New Holland & NASCAR Salute American Military

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland NASCARNew Holland is partnering with NASCAR in an “American Salute” to recognize the courage, service and sacrifice of our military and their families.

The picture is Champ, the New Holland tractor hood, autographed by NASCAR 2012 Sprint Cup champions. It is being auctioned off by the NASCAR Foundation in support of veterans and their families. Proceeds are being donated to the Fisher House Foundation.

To learn more about the program I visited with Dan Valen, Segment Marketing Manager, Pro Work Tools, for New Holland about the project which he says has a very personal meaning to him: Interview with Dan Valen

Here’s more on the program.

Visitors to New Holland’s True Blue Salute website are invited to show their appreciation to our military heroes by writing a “thank you” letter to a member of the Armed Forces. For each ‘thank you” letter sent, New Holland will donate $1, up to $10,000, to the Fisher House Foundation. The non-profit Fisher House Foundation provides a “home away from home” for military families to be close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness or injury.

The Fisher House Foundation will also receive proceeds from the auction of a New Holland compact tractor hood, autographed by the winning drivers of sixteen memorable 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Bearing the signatures by many of NASCAR’s top drivers, the hood, nicknamed “Champ”, crisscrossed the country from race to race to be autographed in Victory Lane by 2012 Sprint Cup race winners. Autographs include those of Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion, and Matt Kenseth, winner of the history-making 2012 Daytona 500. Additional autographs include some of the sports’ best drivers, such as: Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, and Tony Stewart. “Champ” will be auctioned on The NASCAR Foundation website at NASCAR.com/foundation.
“It is fitting that this tractor hood, signed by NASCAR champions, be auctioned in support of our nation’s champions, our Armed Forces members,” says Mark Hooper, Director of Marketing for New Holland in North America. “New Holland is honored to join with NASCAR in demonstrating our appreciation and support of our military and their families through the An American Salute program, and contributing to the outstanding work being done on behalf of our military through the Fisher House Foundation.” Read More

Agribusiness, New Holland, Tractor

AGree Likes Senate Immigration Bill for Ag

Cindy Zimmerman

agreeFood and agricultural policy organization AGree sent a letter to Senators Monday urging them to pass the immigration reform bill approved by the Judiciary Committee in order to provide a stable workforce for American agriculture.

The bill “presents a huge opportunity for foreign-born agricultural workers who want to build a better future for themselves and their families and for American farmers and ranchers struggling with serious labor shortages,” reads the letter signed by the organization co-chairs. “A stable, legal workforce is critical to the capacities of American farmers and ranchers to produce nutritious and affordable foods, especially those perishable, labor-intensive fruits, vegetables, meat and milk products that are so important for healthy diets.”

glickmanOne of AGree’s co-chairs, former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, says there is strong support for the ag provisions in the bill. “When you have the employers, farm workers, farm labor advocates, a lot of municipalities, local governments who are supportive of this – and then you have the food industry which needs a predictable support of food – then these provisions are less controversial than some of the others,” said Glickman in an interview.

Members of the so-called Gang of Eight Senators that crafted the bill are expecting it to go to the Senate floor on June 10 and they predict it will pass by a good margin.

Listen to or download interview with Glickman here: Interview with AGree Co-Chair Dan Glickman

Ag Groups, Audio, labor

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance announced that Celebrity Chef and Nutritionist Ellie Krieger will moderate The Food Dialogues: Chicago.
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointment of 15 nationally recognized experts to serve on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
  • GROWMARK announced the appointment of Denny Worth, as Vice President, Member Services effective June 1, 2013.
  • IPPE continues to expand and has surpassed 350,000 net square feet of exhibit space, with more than 85% of the exhibit floor contracted.
Zimfo Bytes

Corn Farmers Return to Nation’s Capital

Talia Goes

Pillar_4For the fifth year in a row, policymakers in our nation’s capital are learning about the U.S. family farmers who produce corn, our nation’s top crop, as part of the Corn Farmers Coalition program. Once again, the program, which is sponsored by the National Corn Growers Association and its state affiliates, showcases how innovative and high-tech corn farmers have become by introducing a foundation of facts about farmers and farming.

“This has always been a crucial time of year in Washington to make sure our lawmakers and those who influence them remember the importance of corn farming to our nation and our economy,” said Pam Johnson, NCGA president and a corn grower in Iowa. “Our state corn checkoff programs have seen the importance of this program each year for educating a very important audience about this essential crop and its high value.”

