We get very few visitors to ZimmComm World Headquarters here in mid Missouri, but newlyweds Tom and Leah (Guffey) Banister stopped by Saturday night after visiting Chuck in the hospital. They were in Columbia, MO for the weekend and drove down to visit – thanks! They feel bad because it was at their wedding in Springfield, IL on July 4th …

Top ten things the student correspondents learned at the International Farm Management Congress last week: 10. Make sure the microphone is plugged in all the way when recording an audio interview. 9. When the British woman says she does not want her picture taken, she really means it! 8. Always be a half an hour early when waiting to on …

Since my bout with pneumonia was “outed” last week I thought I’d start out this week with an update for y’all. To start with, I’m feeling a lot better. Thank you to all who have expressed their well wishes and offered their prayers. It has been rough and I won’t deny it. But I should be home this week and …

The 17th annual International Farm Management Congress (IFMA17) drew to a close Friday at The Bone Student Center on the campus of Illinois State University. During the conference, IMFA17 members were privy to a slew of academic presentations from students and professors from the 30 countries that were represented. IMFA17 also took to the road with stops at the Chicago …

Bob Swires, President of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, presented the association’s mid-year survey Friday at the 17th annual International Farm Management Congress Friday. Here are the findings for the first half of 2009: 1. Illinois Society members indicated that land values fell slightly during the first half of 2009. For excellent quality farmland, land …

The International Farm Management Association 17 (IMFA 17) Congress, held at Illinois State University this week, came to a close on Friday, July 24 with a unique keynote address from Dr. Lowell B. Catlett. His presentation, “New Frontiers that Change Everything,” was an eye-opening discussion about the future of farm management in connection to changes that have developed within society. …

MEDIA ALERT! Who: Bob Swires, AFM, Swires Land and Management What: The Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraiser will release their Mid-Year Survey of Illinois land values for 2009. Did the value of land increase or decrease? Bob Swires of AFM and Swires Land and Management will tell all during the final session of International Farm Management …

Amin Ismail Abdou of the National Research Centre in Egypt presented the abstract of his paper on the role of Egyptian women in agriculture during Wednesday’s afternoon session of the 17th International Farm Management Association Congress. Abdou acknowledged that Egyptian women have significantly improved their standards of living over the years. While the women’s suffrage movement during the 1920s and …

John Hewlett of the University of Wyoming teamed up with Jeffrey Tranel and
 Rodney Sharp of Colorado State University to develop a series of CD- and
 web-based courses to help producers manage different kinds of risk after
 studying the demographics of small-scale farming operations in the states of
Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. The men presented their work yesterday at the International …

It’s not only the IFMA17 members that are traveling around the state of Illinois this week, their spouses are getting in on the act to. After participating in an Abraham Lincoln educational tour earlier this week, that included stops at the David Davis Mansion, The McLean County Museum of History and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the husbands …