Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Kinze Manufacturing announces a new mounted planter line available for the spring 2013 planting season: the line will include two models, the 3110 Rigid and the 3140 Stack Fold.
  • Farmers asked to demonstrate the high sustainability performance of U.S. soy: visit www.CoolBean.info to complete the confidential and anonymous Soybean Assessment Tool or Whole-Farm Assessment Tool questionnaires.
  • Novozymes and Syngenta announced a global agreement under which Syngenta will work with Novozymes to commercialize JumpStart technology.
  • Georgia peanut farmers reaffirmed the Georgia Peanut Commission by a vote of 87.6 percent during the recent referendum, held March 15 through April 15.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Moon Shots

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The SuperMoon tonight made me think of these lyrics. Honk if you know the 5th Dimension and remember them.

    When the moon is in the Seventh House
    And Jupiter aligns with Mars
    Then peace will guide the planets
    And love will steer the stars

    The clouds cleared out just in time for tonight’s Cinco de Mayo moon event here in the new home of ZimmComm New Media. If we’re friends on Facebook you can find a few more here. If not then I hope you remembered to look.

    Uncategorized

    New Priaxor and Merivon Fungicides Registered for Use

    Melissa Sandfort

    Growers have two powerful new tools to prevent and control a broad spectrum of crop diseases. BASF has announced the full U.S. EPA registration of Priaxor fungicide and Merivon fungicide.

    Priaxor is expected to provide unprecedented disease protection and post-infection disease control from some of the toughest fungal diseases in soybeans, as well as several other crops. Merivon will do the same in several pome and stone fruit crops, including apples, cherries and peaches.

    Priaxor is a 2:1 premix fungicide containing F500—the same active ingredient as Headline fungicide—and Xemium fungicide, a new active ingredient in the carboxamide family, providing a new mode of action in row crops. Merivon is a 1:1 premix fungicide of F500—an active ingredient in Pristine fungicide —and Xemium.

    From 2009 through 2011, soybeans treated with Priaxor showed nearly 17 percent less severity of Septoria brown spot compared to untreated soybean acres. Priaxor is also labeled for use in potatoes and tomatoes to control disease, leading to improved crop quality. Priaxor has also shown effective disease control in corn, controlling several yield-robbing diseases including Northern and Southern corn leaf blight, gray leaf spot and common rust.

    Click here for more product-specific information.

    Listen to interviews from Commodity Classic     with BASF Technical Market Manager Nick Fassler and Dr. Caren Schmidt, BASF Technical Service Representative for Michigan and Ohio.

    BASF, Corn, Soybean

    AgCareers are Hot!

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Careers in agriculture are hot right now, a bright spot in the overall economy.

    We talked with Eric Spell, president of AgCareers.com, at the recent National Agri-Marketing Association annual convention, where the company was actually born 12 years ago as a student presentation by the University of Florida. (Go Gators!)

    “It is an exciting time to be in agriculture,” Eric says. “Through the first quarter of 2012 compared to 2011, we’ve seen a 17% increase in the number of jobs, which is great.”

    Eric says one of the biggest growth areas in agricultural jobs is in precision. “It’s everything from aerospace to people who can service the equipment within the dealerships,” he said.

    The tenth annual AgCareers.com Ag HR Roundtable is coming up August 7-9 on the campus of Tyson Foods in Springdale, Arkansas, which Eric says will also include their sister company, CareersInFood.com. “The speaker lineup will be the best yet and it will be a great celebration,” he says of the educational and networking event. Last year’s conference was attended by a record of nearly 200 participants and they expect this year’s conference to be even bigger. “The first one that we had, I think we had 87 attendees.”

    Attendance is limited to 220 and Eric told us at NAMA when registration had just opened that they already had 30 registered – so if you want to be there, it would be good to register as soon as possible. It’s well worth it for agricultural HR people and anyone involved in food or agriculture education. Find out more on the conference website.

    Listen to my interview with Eric here: Eric Spell Interview

    AgCareers, Audio, NAMA

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • Osborn Barr welcomes three new members to its integrated solutions team. Collectively, these individuals bring more than 55 years creative and online experience to the company: Chris Kirk, Solutions Architect Supervisor; Joe Floresca, Creative Director; and, Tom Remes, Copywriter.
    • The United States Potato Board announces nominations are now open for new Board Members for the 2013-2016 term.
    • U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is celebrating 65 years of service to the poultry and egg industry.
    • AgriCharts announces an exclusive partnership with IRON Solutions to form an agricultural media alliance.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Becoming Authentically Agriculture

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 348Let’s talk “Authentically Agriculture” with Michele Payn-Knoper, Cause Matters and founder of the weekly AgChat Twitter conversation. Michele was a presenter at the 2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit. Michele says her presentation title means “that agriculture really needs to do a better job of connecting on a human level.” She spoke about the values, validation and voice that’s needed for agriculture and challenged the group to think about these ideas. Even though you may be a farmer you’re still a human being first and to start at that level to connect with other human beings is the basic first step. Sounds like good advice to me.

