Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Honda Power Equipment announced a new agreement with John Deere to sell Honda premium power products at participating John Deere dealerships in the United States.
  • Producers and veterinarians looking to make more informed decisions to advance genetic progress in their herds have a new educational resource from Pfizer Animal Genetics.
  • Cargill introduced Vitex AYS stabilizers, a customizable functional system that enables dairy food manufacturers to manage raw material costs in yogurt while still providing consumers with the same creamy products they expect.
  • A campaign – called FuelChoiceNow – will ask lawmakers to take every reasonable step to open U.S. transportation fuel markets to alternative fuels.
Zimfo Bytes

Biodiesel Falls Under Minnesota Ag Marketing & Development

Cindy Zimmerman

Fields of soybeans surround the newly re-opened Renewable Energy Group REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant in southern Minnesota, serving as a reminder of where the renewable fuel is rooted.

Christina Connelly with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Ag Marketing and Development Division attended the grand re-opening Monday of the 30 million gallon a year plant, which was shut down in 2008 due to the economic situation in the biofuels industry at the time. Christina manages the bioenergy programs within the division. “We’ve had the bioenergy programs at the department since back in the ’80s when corn and soybean prices were real low and biofuels were seen as an additional market,” she says. “So we’ve had it housed in the marketing department ever since and we’ve done a lot with ethanol and biodiesel over the years to help jump start both those industries.”

Christina says they are very excited to see the biodiesel plant re-open to get production back on track in the state since getting capacity back to where it was a few years ago means about 6800 direct and indirect jobs for the state.

Listen to or download interview with Christina here. Christina Connelly with Minnesota Department of Agriculture

REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant photo album

Biodiesel, Biofuels, Soybean

USFRA Food Dialogues Now Live

Chuck Zimmerman

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Food Dialogues, is now live for your viewing pleasure. You can watch live on the Food Dialogues website or by using the Food Dialogues app on Facebook. That’s where I’m watching.

You can interact by signing in and post your comments and questions. This is what USFRA is looking for and hoping there will be a lot of participation.

Post Update: In case you missed this live stream I’m sure it will be available on the website somehow later. In the meantime you can listen to the opening segment I recorded here: USFRA Food Dialogue Open

Post Update: The Food Dialogues program has ended. If you missed the conversation you can still check the tweet stream with the #FoodD hashtag and it’s my understanding that there will be video in it’s entirety available on the Food Dialogues website.

USFRA

Lightsquared Solution To GPS Concerns Not Well Received By Industry

Chuck Zimmerman

Yesterday Lightsquared announced a “solution” to concerns over interference with GPS systems from it’s proposed wireless broadband network.

LightSquared™, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and industry innovation, has signed an agreement with Javad GNSS Inc. to develop a system that will eliminate related interference issues for high-precision GPS devices.

The Javad GNSS system can be adapted to work with high-precision GPS devices including those already in the agriculture, surveying, construction and defense industries. (full release)

I’m not sure how forcing farmers and all kinds of people, especially those defending our country, to purchase new equipment that will have to be installed to keep their current GPS systems working is a real solution to what appears to be a very real problem. I’m all for more and better choices for broadband, especially in rural areas but not at the expense of GPS systems that perform very critical functions. This action seems to be an admission by Lightsquared that the concerns are real. Otherwise, why do this? I asked the Coalition to Save Our GPS for their response and got it right away.

“LightSquared has, as usual, oversimplified and greatly overstated the significance of the claims of a single vendor to have ‘solved’ the interference issue. There have been many vendor claims that have not proven out in rigorous tests and the demanding tests of marketplace acceptance. Moreover, this is not a one-size-fits-all situation and a few prototypes does not a solution make. The estimated 750,000 to 1 million high-precision GPS receivers now in use in the United States vary widely: there are hundreds of different high-precision devices used in performing thousands of different tasks. High-precision GPS supports a wide variety of uses, including agriculture, construction, aviation, surveying and many scientific and safety-of-life applications.

“LightSquared also ignores that fact that availability of new products, even if confirmed, does not address this very large existing base of equipment. If and when solutions are available, LightSquared must accept responsibility for paying to replace the existing base of existing equipment with new products.

“In any case, this is not an issue that can be solved with a LightSquared press release. As the FCC and NTIA recently recognized, more testing is necessary to evaluate interference impacts under LightSquared’s latest technical proposals. We welcome the participation of Javad in those tests.”

