Adding Jobs To Economy Via Agriculture

Chuck Zimmerman

Well, I guess our latest ZimmPoll didn’t excite anyone judging by the low response. With jobs all the rage in the political scene maybe you’re burned out on the word? Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What is best for ag to add jobs to the economy?” 46% said All of the above to our choices. We also had 24% choose Support development of next generation biofuels; 18% choose Invest in rural economic development; 8% choose Pass FTAs with Colombia, Panama and Korea and 4% choose None of the above. I guess we’ll see what happens as the budget and farm bill debates continue to unfold.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Can farmers effectively reach out to consumers with social media?” Seems like a timely questions with tomorrow’s The Food Dialogues about to take place. A USFRA program that will be driven by social media. You probably know where I come down on this. But with all our efforts, are we “reaching” consumers? What do you think? Feel free to comment and take our poll.

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

ZimmPoll

Unexpected Passing of Shannon Schaffer

Chuck Zimmerman

We were shocked to hear that our friend Shannon Schaffer passed away suddenly over the weekend while on a bicycle ride.

We got to know Shannon when he was with the U.S. Grains Council. In fact, I traveled with him on a trip to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. You really get to know people when you travel like that. I didn’t have a room for a night at our hotel in Egypt and Shannon immediately offered to let me share his which I did. He was our main guide throughout that trip and kept us all together and on time. He is already missed.

Shannon left USGC to serve as Director of Membership for the National Farmers Union for the past year or so.

Here is the official obituary and details:

Shannon R. Schaffer, age 41, died on Saturday, September 17, 2011. He was the beloved husband of Sheri Schaffer; father of Ashton Schaffer; son of Ronald and Fae Schaffer and brother of Meredith Gulseth (Mark) and Emily Fisher (Alex). In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to an education fund being established for his son, Ashton at T. D. Bank, 308 Maple Avenue, East, Vienna, Virginia 22180.

Funeral services will be held Friday September 23 at 3:00 pm at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Vienna, VA. You can share memories of Shannon on the Tributes.com website.

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • This year marks the 20th anniversary of the national soybean checkoff program including formation of the United Soybean Board and Qualified State Soybean Boards.
  • Twitter announced that it’s launching a new analytics tool that will initially be available to a select group of partners as a pilot program, but will be made available to everyone in the next few weeks.
  • Agcareers.com to host “Handling Personnel Conflicts” webinar Friday October 21st @ 11 am Eastern.
  • FFA’s CONNECT! campaign has begun. CONNECT! invites you to share stories with us about your favorite FFA experiences, what you’re doing now, and how FFA has impacted your life.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Ruhland Named CEO of Cattlemen’s Beef Board

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The national beef checkoff is entering its second quarter century with a new CEO.

    The Cattlemen’s Beef Board has announced the hiring of Polly Ruhland as Chief Executive Officer for the organization that administers the national checkoff program established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill.

    Ruhland has been serving as the interim CEO since the resignation of Tom Ramey on June 28.

    “Polly was the right choice for this checkoff, and for this industry,” said Weldon Wynn, Executive Committee chairman and Beef Board vice chairman. “She has a powerful passion for the checkoff and for the beef industry, and she has absolutely proven in the last three months that she can run this operation astutely. She has an excellent rapport with staff and our contractors, and I don’t think we could have found anyone at this time who could have done the job as well as she is doing it.

    Polly joined the Beef Board team as director of evaluation in early 2010. Her previous 20-plus years in the beef industry most recently included six years with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), working in the areas of issues management, membership and communications. Prior to NCBA, she served as communication director for the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF), was compliance coordinator for the institutional animal care and use committee at Colorado State University, and was director of communications for the American Gelbvieh Association.

    She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from University of Colorado and a master’s degree in agriculture, with an emphasis in beef industry leadership, from Colorado State University. Polly has one son, Ryan, and lives in Denver with her husband, Randy.

    “The opportunity to serve farmers and ranchers in this way is an unparalleled honor,” Ruhland said. “I am committed to working every hour of every day to promote beef through the unique cooperation and coordination offered by the Beef Checkoff Program.”

    Chuck interviewed Polly at the summer cattle industry meeting last month and you can listen to that interview here. Polly Ruhland Interview

    Cattle Industry Conference

    Minnesota Biodiesel Plant Means Jobs

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The one four-letter word we hear more than any other these days is “JOBS” and that is what the re-opening of a southern Minnesota biodiesel plant this week is all about.

    At the opening celebration of the Renewable Energy Group (REG) REG Albert Lea facility on Monday, Minnesota state representative Rich Murray (left) and local Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Randy Kehr (right) both congratulated REG president Dan Oh (center) on fueling the economy by creating new jobs.

    “They’re great green collar jobs,” said Kehr, who noted the importance of the agriculture industry to the region. “If you take the value-added in soybeans here in Freeborn county on the seven million bushels that were harvested last year, that represents nearly $1,750,000 into our community.”

    Listen to the opening ceremony comments here. REG biodiesel plant opening ceremony

    Rep. Murray said that job creation is the number one priority for lawmakers. “I’m excited about the jobs, that’s why I’m here today,” he told me. “It’s a great value add for agriculture and agriculture is the back bone of southern Minnesota and of the whole state.”

    Minnesota has had an increasing biodiesel blend requirement since 2002, which is slated to go to 20 percent by 2015. “And this plant’s going to help us get there,” said Murray.

