Bayer Announces Bee Care Center at ASTA

Cindy Zimmerman

The seed may be first, but bees are still important when it comes to agricultural production and Bayer CropScience was pleased to announce plans for a new North American Bee Care Center during last week’s American Seed Trade Association expo. The company plans to break ground in February 2013 on the center which will serve as a gathering place for researchers, bee experts, students and other visitors to meet regularly with leading Bayer scientists.

Bayer Seed Growth Lead Brad May says the Bayer Bee Care Center is dedicated to promoting and protecting bee health for everyone. “This bee health care center is to help talk to beekeepers,” he said. “We want to be able to look at the diseases and the varroa mite and everything about bee health because agriculture is our lives and bees are agriculture.”

Brad says they always have a lot to talk about at the ASTA 2012 CSS and Seed Expo. “Everything starts with the seed,” he said. “We have the seed, the seed growth products, application equipment that goes with the seed, colors and coatings, we’re just a strong supplier.”

Attendees at the expo this year showed a lot of interest in Poncho/VOTiVO seed treatment for insect and nematode protection and the On Demand™ application technology. Brad tells a story about one of his first users of the On Demand system who didn’t get to use it much himself because his 17-year-old daughter treated everything. “It’s all touch screen, you’re just moving 15 gallon kegs, it’s a closed system,” Brad related, adding that the new system led his client’s daughter to develop a new interest in agriculture!

Interview with Brad May


ASTA-CSS Photo Album

ASTA, Audio, Bayer, Seed

CBB – Doing More With Less

Jamie Johansen

In 2011 beef checkoff dollars funded the National Beef Quality Audit and identified that producers needed to do a better job of telling their story. During the recent National Association of Farm Broadcaster’s annual Trade Talk the Cattlemen’s Beef Board shared what programs they are funding to help producers do just that.

Chuck talked with Kim Brackett, Secretary/Treasurer for CBB, she talked about resources producers can use to help answer some hard questions consumers have. CBB has flip books available through your state beef councils to help get the conversation started.

“We have invested a lot of checkoff dollars into programs focusing on equipping producers with the tools and the skills they need to engage with consumers. Have a conversation and try to answer the questions consumers have. Some of the programs we have funded are Masters of Beef Advocacy, National Beef Ambassadors and United States Farmers and Ranchers Alliance.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Kim here: Kim Brackett - Cattleman's Beef Board

Chuck also spoke with Wesley Grau, Chairmen of CBB. Wesley was excited to share how even in these tough times CBB is doing much more to help spread the word about beef.

“You know that old saying, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ We are doing more with less. We are streamlining efficiencies with committees and Cattlemen’s Beef Board. I think we are following the pattern of the average producer in America and that is to buckle down and get the job done, whatever the cost.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Wesley here: Wesley Grau - Cattleman's Beef Board

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Audio, Beef, NAFB, NCBA

2013 AAEA Summer Internship Apps Being Accepted

Chuck Zimmerman

AAEAApplications are now being accepted by the American Agricultural Editors Association for the organization’s 2013 Summer Internships.

One undergraduate college student in agricultural communications will be chosen to work as an Editorial Intern for High Plains Journal in Dodge City, Kan., and the AAEA Marketing Communications Intern will work with Morgan & Myers and the Progressive Agriculture Foundation in its Waukesha, Wis., office.

Each intern earns a $4,500 stipend for approximately 10 weeks and another $1,000 to cover the costs of attending the Agricultural Media Summit in Buffalo, New York, Aug. 3-7. The new AAEA Marketing Communications internship is made possible through a grant from the AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation, with support from BCS Communications and Gardner and Gardner Communications. The AAEA Editorial Communications internship is sponsored by the AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation.

Internship applications are available at the American Agricultural Editors’ Association website. The applicants will answer the following questions:

“I would like to be the AAEA intern because…”
“What I hope to learn as the AAEA intern is…”
“When I graduate from college, my ideal job would be…”

They are also asked to include a resume, past internships, examples of their work, a letter of recommendation and a statement on their interest in agricultural communications. Applicants are required to be a member of the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow organization – they may join either through their college ACT chapter or as an at-large member at the organization’s website.

ACN, Media

Christmas Recipes

Chuck Zimmerman

Looking for some holiday recipes? How about these 12 Recipes of Christmas (and all the holidays being celebrated this season) from CHARLESTON|ORWIG?

“Here’s to the Fig in your pudding, the Cream in your coffee, the Mint in your candy cane, the Sugar in your cookie, the Honey on your ham, the Spice in your pumpkin pie, the Fruit in your cake and the Happy in your Holiday. May your holidays be full of great food, family and sharing with others.”

Agencies

Social Media – Listen. Talk. Ask.

Jamie Johansen

To help wrap up Alltech’s Global 500 last week Billy Frey, Senior Vice President of the Alltech Ag Network, and David Butler, Alltech’s Web Marketing Manager, discussed the future of communication.

