the Today Show
I caught The Today Show this morning, and I was excited to see an entire segment dedicated to the Twitter phenomenon! Some people love it; some people hate it. However, there is no denying that this social network is here to stay! The Today Show segment explains it as a cross between text and blogging with 140 characters. It goes …
Basic Outreach Methods
So often, we try to create elaborate marketing campaigns using the latest technologies and marketing techniques. While there are countless new and exciting ways to spread the message about your place of business, sometimes the most simple ways have been used for years. Maybe that’s why they are still around in spite of the latest and greatest ways to do …
Last Look at Farm Machinery Show
Here are a few parting shots and thoughts from the National Farm Machinery Show. First up, this cute little pup (I think his name was Mitchell) hopped up on the New Holland Boomer 8N for a great photo op. He did get tired of the attention pretty quickly, but not before his owners and several by-standers snapped him sitting in …
Social Media 101
“Social Media 101: What you wanted to know but where afraid to ask,” was the title of the afternoon session today at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference. The interactive session was given by Staci Garcia, Public Relations for United Dairy Industry of Michigan and Sara Long, Michigan State University Communications Manager. The session was given to dairy partners of …
Do you iGoogle? I do!
When I was working as an intern in Minneapolis this past summer, one of my co-workers would always stop by my office to share her latest techno-gadget love. I will admit that I’m not often at the front of the pack when it comes to technology, and I often avoid trying something new if I’m not sure of the benefits. …
Instant Feedback
How many times have you been at a meeting and had to fill out some survey at the end giving your evaluation of how the meeting went and each individual presentation? That would be everyone. And then the people who did the meeting have to get all those pieces of paper back and add up all the responses and take …
When Did You Use One of These Last?
Here’s something you just don’t see much any more. Telephone booths. I remember when we used to be able to unscrew the mouthpieces and plug our recorders into them with alligator clips to send audio back home. I also remember moving to Missouri and stopping at one of these in north Illinois during the winter to call home when the …
More Monsanto Sustainability
The potential for increasing yields exists everywhere if you ask Michael Doane. Michael is the Sustainability Team Lead for Monsanto. He spoke at the Monsanto discussion on sustainability on the 2008 Farm Progress Show last week. After his speech, I caught up with him and we spoke more about how he thinks the world will answer the global food demands …