The Corn Farmers Coalition program launched June 1 with a major advertising presence in Washington that puts prominent facts about family farmers in front of thousands on Capitol Hill, starting with “station domination” at Union Station through the month of June. The large-format ads will travel to the Capitol South Metro station for July. In addition, online advertising will appear in publications such as Politico, Washington Post, the New York Times, Roll Call, National Journal, and Congressional Quarterly.

Agribusiness, Corn, NCGA

Marketing Thoughts From AdFarm

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 398The subject of marketing is always a key topic area for the Alltech International Symposium. Doesn’t it make sense to help your customers become more successful marketers? Sure it does.

Alltech Marketing ForumDuring this year’s Symposium Les Kahl, Managing Partner US/Creative Director, AdFarm, participated in The Marketing Forum track. His session featured a number of marketing experts and Les says he was pleased to see Alltech go outside agriculture to find some of them to be a part of the program. He says there are many case studies out there that folks in agricultural marketing can learn from. Les focused his remarks on design and how it affects your communications efforts. By design, he means not only graphic design but also product design and communication design (print ads to video, web design and more). You can get more marketing perspective from Les in this week’s program.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Marketing Thoughts From AdFarm

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, for their support.

Agencies, Alltech, Audio, ZimmCast

World Pork Expo Turns 25

Cindy Zimmerman

This week we celebrate the silver anniversary of World Pork Expo, the world’s largest pork-specific trade show, presented by the National Pork Producers Council.

Nearly 20,000 pork producers and industry representatives from 39 countries will be in Des Moines this week for the 2013 World Pork Expo. “If you’re looking for products, technology or information, World Pork Expo is the best place to spend your time,” says Randy Spronk, NPPC president and pork producer from Edgerton, Minn.

wpx-13Celebrating its 25th anniversary, World Pork Expo will feature 310,000 square feet of exhibits, which is an increase from 2012. New this year is the addition of the Agriculture Building to the exhibit space, which will feature the International Visitors Center and the America’s Best Genetics display, as well as a display of World Pork Expo memorabilia from the past 25 years.

“Attendees should stop by the Agriculture Building and vote for their favorite display,” says Alicia Irlbeck, World Pork Expo general manager. “To celebrate World Pork Expo’s 25th anniversary, NPPC is giving away a trip for two to a location of the winner’s choice for up to a $3,000 value. All Expo attendees are eligible and can sign up in booth 2708.”

As always, Expo features lots of educational seminars and the Junior National show. “We have a wide variety of seminars lined up, from nutrition and feed to manure management and food safety,” Irlbeck says. The World Pork Expo Junior National has set another record this year, with 856 junior exhibitors from throughout nation entering more than 2,500 pigs. The 2012 show set a record when youths showed 2,177 hogs — a 25 percent increase from the previous year. The Junior National shows and judging competitions take place each day of Expo. The open show, with almost 1,000 hogs entered by 493 exhibitors, will be held on Friday, June 7, with a sale on Saturday, June 8.

I am getting ready to head up to Des Moines tomorrow to join our local correspondent Joanna Schroeder in covering the expo. This is the sixth year we have been able to bring WPX to you via AgWired, thanks once again to the generous sponsorship of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica and NOVUS International. Both of these great companies will have tents set up on the main drag of the Iowa Fairgrounds and will have lots to offer expo attendees. Stop by and say hi!

AgWired coverage of the 2013 World Pork Expo is sponsored by NOVUSAgWired coverage of the 2013 World Pork Expo is sponsored by boehringer-ingelheim
Ag Groups, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novus International, NPPC, Swine, World Pork Expo

2013 Raven Innovation Summit

Jamie Johansen

401This week Raven Industries will be holding their 2013 Raven Innovation Summit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The event will provide an opportunity to discuss industry trends and to learn from Raven dealers and partners from across the globe. Raven Industries is eager to share how they are continuing to evolve and change along with the entire agriculture industry. This summit they will take the opportunity to showcase these changes.

I am excited to have the chance to attend their event this year, representing the ZimmComm team. Later this week you will be able to find interviews with Raven leadership, summit attendees, as well as producers and links to photos here and at PrecisionPays.

Raven Industries have gone mobile this year with an event app and texting servies. Text “RIS13” to 57682 for general questions and download Guidebook from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace.

Events, Technology

Second Amendments Entertain NAFB

Chuck Zimmerman

nafb-ww-13-6During 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

Media, NAFB, Video

Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Dr. Steve Meyer

Cindy Zimmerman

New on Agri-Pulse this week:

open-micDr. 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.

Agri-Pulse

WordPress at Ten Years

Chuck Zimmerman

WordPress 10 Years OldWordPress 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.

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