Equipment, Internet

USFRA Releases Consumer/Farmer Survey Results

Chuck Zimmerman

Today the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance released the results of a survey they conducted in July/August. They surveyed 2,417 consumers and 1,002 farmers/ranchers, both on a nationwide basis. The graphic below shows a comparison of the top five things consumers want more information about with the top five things farmers/ranchers think are most important to educate consumers about. You can find a more comprehensive summary of the results with this link (pdf).

The survey results will play a key role in guiding discussion of today’s Food Dialogues. You can watch these town hall meetings online and use the #FoodD hashtag on Twitter to follow along and interact with the conversation. One of the panelists is Rick Stott, Executive Vice President, Agri Beef Co. I visited with him yesterday to learn how and why he got involved and what he hopes the event will accomplish.

Rick says that his company has been interested in becoming more open with consumers for many years and thinks the industry should too. He says that there has been a “cloud of unknown” within the ag industry that has “fundamentally allowed other people to tell our story.” He says they have yet to have a negative experience with anyone who has visited their operations. As a result of their own interests he believes what USFRA is doing is very important and that is why he got involved. He says the dialogue concept of the town hall meetings will allow for two way communication and he hopes to see a tremendous amount of interest in watching and participating. Using the internet as the vehicle to make it all happen just makes sense to him. One of the exciting things to him for using this communication platform is that the information will be “filtered” far less than would have been the case just using traditional media channels. He hopes this will make the dialogue healthier.

You can listen to or download my conversation with Rick here: Rick Stott interview

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Beef, Farming, Food, USFRA

Apple Pie for Cheaters

Melissa Sandfort

My grandmother can cook and bake about anything. You give her your shopping list with all fresh ingredients from the garden and she can make at least eight different goodies. That was one of my biggest fears when I got married: how in the world was I going to come up with a healthy, hearty meal every night of the week? It’s a talent that I was praying would be passed down from my grandmothers and my mother.

Most days, I don’t do too bad but my weakness when it comes to desserts is pies. Maybe it’s because the only one I’ll eat is my grandma’s chocolate pie. How un-American, I know. Either way, my husband is suffering because of my lack of enthusiasm in this area.

I did, however, stumble across a recipe for an easy apple pie – for cheaters like me. It’s so easy all you do is cut up a couple of apples, toss in some dry ingredients and an egg, then bake. Viola! I now have a happy husband.

You can find my recipe here.

My grandparents went to an orchard last week and brought home 3, 5-gallon buckets of apples. I bet my husband knows what will be in his lunch for the next two weeks!

Until we walk again …

Food

NAFB Foundation Seeking Auction Items

Cindy Zimmerman

Gift certificates, gift baskets, sports tickets, electronics, art work … got any you would like to donate to support the future of farm broadcasting?

The NAFB Foundation is seeking items for its annual fundraising auction at the convention in November.

Generous donations in past years have helped provide financial support and educational opportunities for young people in pursuit of careers in agricultural communications – like this year’s three scholarship recipients and five station and network interns.

Also, new to the auction this year, they are looking for advertising package donations, which any station or network can contribute.

Other ideas:
Hotel stays/Getaway package
Experiences (hunting package, backstage tickets, cattle drive, winery package, etc.)
Jewelry
Handmade quilts
Collectibles and memorabilia

An auction donation form can be found on-line. Contact the NAFB office or email jennifer@nafb.com if you have questions.

NAFB

Canadian Agriculture 101

Chuck Zimmerman

While attending the 2011 IFAJ Congress one of our panel discussions was titled, “Canadian Agriculture 101.” First up was Jack Wilkinson, farm community leader and member of the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame, pictured at the podium along with Richard Doyle, Executive Director, Dairy Farmers of Canada and President, International Dairy Federation and Jay Bradshaw, Syngenta Canada. I thought I’d share the remarks made by Richard since I find the dairy industry system in Canada very interesting. It also represents the types of presentations we enjoy at an IFAJ Congress.

A big part of Richard’s presentation deals with the supply management system in Canada that is “based on planned domestic production, administered pricing and dairy product import controls.” There are licensed quotas and various other components to the system which you can read about in this pdf. A good source of information is the Canadian Dairy Information Centre. They national system was introduced in 1970. Listen to his presentation here: Richard Doyle Presentation

2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
Ag Groups, Audio, Dairy, IFAJ, International

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.

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