    We also talked about AgChat and the AgChat Foundation which both Michele and I serve on the board of. It is amazing that the weekly Twitter conversation has been going for over 3 years and Michele says there has been participation from over 15,000 people from 15 countries. She says the outcomes from the conversation are fascinating. I’ll also use this chance to promote this year’s AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Conference which will take place August 23-24 in Kansas City. Submit your application here.

    Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Authentically Agriculture with Michele Payn-Knoper

    Thanks to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and United Soybean Board for their sponsorship of our coverage of this year’s Summit.

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, 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.

    Ag Groups, Animal Agriculture, Audio, ZimmCast

    New Holland MegaCutter at Mega Media Event

    Cindy Zimmerman

    One of the new offerings from New Holland featured at last week’s Mega Media event was the MegaCutter™.

    We already heard about this new mounted triple disc mower-conditioner when it debuted at the National Farm Machinery Show in February, but we got another look last week in more detail with the help of New Holland Hay and Forage Segment Marketing Manager Mike Cornman.

    Mike says the MegaCutter was designed for the professional customer looking for more capacity and more productivity. “It will provide 30 foot width of cut at one time with a T7 or T8 series New Holland tractor equipped with a front three point hitch and PTO,” he said. “We have a good customer base with our self-propelled forage harvesters and this is the type of machine that those customers are looking at.”

    New Holland is holding a “Ready to Roll” sales event happening right now through June 30. The event includes various incentives for all of New Holland’s hay and forage products. “In addition, there’s also a demonstration program that many of our dealers participate in,” Mike adds. “It’s an opportunity for new customers to try a mid-range tractor, round baler, or a disc mower conditioner on their farm as part of their buying decision.”

    Listen to my interview with Mike here and watch a very short video clip with him below:
    Mike Cornman Interview

    New Holland Media Event album

    Audio, Equipment, Hay, New Holland, Video

    Building Relationships With Consumers

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The moderator for the 2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit was Tom Steever, Brownfield, who is currently the President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Tom was also one of our presenters so it was interesting seeing him introduce himself, speak, thank himself and then present himself with the AAA coffee mug token of appreciation. It was also hilarious. Tom took over moderating duties for Tom Brand, NAFB, Executive Director, who could not attend due to a family emergency.

    Tom’s topic was “Strengthening the Bond.” I took that to mean a discussion about relationships and I was right. His message was that “the farmer has a story to tell and that the farmer should tell to consumers.” By doing that we can build the relationships that will help them better understand where our food comes from. And he also points out how farm broadcasters can help tell the story of the farmer.

    You can hear my interview with Tom here: Interview with Tom Steever

    2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

    Thanks to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and United Soybean Board for their sponsorship of our coverage of this year’s Summit.

    Ag Groups, Animal Agriculture, Audio

    Gaining Consumer Trust

    Chuck Zimmerman

    If you need a speaker on the subject of social media and content marketing then you need Shelly Kramer, V3 Integrated Marketing. I met Shelly last year and she talks about what I do better than I do and I like that. I’m sharing a short excerpt from her comments at the 2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit on blogging which is near and dear to my heart as you all know.

    Shelly was here to speak on “Closing the Trust Gap,” and her comments on how individuals and companies can accomplish this are spot on. I fully agree with her idea that you used to spend money on media and then you got business. Today you spend time on media and you get business. Now, that media is yourself and/or social media (mobile website, blog, podcasts, social networking, etc.). Of course time is money but to utilize these tools properly you have to invest time and give it time to develop. She also made a point of saying how big a mistake it is to think you can hire the company president’s just out of college daughter to run your social media accounts. If you think about that hard enough for a minute you’ll understand why. However, it happens and it is a setup for potential disaster.

    You can hear an excerpt of Shelly’s comments here: Shelly Kramer Talks Blogging

    2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

    Thanks to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and United Soybean Board for their sponsorship of our coverage of this year’s Summit.

    Ag Groups, Agencies, Animal Agriculture, Audio

    The Lucky One

    Melissa Sandfort

    I’m not referencing the movie that’s in the theater, although I did see it and it was very good. (Ten minutes into it though, I realized I’d read the book!) I’m talking about my husband…I’m going to start calling him the lucky one. There are some people in this world who seem to have luck on their side; those who just stumble upon exactly what it is they were looking for, even if they didn’t know they were seeking it. Luck just finds them. That’s my husband.

    When it comes to business ventures, he’s meeting new people every day, making new contacts, new friendships, new partnerships and I never know what kind of surprise his day is going to hold. He also possesses a skill, a trade, where he can help people. He can build things, anything. He can fix things. He creates things that are immediately worth more than the blank ground they started on.

    When I see him pull in the driveway each evening, I make a quick scan of his truck or trailer to see if he’s brought home something new, which happens quite often. Now this couldn’t be loaded onto a trailer, but it’s his next “project.” It’s an old lumber yard that he’s going to acquire and in his eyes, it just needs a little TLC. He sees something fabulous – something that with a little bit of work can be a masterpiece. The only non-rickety part I saw from the outside was this door. I said, “If you do anything to this building, save this door.”

    Don’t you think it would make for a great coffee table?

    Until we walk again …

    Uncategorized