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.

Uncategorized

Charleston|Orwig Hires Pinke, Bryant

Melissa Sandfort

pinkeCharleston|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.

bryantPinke’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.

Agencies, Agribusiness

Crop Insurance Reporting with SMS

Melissa Sandfort

Insights WeeklyIt’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.

Ag Leader, Agribusiness

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The National Soybean Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomes you to the 2013 INTSOY Short Course June 2-7.
  • The eighth annual Power of Meat: An In-depth Look at Meat through the Shoppers’ eyes webinar will be held Wednesday, June 5th at 2pm.
  • The MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME has announced the results of voting by its more than 70 Members and Trustees, in which six new Inductees were named to the Class of 2013.
  • Shawna Weis joined Lessing-Flynn as a Marketing Coordinator at the end of April.
Zimfo Bytes

New Flickr Creates Agriblogging Photo Benefits

Chuck Zimmerman

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.

ZimmComm Flickr

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.

Media

Most Important New Tractor Features

Talia Goes

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?

Untitled

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 New Holland Agriculture.

ZimmPoll