Animal Agriculture Alliance Summit Wrap-up

Chuck Zimmerman

To get a wrap up of the 2012 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit I spoke with President/CEO Kay Johnson Smith. Kay was given these beautiful flowers in recognition of her service during the organization’s celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Kay says this year’s Summit was a little different than normal since it focused more on how to effectively communicate with the consumer and better understand what the consumer wants and needs to know. It also provided a cross-species networking opportunity which is one of the benefits to this type of meeting. I asked Kay what stood out in her mind after listening to the presentations. One was a step by step method to communicate with the consumer which gave specific workable ways to accomplish this. Another was presentation on the PennAg Industries Association Today’s Agriculture display at the 2012 PA Farm Show.

You can hear my interview with Kay here: Interview with Kay Johnson Smith

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

AgRacer Leading The Race

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 349Just over 100,000 downloads! That’s a big number and that’s how many iTunes downloads there are in under three months for AgRacer by Fastline, the first ag game app for mobile devices. I got the update this morning from Tim Hess, Fastline President. That number will continue to grow now that the app is fully available for Android devices as well. Tim says the pace of daily downloads has been pretty consistent since the app was introduced during the National Farm Machinery Show. So, when it comes to creating a new communications tool in today’s world in the ag sector it looks like Fastline has set the bar.

Tim says the app has surpassed their expectations and has met their initial goals which include introducing Fastline to a younger age demographic. He says feedback has been great and includes from users in countries outside the United States. So they’re reaching a global audience! There are also some creative sponsor opportunities like product placement within the app available according to Tim, some of which are already in the works. He says AgRacer will soon have new upgrades and updates, including two additional vehicles and a new track. By the way, AgRacer is free to download!

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: An AgRacer Update

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.

Apps, Audio, Media, ZimmCast

Morning Surprise

Melissa Sandfort

So this morning I was going about my usual routine (even had time to throw a pie in the oven) getting my boys off to work and to the babysitter. I came home, continued that routine and was off to work when my husband comes in the door and says, “Did you see what was out in the pasture?” Nope. Hadn’t even bothered to look in that direction.

The past few weeks we’d thought Thelma was looking a little chunky, but she’s always been a little bigger than Louise. Now we know why.

This little filly was born last night in the middle of a rain storm. Look at those long, knobby knees. She’s absolutely adorable.

Now it has us wondering if the other one is bred, too! It must have happened a day or two before we got them last summer. Ah, the daily surprises on the farm!

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Advocating For Animal Agriculture

Chuck Zimmerman

The Chairman of the Animal Agriculture Alliance, Chris Ashworth, closed out the 2012 Stakeholder Summit after introducing our final speaker. I visited with him to learn how things are going with the organization.

Chris talks about the fact that they are celebrating 25 years of advocating for animal agriculture representing all animal species. He says that this past year they’ve had a lot of success at the state level impacting legislation that supports agriculture. He says the Stakeholders Summit had a record attendance and that social media came to the forefront as a tool to communicate agriculture’s message. Yes indeed!

You can hear my interview with Chris here: Interview with Chris Ashworth

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

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