- Syngenta announced that its vegetable seed processing plant in Pasco, Washington, is the first site in North America to receive Good Seed and Plant Practices accreditation.
- The U.S. EPA has granted registration approval for DuPont Aproach fungicide.
- Make plans to join NAMA in Kansas City for the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference, April 17-19, 2013. Online registration is open now.
- Successful Farming magazine is pleased to introduce Heather Gieseke as the newest team member and Sales Executive.
Branding Without Fire & Ice
What makes Coca-Cola different from milk?
Elizabeth Bagby, Alltech’s Corporate Marketing Manager, answered that question with branding. She addressed the essence of a brand and why beef and dairy producers need brands at the 2012 Global 500. But most importantly she shared what brands we all can learn from.
The concept of branding, interestingly enough, comes from cattle branding. The first people in the known world to try and differentiate their product from others were cattlemen. So, with our long history in branding we should be leading the charge in the food community.
Today we should be defining a brand as the customers experience, not the practice of creating a name, symbol or design that is associated with a product. Elizabeth described that as a logo, not a brand.
Branding isn’t just for business to consumer. Elizabeth shared 3 reasons why brand communication works in B2B as well.
1. Cuts through the clutter.
2. Facilitates delivery of promise.
3. Taps into the emotional drivers.
Listen to Elizabeth’s complete presentation here: Elizabeth Bagby - Global 500
Check out all the photos from this years Global 500 here: 2012 Global 500 Photo Album
Season’s Greetings From NAFB
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting is sharing their season’s greetings.
Celebrate…
the Tradition of Giving,
the Beauty of the Season,
and a New Year of
Peace and Happiness!
From Your Friends at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting
2012 NAFB President Tom Steever has written a holiday story for your listening pleasure, featuring the 2012 NAFB Board of Directors. Click the link to listen! Holiday Greetings from the 2012 NAFB Board of Directors (mp3)
Connecting Beef Producers to Data
Alltech’s Global 500 brought beef producers from across the globe together to network and gather information to take home. During the beef breakout session Bob Sand, founder and CEO of The Beef Connection, shared his vision for being a service organization that enables both beef cattle producers and industry suppliers to prosper and become more sustainable.
The Beef Connection focuses on teaching producers to gather information on their cattle allowing them to make good production, management and marketing decisions. Bob shared with me in an interview how important it is for producers to keep an open mind to new technology.
“The Beef Connection was formed to curate a program for commercial cattle producers. The goal being to connect all the different facets of the beef industry to gather information on cattle; bring it all the way back to the ranch level and let the ranchers make decisions based on data. That’s how we started and then our connections included going to commercial feed yards and packing houses bringing all that data back to the producers.”
“Alltech’s role in this was to bring in the nutritional technology we needed to create those cattle that really perform in the industry.”
Listen to my interview with Bob here: Bob Sand - The Beef Connection
Check out all the photos from this years Global 500 here: 2012 Global 500 Photo Album
Telling the Animal Ag Story
The Animal Agriculture Alliance participated in this year’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. Here’s Kay Johnson Smith, President/CEO, being interviewed by one of the broadcasters.
Kay says that all of the animal ag industries have animal care guidelines that have been developed over years of work and are based on scientific research. She encourages farmers to be transparent and proactive. Most consumers don’t have a good understanding of how their food is raised and they’re asking questions. She says “our industry has been silent too long,” and encourages farmers to get involved in using social media to join the conversation about food. Kay offers some ideas for farmers who have concerns about the actions of animal rights activists.
Listen to my interview with Kay: Interview with Kay Johnson Smith
2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album
Social Media Saves the Holidays
Happy Holidays from Hootsuite.
From myself and all of the Owls here at HootSuite, we sincerely wish you a festive holiday season, and all the best for 2013!
Sincerely,
Ryan Holmes
You may want to watch this video a couple times. The action is fast. But that’s part of the point it is making too.
Many of you are pretty social media savvy but many are not quite there yet. This video was promoted by direct mail and caught my eye. I use Hootsuite. Just not all the time. The video makes me want to use it more.
AgChat Foundation Unveils New Website
The AgChat Foundation is happy to announce a newly designed website. Special thanks to Charleston|Orwig for assisting the organization on this project.
In case you’re wondering how the AgChat Foundation benefits agriculture, read this.
An engaged community. A collective voice. A chance for agriculture to work together for the common good. The ability to touch millions of people who may only connect with farms because they eat, and that may or not occur to them to be a connection. The use of social media in agriculture allows the agriculture community a unique connection to the 98% of people who do not reside on a farm or ranch. The telling of their stories are among the most believable resources available which means they have the strongest voice for agriculture. The Foundation is designed to serve as a conduit for those farmers and ranchers as we empower them to become agvocates.
Remembering Doyle Conner
The name and the face are probably more familiar to those in the Florida agriculture industry than elsewhere, but Doyle Conner should be remembered as a great “agvocate,” before there ever was such a term.
The former Florida Commissioner of Agriculture passed away yesterday, just one day shy of his 84th birthday. Doyle, a lifelong Democrat who grew up raising livestock and farming in North Florida, was in college when he was elected to the state House. He became the youngest Speaker of the House ever just a few years later and finished his career in public service by holding the elected office of Commissioner of Agriculture for 30 years.
Current Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam says Doyle “brought a passion for the land and the needs of Florida farmers and ranchers to his role and tirelessly promoted Florida Agriculture around the world. He modernized the Department of Agriculture and championed its evolution to include Consumer Service responsibilities. … Doyle was a mentor to me and defined the role of Commissioner of Agriculture for all others to follow.”
Doyle served as Commissioner from 1961-1991 and we had the pleasure of not only reporting on his activities professionally during our network days in Florida, but also knowing him personally. This photo shows him in 1988 holding our middle daughter Carly when she was not much more than a year old during one of Doyle’s Legislative Trail Rides.
Back in the days when we still had regional NAFB meetings, we instituted the Doyle Conner Annual Fishing Tournament in the southern region to complement the long time North Carolina Commissioner Jim Graham’s Barnyard golf tournament.
Doyle will lie in state at Florida’s Historic Capitol on Thursday, December 20, prior to his funeral service and burial in Tallahassee. May he rest in peace.
Cornhusker NAMA Has New Logo
There’s a new look for Cornhusker NAMA (formerly Midlands NAMA). The chapter of the National Agri-Marketing Association underwent a name change this past September to better represent the geographical area it covers. They recently rolled out a new logo to support the initiative.
MS Technologies Collaborates to Innovate
One company that was generating some buzz at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2012 and Seed Expo was MS Technologies, which made a name for itself a few years ago by collaborating Bayer CropScience on LibertyLink soybeans.
At ASTA, MS Technologies was talking about two new projects – Enlist E3™ with Dow AgroSciences and another Bayer collaboration currently known by its working name of FG72. I had hoped to catch up with MS Technologies Brand Manager Lauren August at ASTA, but since I was unable to do so we did a phone interview last week about the collaboration innovations they have in the pipeline and you can hear more about it in this week’s ZimmCast.
Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: MS Technologies Innovations
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.