During the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Washington Watch program we had entertainment provided by the Second Amendments. I almost forgot I had this video on my iPhone. But it’s worth sharing. If you like Dire Straits, Sultans of Swing, then listen to the Second Amendments version!
2013 NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album
New on Agri-Pulse this week:
Dr. Steve Meyer is president of Paragon Economics. He consults with the National Pork Board and the National Pork Producers Council. As an economist, he examines the Smithfield Foods sale to a Chinese company and speculates on whether it will be given regulatory approval. He looks at the impact of such a move on grain and pork producers in the United States. Meyer also discusses the impact of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) on production facilities.
Listen to the Agri-Pulse Open Mic interview with Dr. Meyer here.
WordPress is ten years old and ZimmComm has been with it for almost nine of those years! AgWired was our first WordPress website, converted from Blogger. We saw a good thing and ran with it and have not only built many WordPress websites for ourselves and our clients but I think we’ve turned many others in the industry onto the best online publishing platform there is.
I had a chance to meet Matt Mullenweg, one of the founders, early on in this agriblogging journey. He was thrilled to see his product fueling the agricultural communications business. I’ve learned a lot from him and others and continue to do so as WordPress has developed along with all of communications technology. Robert, our web guru, cut his teeth on WordPress and the technology behind it and continues to work with us since that start of what is now the AgWired community. Without WordPress and people like Matt and Robert I don’t think we’d be where we are today.
Here’s an excerpt of a post Matt wrote about the milestone.
It’s been ten years since we started this thing, and what a long way we’ve come. From a discussion between myself and Mike Little about forking our favorite blogging software, to powering 18% of the web. It’s been a crazy, exciting, journey, and one that won’t stop any time soon.
At ten years, it’s fun to reflect on our beginnings. We launched WordPress on 27th May 2003, but that wasn’t inception. Go back far enough, and you can read a post by Michel Valdrighi who, frustrated by the self-hosted blogging platforms available, decided to write his own software; “b2, a PHP+MySQL alternative to Blogger and GreyMatter.” b2 was easy to install, easy to configure, and easy for developers to extend. Of all the blogging platforms out there, b2 was the right one for me: I could write my content and get it on the web quickly and painlessly.
You can read the rest of his post here.
Charleston|Orwig recently added two veteran food industry communicators to its growing team. Katie Pinke (pictured right), a former marketing and information director for the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, was named business director. Lisa Bryant (pictured below left) brings nearly 20 years of communications and integrated marketing experience, with an emphasis in the beef industry, to her new role as public relations senior account executive.
Pinke’s previous experience in agriculture, food marketing consultancy and in markets close to consumers will help C|O grow its business across the food chain. Bryant’s expertise in the beef and dairy industries add even more depth to C|O’s animal agriculture team.
It’s that time of year again and as the crop insurance reporting deadline nears, farmers may find that using precision ag data can simplify the process. During planting season, growers are encouraged to use their Integra display from Ag Leader to record accurate planting data and then import this information into SMS software.
Once in SMS, reports can be created that include important insurance field details such as acres, dates and crops planted. With SMS, that planting information can be directly exported to a crop insurance provider. The insurance provider can then import this data directly into their reporting system, often times pre-populating some of the required reports. Using SMS for crop insurance reporting is simple and saves time.
Listen to more as Ag Leader’s Luke James, Software Sales Manager, explains.
Listen to James explain
Or you can watch more here.
Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.
Flickr is certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world! At least we think so. Last week Flickr unveiled a whole new look and features that we know AgWired fans will love. Let me explain.
The biggest change is that we’ll now be uploading our full size photo files. That means you don’t have to email to get them. Just click on the photo you want, then right click on it to choose the size you want, including “original.” Now it really is the original. Of course, if you have a problem you can always contact us for the original. We love to share.
Another change is the way Flickr displays photos now. No more little tiny thumbnails. They’re a lot bigger making it easier to pick photos you like or want to use for whatever purpose.
So, since we started using Flickr in 2005 we’ve uploaded almost 92,000 photos that are in 418 event sets (average of 52 sets/yr). And we’ve got almost 4.4 million views of these photos. That’s just the views in Flickr. Many of them are shared and see in many other places. That just seems like a lot of views to me. One thing is for sure. We’ll keep taking photos and we’ll keep sharing them.
Before we get to our new ZimmPoll let’s look at the results of our latest one which asked the question, “ Is agriculture doing a bad job of marketing?”
Our poll results: Sixty-five percent said Yes, Consumers Losing Trust, twenty-one percent said Yes, Industry Thinks It’s Not Needed, twelve percent said No, Consumers Trust Food Supply, and three percent said No, Industry Is Doing A Great Job.
Wow. That’s a huge percentage thinking we’re doing a bad job of marketing. Do you agree with these results? If so, why? What is wrong with the way marketing is being done in the ag sector? Do you think that some sensationalized stories in the media are contributing to a feeling that we are doing a bad job of marketing? If we are doing a really bad job of marketing is it hurting any farmer or company bottom line?
Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What is MOST important when buying a tractor?” Today, it seems like tractors come with as many options as a new car or truck. Many of these options are for comfort and flexibility. When you are shopping for a new tractor are you just looking for the basics or do you want and need all the new bells & whistles? Let us know.
ZimmPoll is sponsored by 
.
Look for some cool new multimedia additions to the on-line version of GROWMARK Spirit magazine coming this year.
“We’re looking at taking Spirit magazine to another platform,” said editor Cassie Becker, noting that it is currently available in an eReader format “where you turn the pages and that’s about it” but they are moving to the ZMags platform which provides more opportunity for interactivity. “This software allows us to input video, photo albums, hyperlinks, any kind of ‘clickability’ in the document that you can,” Cassie said.
The main launch date for the complete Spirit overhaul is December, but Cassie says some of the changes will be implemented before that time. “We’re looking to introduce some of these new features slowly over time,” she said. The magazine is published every two months and you can find it by going to the GROWMARK media center and clicking on the Spirit tab.
Find out more in my interview with Cassie here: Cassie Becker, GROWMARK Communications
Team Beef members compete in a variety of activities like the Boston Marathon which demonstrate the value of beef as a nutrition source. In addition to Team Beef members competing in Boston this year, the National Beef Ambassadors were also on hand. I was very glad to learn that our Ambassadors had left shortly before the tragedy that happened there this year! The Ambassadors were also in town to participate in the John Hancock Fitness Expo where they handed out beef sticks and talked with attendees. Here’s a report on how healthy, nutritious beef is fueling the team.
