New Format for Beltwide Cotton Conference

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The National Cotton Council cotton-board.jpgcoordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences has a new format that no longer includes the production conference component but continues the forum’s technical conferences and adds emphasis to the consultant’s conference.

The 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, set for January 6-8 at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel, will include a half-day Cotton Consultants Conference and the day and a half Cotton Technical Conferences. The 2014 Consultants Conference, set for Monday, January 6, will be more robust, providing technical information desired by consultants and others involved in key production/marketing-related decisions such as Extension specialists/agents, industry sales/support personnel and many producers.

Planned for the 2014 Consultants Conference are new developments from industry, including discussions of new varieties and chemistries. Also included will be special sessions where scientists, from the various disciplines ranging from agronomy to weed science, will interact with attendees to foster a lively exchange of ideas and experiences.

Agribusiness, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

Roll with the Changes

Melissa Sandfort

I’m a child of the 80s, and I think the best part of the era was the music. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to roll down the window, rest your arm along the edge, let your hair down and cruise. It reminds me of summer evenings, fishing along the river and cutting up my feet from running barefoot in the grass.

As I sat down to talk to Grandpa this week to continue to try to capture what it was “really like” to be a farmer 80 years ago, an REO Speedwagon song kept replaying in my head:

So, if you’re tired of the same old story, oh, baby, turn some pages
I will be here when you are ready to roll with the changes, baby
Roll with the changes
Oh, you know, you know, you know you got to…

Keep on rollin’
Keep on rollin’
Roll with the changes

At a recent appointment, the doctor said, “You don’t look 90.” His response: “What is 90 supposed to look like?” I believe his youthful persona is partly due to rolling with the changes and not fretting about things he couldn’t control. He accepted change as it happened, embraced the opportunities and kept on rollin’.

So this week, listen as grandpa talks more about what it was like working on the farm in the 20s and 30s. I’ll summarize here: IT WAS HARD WORK.

Listen to Grandpa explain

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

State of Farm Credit System

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Credit Idea Share 2013The 2013 Farm Credit Idea Share is underway in New Orleans this morning. Our opening general session is a panel speaking about the “State of the Farm Credit System.” This idea share conference is for Farm Credit System communications and reputation managers. Topics of presentations will focus on issues facing the the system today. I’ll be participating in the next session on “Meet the New Media.” That should be an interesting discussion and I’ll share what I heard after getting back to ZimmComm World Headquarters later today.

Farm Credit Idea ShareOne of the panelists this morning is Regina Gill, Vice President, Investor Relations, Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation. I spoke with her before we got started to hear what she wanted attendees to know. Basically, it’s a positive message about a system that is in the best shape she can remember. Regina has worked for the system for 29 years and says, “This is the best market access I have ever seen.”

Listen to my interview with Regina here: Interview with Regina Gill

Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Credit

Wells Fargo Moving Into New Ag Territory

Cindy Zimmerman

ZimmCast 393The name Wells Fargo is forever linked with the image of a six-horse stagecoach thundering across the American West, loaded with gold. The California-based company, founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, also has a rich history in agribusiness. In fact, Wells Fargo has extended more credit to U.S. food and agribusiness than any bank, mostly in California but now moving eastward.

wellsfargoTo lead the expansion into new territories in the Midwest and East, Wells Fargo has named Rob Yraceburu to a new position as head of its National Food & Agribusiness Division. We talked with Rob for this edition of the ZimmCast to find out more about his background, the importance of agriculture to Wells Fargo and what they will be offering for farmers in areas east of the Rockies in the coming months.

Listen to my conversation with Rob here: Wells Fargo's Rob Yraceburu

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

Agribusiness, Audio, ZimmCast

Cornbread Goodness

Chuck Zimmerman

Martha White Cornbread Contest WinnerMmm. Cornbread. How many ways can you make it or add it to a recipe? This lady obviously knows what she’s doing and it paid off.

Lorie R. of Buckatunna, Miss., was presented with the cast iron skillet crown as the grand prize winner of the 2013 Martha White ®/Lodge® Cast Iron National Cornbread Cook-Off for her original main dish recipe, Roasted Poblano Chicken Posole with Floating Corn Cake Islands . Her winning recipe earned her $5,000 cash and a 30-inch stainless steel gas range (a $3,250 value) from FiveStar® Professional Cooking Equipment, a division of Brown Stove Works, Incorporated.

Lorie’s grand prize winning dish features the addition of roasted poblano peppers, providing a distinctive twist to this hearty traditional Mexican soup. Crisp corn cakes, made from a batter of Martha White Buttermilk Cornbread Mix and whole kernel corn and cheese, float on top of each bowl of soup, creating a delicious combination of flavor and texture.

” Martha White and the National Cornbread Festival® are committed to preserving the celebration of Southern food,” said Linda Carman, Martha White baking expert. “We are so proud of all the winning recipes which help create special family moments any day of the week.”

The National Cornbread Cook-Off was held in conjunction with the National Cornbread Festival® in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Ten finalists recreated their original, main dish cornbread recipes made with Martha White Cornbread Mix in Lodge® Cast Iron cookware for the chance to win cash prizes. A panel of experts, including food writers and television personalities, took on the difficult task of selecting three winners after tasting all of the dishes.

Corn, Food

Most Readers Not Far From the Farm

Talia Goes

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How many generations are you removed from the farm?”

