Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Many cooks in the kitchen was the recipe for delicious and nutritious foods at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. Senegalese healthy foods school founder Ali Baba Gueye and Victor Albisu, a member of the State Department Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, shared their experiences with T.C. Williams Chef Craig Scheuerman’s class.
  • Applied Ecological Services, Inc., has acquired an aerial camera that captures color and near-infrared imagery.
  • Recent Clarke University graduate Stephanie Kronlage has joined Lessing-Flynn as a graphic designer.
  • Engle Creative Solutions, LLC announced the launch of its newly re-designed website.
Zimfo Bytes

2013 National Beef Ambassadors Announced

Melissa Sandfort

Erin Morrison (Minnesota), Katie Stroud (California), Emma Jumper (Arkansas), Jacquelyn Brown (Oregon) and Chandler Mulvaney (Alabama) were chosen as the 2013 National Beef Ambassador Team at the annual National Beef Ambassador competition, which is funded in part by the beef checkoff. Twenty-two senior contestants ages 17-20, were judged in the areas of consumer promotion, classroom presentation, media interview technique and issues response at the event held in Sacramento, Calif.

Photo L to R: Jacquelyn Brown, Emma Jumper, Chandler Mulvaney, Erin Morrison, Katie Stroud

Contestants from throughout the country vied for a place on this elite team of agriculture advocates and $5,000 in cash prizes sponsored exclusively by Farm Credit. Additionally five educational scholarships totaling $5,000 were given by the American National CattleWomen Foundation, Inc. and Monsanto.

Agribusiness, Beef

Flavor Infused Cottonseed Oil From Alcala Farms

Chuck Zimmerman

Pure cottonseed oil from Alcala Farms. It’s what I’ll be cooking with. Here’s why: “Silky-clear, lightweight body and flavor-neutral palate. Pure Cottonseed Oil is the perfect base for salad oils, marinades, sauces, frying, stir-frying, searing and sauteing.” It’s the original vegetable oil. Bet you didn’t know that CRISCO stands for Crystallized Cottonseed Oil. I didn’t either until I got to sample some Alcala Farms products at World Dairy Expo. Or did you know that the original Wesson Oil was made from cottonseed oil? Interesting eh? I’ve got a bottle of the Cilantro to try and looking forward to it.

This new cottonseed oil product comes out of a cotton sustainability project that was implemented by New Mexico State University with funding from Cotton Incorporated. Also involved was the Oregon State University Food Inno-vation Center.

Ag Groups, Cotton, Food, Sustainability

Iowa BASF Great Grower Happy With Yields

Cindy Zimmerman

The Iowa harvest is coming along well ahead of schedule according to the latest USDA numbers – 56% of corn harvested compared to 8% average for this time of year and soybeans are 54% harvested compared to 21% average. The condition of the crops is not as bad as some of the Corn Belt states, although nearly half the corn is rated poor to very poor, beans are doing better with nearly 70% rated at least fair.

I caught up with BASF Great Grower Steve Miller in the middle of his harvest to see how the season has been for him and he is pretty happy with the yields he has seen so far, considering the weather. He finished harvesting his soybean fields Sunday night. “We average 64 on our further west farms and 58 the further west we went,” Steve told me. “Corn, on the other hand, we go from zero to 230 in the same field and the corn on corn is worse than the corn in bean stubble.” With his corn harvest about one third complete, Steve says his yields are actually exceeding his expectations given the fact that they had virtually no rain from June until the end of August.

The weather impacted Steve’s weed control, which was difficult for soybeans, since they do have some glyphosate resistance. “We got some waterhemp that just laughed at us when we sprayed, dandelions, giant ragweed,” he said. “We were spraying 44 ounces of Roundup and it didn’t seem to do much.”

Steve did use Headline fungicide for plant health this year. “When we sprayed, beans were $16 and it wouldn’t take much to make up for the product, so we thought that was a good decision.”

Listen to or download my interview with Steve here: BASF Great Grower Steve Miller

Audio, BASF, Corn, Farming, Soybean

USFRA Announces Panelists For Nov. Food Dialogues

Chuck Zimmerman

The U.S. Farmers and Rancher Alliance is gearing up for a November Food Dialogues event, November 15 in New York City following their board meeting. I will be there to provide live coverage here on AgWired. The Alliance has just announced the panelists for each of the topic areas for this event. You can find the list below.

Media can look forward to a special briefing on Friday, November 16, at 7:00 AM, CT, following the event. It will recap the event itself and USFRA’s board meeting.

To participate, go to:
• WebEx Link
• Call-in toll-free number: 1-(877) 319-8506
• Call-in number: 1-(408) 773-6320
• Conference Code: 3001175046

The Food Dialogues event will be streamed live at www.fooddialogues.com.