What does the future hold in terms of communication? Well, if you ask these guys the answer is social media. People don’t turn to magazines, newspapers or even television anymore for information. They go online.

What does this mean for the agriculture industry? We simply need to use this tool to tell our story. Share what your company is doing with a picture or video. Or share your farming story through a blog. Make your information accessible with the click of a button.

Billy and David said to first listen to the conversation. Then talk and join in with the dialogue. And finally ask questions and create engagement. Social media is free, it doesn’t cost any money to start a conversation.

Find out what Alltech is doing online by following them on Facebook and Twitter. If you missed this years Global 500 check out #global500 on Twitter to follow what those live tweeting had to say. Also check out Alltech’s blog and stay up-to-date with what the company is doing.

Listen to Billy and David’s complete presentation here: Billy Frey & David Butler - Global 500

Check out all the photos from this years Global 500 here: 2012 Global 500 Photo Album

Alltech, Audio, Media, Social Media, Social Networking

NAFB Foundation Auction Record

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2012 NAFB Foundation Auction was a record success this year, raising over $22,000 according to Foundation president Ken Anderson of Brownfield Ag News.

Ken extends special thanks to Orion Samuelson, WGN Radio, Chicago, IL, for his generosity in donating the first two copies of his new book, “You Can’t Dream Big Enough.” That generous donation was multiplied by the generosity of the bidders, especially Patrick Gottsch (RFD-TV) and Evan Slack who were high bidders for the first book.

Auction chairman Greg Akagi says the first book was sold twice at the auction to both Evan and Patrick who paid a combined $7500 for it. Murray Wise Associates bought the second book during the silent auction for $200. “The total overall was $7,700.00!! And that made the Auction Chair very happy,” said Greg.

The now traditional boys versus girls bidding war over a weekend at the Lake Ozark home of Al Johnson and Sara Wyant (Agri-Pulse) ended in TWO weekends – twice the dollars for the Foundation – and since the boys club included my husband, it means we will be part of both!

Ken reports that they had 75 silent auction items and 13 live auction items this year and he thanked everyone who contributed to this year’s successful event, including the Foundation Auction Committee – Sally Behringer (MustangRED Communications, Lawerence, KS), Haylie Shipp (Northern Ag Network, Billings, MT), DeAnna Thomas (WMBD/WIRL Radio, Peoria, IL), Ty Higgins (Ohio Ag Net, Columbus, OH), and Carah Hart (Osborn Barr Communications, Kansas City, MO).

“My mind is already thinking ahead for the 70th Annual NAFB Convention and what we can do to make the NAFB Foundation Auction another great success,” Ken says. We need to think about donating a fishing weekend on the Gulf of Mexico!

NAFB

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • MyBeefCheckoff.com now has a mobile site offering all of the great information you’ve grown accustomed to on the full site.
  • USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has appointed six members and alternates to serve on the National Honey Board.
  • SAVE THE DATE – 24th Annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference Coming to La Crosse, WI, Feb. 21–23, 2013.
  • The first results from a project to sample soil this fall to see how the dry growing season and low corn yields affected nitrogen levels are now available.
Uncategorized

Seasons Greetings Time

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s that time of the year. Christmas holiday time. The seasons greetings are coming in and I’ll try to share them as we receive them.

Here’s one from our good friend Jerry Harrington, Dupont Pioneer who says, “May the holidays bring you time with the people who bring you joy.”

Yes, it’s a great time to slow down and enjoy friends and family. We’ve got daughters visiting next week and then will be spending a weekend with more family. I just hope I can lose a few more pounds in advance of the cooking and eating that I’m sure we’ll find time to do.

Agribusiness

Syngenta & ASTA Help Feed Chicago Kids

Cindy Zimmerman

We talk a lot in agriculture about feeding a growing world population but Syngenta and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) brought that broad message home during this week’s CSS 2012 and Seed Expo in Chicago.

“We tend to think about hunger as being something that happens somewhere else, but it happens in our own backyard – it happens here in Chicago,” said David Morgan, Syngenta North America regional director. “We partnered here with ASTA at the event and we’re giving matching contributions to donations given for Chicago efforts on hunger relief.”

Syngenta was giving away backpacks at the Seed Expo, as well as some cool knit gloves with tech fingers (to operate touch screens) and collecting lots of donations. ASTA pledged to match donations up to $1500 and Syngenta matched up to $3000 – all going to support Nourish for Knowledge, a program of the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

*Post Update* Syngenta reports that they collected over $1600 during the Seed Expo, which was matched by $1600 from Syngenta and $1500 from ASTA – for a grand total donation of more than $4700 to help feed Chicago area children. What a great effort!

I had the chance to chat with David about why Syngenta is one of ASTA’s strategic partners and the products they have and are developing to help increase food security worldwide.

Interview with David Morgan


ASTA-CSS Photo Album

ASTA, Audio, Food, Syngenta