Our poll results: Thirty percent say they are “One Generation, My Parents are Farmers,” 23% are “Two, My Grandparents Were Farmers,” 22% say “None, I’m a Farmer,” nine percent are not farmers but work in the ag industry, seven percent have “No Direct Farm Connection,” and three percent say “Three, My Great-Grandparents Were Farmers,” “More Than Three,” or “Other.” It is safe to say that most of our followers are not far removed from the farm, if at all!

chart

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Are so-called “ag gag” bills fair?” In the wake of undercover videos at animal agriculture operations that have shown abuse, and especially those that were compiled over a period of time, edited and then released to the public without doing anything to stop the abuse or take it to the proper authorities, several states have passed legislation making that illegal. Most of the laws simply require mandatory reporting of animal cruelty when it happens but opponents have labeled them “ag gag” laws that would suppress efforts to document and publicize animal abuse. Those in favor prefer to call them “See Something, Say Something” bills. Do you feel that the so-called “ag gag” bills are prohibitive? Will these laws hamper efforts to stop animal cruelty? Does this impede our efforts for transparency in the food systems? Let us know.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

Farming, ZimmPoll

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

Meet Our First Agri-Blogger Intern

Cindy Zimmerman

maggie-seilerWe are so pleased with the response to our new agri-blogging internship program. It was tough to choose just one for the summer semester, but we finally decided on Maggie Seiler – a sophomore at Kansas State University dual majoring in agricultural communications and journalism and animal sciences and industry.

Maggie grew up on a dairy operation outside of Wichita and has worked for the Kansas Dairy Association and the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops, as well as serving as an Agricultural Ambassador and an officer for the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. She is very interested in the agriculture use of social media.

“Blogging and the use of social media platforms is becoming an increasingly important part of journalism and the agricultural industry,” Maggie said in her application. “I really appreciate the ability of online platforms and blogs to provide the vital information from agriculture industry meeting to members of the community that cannot physically travel to events. ZimmComm is a company that stays on the cutting-edge of industry developments sharing them with producers. I would really like to be a part of this movement and especially focus on increasing my knowledge of using online platforms to reach out to agriculturists.”

We are not wasting any time getting Maggie on the agri-blogging highway. She will be joining Chuck next week for the 2013 Alltech Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky and you can expect to meet her at other events this summer.

Welcome, Maggie!

Education, Media, ZimmComm Announcement

Coca-Cola Supports Florida Citrus

Cindy Zimmerman

coke-citrusOrange juice is the “Real Thing” in Florida and Coca-Cola is helping the industry keep brightening our days with glasses of sunshine.

The Coca-Cola company is committing $2 billion to support the citrus industry in Florida by planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in the Sunshine State.

Under the agreement with with Cutrale Citrus Juices and Peace River Citrus Products, growers will plant 5 million new trees on land that previously held citrus groves or are now idle in Polk, DeSoto and Hendry Counties, and Coca-Cola will buy the fruit. The investment is expected to create approximately 4,100 new jobs and add more than $422 million per year to Florida’s economy.

coke-putnam“Citrus is synonymous with Florida, but the industry has faced many challenges in recent years, particularly the growing threat of citrus greening,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam.

Citrus greening is a bacterial disease that poses an existential threat to the state’s $9 billion citrus industry. The disease is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid and causes trees to produce misshapen and bitter fruit. Infected trees generally die within three to five years. The disease is present in every citrus-producing county in Florida and in more than half of the state’s groves. The Florida Legislature recently appropriate $9.5 million to support research and the fight against citrus greening across the state.

Agribusiness, Citrus

The Glass Walls Project

Jamie Johansen

aaa-13-044_edited-2Speaker after speaker during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit reminded us that transparency is no longer an option for the livestock industry. To prove that the agriculture community has nothing to hide, groups have opened their doors to share how your food is made.

Senior Vice President for Public Affairs & Professional Development at the American Meat Institute, Janet Riley, was one of those speakers who shared how her organization is bridging the divide between producer and consumer. I got the opportunity to talk with her and she gave more insight into AMI’s Glass Wall Project.

“For far too long the animal rights activists have said if slaughter houses had glass walls everyone would be a vegetarian and I didn’t believe it. Then Cargill really gets a lot of credit for the inspiration when they allowed the Oprah show into their plant. It went so well. It was just a very honest dialogue, they didn’t shy away from anything. So I started talking to Temple Grandin and I said will you be willing to host some videos and just explain in your own works how we slaughter livestock. She was delighted to show people what we do and how she has influenced what we do. She picked two plants that were representative of the beef and pork industries. Both agreed to open their doors to us. Then we decided that we would produce these videos in Temple’s own words. We wanted authentic transparency and so we just allowed Temple to explain in the best way she could how we process livestock into meat at each step of the way. It was a really interesting experience. Every now and then I would say consumers might not understand why we do this, could you explain it? And then she would.”

The beef and pork processing plant videos can be viewed at AnimalHandling.org, along with more information on meat processing. AMI is looking into producing a turkey processing video next. These videos are a great educational tool and open doors for progressive dialogue.

Listen to or download my interview with Janet here: Interview with Janet Riley

Listen to or download audio from Janet’s complete presentation here: Janet Riley - American Meat Institute

Check out photos from the event: 2013 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit is sponsored by National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Food, NCBA, NPPC, Pork