See the panelist lists after the break: Read More

Ag Groups, USFRA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • New Pioneer brand Optimum AQUAmax products from DuPont Pioneer demonstrated a significant yield advantage in the second year of on-farm evaluations in North America during unprecedented drought conditions.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s government affairs office in Washington, D.C., is accepting applications for internships during the 2013 Cattle Industry Convention in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 6-9, 2013.
  • Accelerated Genetics is pleased to announce Amy VanderMark as Vice President Domestic Sales.
  • Bernard Leonard, retired Group Vice President, Food Service Poultry and Prepared Foods for Tyson Foods, has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance Board of Directors as a representative for the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Celebrating National Co-op Month

    Cindy Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 366Each October, cooperatives across the United States celebrate the cooperative difference, business model and the contributions of cooperatives to their communities during National Co-op Month and this year continues the celebration of 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives with the slogan “Cooperative enterprises build a better world.”

    As one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, GROWMARK has been celebrating all year long, so we talked with president and chairman of the board Dan Kelley about why co-ops are so important for agriculture, both nationally and globally. Dan says he was surprised to learn this year that nearly a billion people around the world are members of some type of cooperative. In addition to celebrating a year and a month dedicated to cooperatives, Dan says GROWMARK has been celebrating 85 years of existence as a cooperative.

    Listen to this week’s ZimmCast with Dan here: ZimmCast with GROWMARK President Dan Kelley

    We are also celebrating Co-op Month with our ZimmPoll this week, that asks What cooperatives play a role in your life/business?

    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.

    Audio, Cooperatives, GROWMARK, ZimmCast

    Charleston|Orwig Hoofs It for Charity

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The company that has been mainly responsible for our ability to cover World Dairy Expo on World Dairy Diary.com year after year is Charleston|Orwig. This integrated marketing and reputation management agency has quite a few clients in the dairy business, including our marquee sponsor, New Holland. I spoke with Charleston|Orwig’s Mike Opperman, Sr. Director, Strategy and Planning, (left on the show lot with his client) to learn how the agency is doing and found out that they have a unique project going on here at Expo.

    Charleston|Orwig announces that every step its employees take during this week’s World Dairy Expo will be for a good cause. The company will donate a penny for every step taken by each of its employees to Farmers Feeding the World. Given the massive scale of the week-long event and the dedication of its employees, the company anticipates a sizeable donation.

    Every member of the Charleston|Orwig team will wear a pedometer to record how much he or she walks throughout the five days. The companies working with Charleston|Orwig at World Dairy Expo also are invited to participate in “hoofing it” or to match the donation.

    You can listen to my interview with Mike here: Interview with Mike Opperman

    2012 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

    Agencies, Audio, Dairy, World Dairy Expo

    School Lunch Program Gets an ‘F’

    Melissa Sandfort

    Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What grade would you give the new student lunch program? Tell us why with a comment.”

    Our poll results: seventeen percent said A; six percent said B; nine percent said C; nineteen percent said D; and forty-nine percent said F. Looks like there are a lot of frustrated parents (and kids) on this issue.

    Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What cooperatives play a role in your life/business?” October is National Cooperative Month and lots of rural folks rely on local cooperatives for everyday things like fuel and home mortgages. Which ones impact your life? Let us know.

    ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

    ZimmPoll

    Nominations Open For Ag Relations Hall of Fame

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It’s time to think of someone you’d like to nominate for the Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Fame, an award program honoring agricultural public relations professionals who have made lifetime contributions to the industry.

    The program, sponsored by the Agricultural Relations Council and Agri Marketing magazine, will recognize its second group of recipients at the March 2013 ARC annual meeting in Oklahoma City, Okla. Nominations will close Jan. 15, 2013.

    Nominees must be current or past members of ARC to be considered. Inductees will be selected based on criteria including:
    Years of membership in ARC;
    Service to ARC (president, board member, committee chair, etc.);
    Professional accomplishments/achievements in ag communications; and
    Awards/Recognition in service to ag communications within ARC and also outside of the organization.

    For 2013, up to two inductees will be chosen. Nominations will be reviewed and chosen by a committee of ARC members.

    “We hope all members of the agricultural communications community will consider nominating a deserving individual,” said ARC Hall of Fame committee chair Deron Johnson, of Pfizer Animal Health. “Recognition of this type not only honors the individual, but validates all of the professionals who work in agricultural public relations every day.”

    For additional questions, please call the ARC office at: 952/758-5811. Or review the nomination form on the ARC web site at: www.agrelationscouncil.org. E-mail ARC at arc@gardnerandgardnercommunications.com.

    Ag Groups, ARC