    Listen to my interview with Rep. Murray here. Minnesota state representative Rich Murray

    REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant photo album

    Audio, Biodiesel, Soybean

    IFAJ Congress Review

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 320At the beginning of the 2011 IFAJ Congress we heard a preview from Owen Roberts, Co-Chair of the event. Now we’re going to get a look back from Lilian Schaer, the other Co-Chair.

    In the photo both Lilian and Owen were thanked during our closing ceremonies and received gifts for all their hard work. Of course, they point to all the other people who volunteered to make this a great event. But it does take good leadership to help bring it all together.

    Lilian says the Congress was fantastic on a number of levels, including the fact that there were 260 people from more than 30 countries. She also wanted to thank all the sponsors who made it possible. There were a lot of stand out moments for her. One of them was when the native dancers performed during the opening reception. Another was during the closing session when all the country flags from IFAJ member countries were displayed. Lilian also pointed out that this was the IFAJ Congress with the most amount of social media participation. You can still see tweets happening with the Congress hashtag.

    Listen to my conversations with Lilian in this week’s ZimmCast: IFAJ Congress 2011 Review

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

    This week’s program ends with with music from Music Alley. It’s “New World Blues” by Aeons Promise. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

    2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

    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.

    Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
    Audio, IFAJ, ZimmCast

    BASF Helping Connect Farmers and Consumers

    Chuck Zimmerman

    As America gets ready for The Food Dialogues this week let’s hope that some of the excellent points made by BASF in this video come up in the discussion.

    Have you ever thought about how your food is produced? How connected do you feel?

    In the early days of human history everyone had to help find and prepare food for the community. People were intimately connected to the origins of their food.

    Today on the one hand consumers have grown apart from the origins of food production and they do not have the time to keep up on this topic. On the other hand the farmers who produce the food face many challenges.

    When we stay connected to our surroundings and our community – we have the chance to grow back together instead of further growing apart.

    More information: www.agro.basf.com.

    BASF, Food

    Farm Podcaster Tool

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The range and choice of tools available to today’s farm podcaster is getting bigger. Here’s the latest from TASCAM. The DR-40 looks like a good choice if you’re looking for affordability and features.

    The adjustable mics, four-track recording and extended battery life of the TASCAM DR-40 give you the flexibility you need to record tracks anywhere.

    The DR-40 captures up to four tracks from built-in, high-quality condenser microphones, XLR mic or line inputs. The internal mics are adjustable from XY to AB position, helping you to tailor your recording to the sound of the room. A pair of great-sounding TASCAM microphone preamps welcome condenser microphones with phantom power, recording at up to 96kHz/24-bit resolution. It accommodates balanced XLR or 1/4″ line inputs using locking Neutrik Combo jacks. The DR-40 accepts SD or SDHC cards up to 32GB, and a 2GB card is included.

    Once recorded, play back your takes with EQ and the optional Level Align feature to avoid volume jumps. A stereo reverb effect is also built-in, as well as a speaker and chromatic tuner. Transfer recordings to computer using the USB 2.0 jack. Other features include overdub mode, variable speed playback, limiting and low cut filter, and much more – all with TASCAM’s simple-to-use interface. No other recorder makes home or live recording as simple as the TASCAM DR-40.

    You can get it for $199.99 right now from BSW.

    Equipment

    Canadian Cooperative Thriving With Dry Beans & Edible Soybeans

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Hensall District Co-operative welcomed IFAJ members last week. Here’s CEO, Earl Wagner, who gave us an overview of the various business units of the co-operative. Before we settled in for his presentation and a tour of the facilities in Hensall, ON, we were treated to a variety of foods made with their products. They are known for their dry beans and edible soybeans and almost all of the products they grow are GMO free which has been important to their customers in Japan. One of the products we sampled was carrot cake made with bean and corn flour. I ate way more than I should but it was incredibly good!

    HDC is a diversified farmer-owned Ontario Agricultural Co-operative. Established in 1937, HDC is the largest independent agricultural co-operative in Ontario with 4000 members who elect 10 Board of Directors. HDC employs 300 staff members with annual sales of 328 million.

    I interviewed Earl after his presentation. He told me they have a very diversified business. Besides dry beans and edible soybeans they also produce a lot of corn and wheat. Last year they had a record crop but this year is down significantly. However, this year’s lower yields were a lot higher than just a few years ago.

    Interview with Earl Wagner

    Here’s a short video clip showing the gravity separator that “cleans the edible beans” as part of the preparation for shipping. We toured through the whole facility and around a growing collection of storage bins. There are a number of pictures in the photo album.

    2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

    Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
    Agribusiness, Audio, Cooperatives, IFAJ, Video

    IFAJ Visits Claynook Farms

    Chuck Zimmerman

    IFAJ members learned about the dairy business in Canada this week right on the farm. In this case we were at Claynook Farms visiting with Wayne and Dennis Wagler.

    The conversation with the dairy operators covered just about every topic you could imagine from genetics to marketing. I recorded part of a conversation with reporters in which I asked about their thoughts on the Canadian supply management system (more on that later). You can listen in on that Q&A here: Claynook Farms

    I also recorded a video clip with part of the discussion too.

    2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

    Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
    Audio, Dairy, Farming, IFAJ, Video