Temporary Decoration

Melissa Sandfort

I talked a little bit about the new construction going on in our front yard – the new shed. Last week, instead of focusing on my flowers and deer skull and new maple tree as decorations, I had to snap a photo of the latest lawn adornment – an 18-wheeler. It wasn’t there for long, but the tire tracks in the grass still remain.

This semi delivered all the materials for our new shop, including monstrous trusses. Our driveway is a sharp angle off the country road, so he had to drive in through the ditch … right into our front yard. On top of that, in order to get the trusses off the truck and into the construction area, my husband had to use his forklift and you guessed it, drive through the front yard.

I’m not much for fancy plush-looking grass, but I AM the one who mows around here and I don’t appreciate more ruts in the yard for me to bounce over and through. All complaining aside, it’s par for the course to get a shed and a lean-to for the horses for winter.

Oh, and new sleeping quarters for black kitty and her raccoon kids.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Corn is Sweet on Strom’s Farm

Chuck Zimmerman

Getting $7/dozen for sweet corn in Canada is a pretty sweet deal for Channing Strom, owner along with his wife Amy, of Strom’s Farm. Especially if you sell an average of 10-12 thousand dozen. I caught a picture of Channing, who is outstanding in his field, during our visit to the farm today. He drove a wagon load of IFAJ folks around before dinner this evening. On this farm the Strom’s grow sweet corn and pumpkins for people to come out a purchase. They promise that the sweet corn you buy is never more than two hours from the stalk! They also create a six acre corn maze using field corn and have a variety of other family fun features that bring out thousands of people to spend several hours of outdoor enjoyment. It is agri-tourism done right. You can see part of our group taking the corn maze challenge in the photo below.

The Stroms are part of Taste Real, a branding initiative for locally grown food in the Guelph Wellington area.

When you see the taste real logo, you know that you are experiencing food grown close to home! When you see the logo at farmers markets, farm gate stalls, on-farm stores, at your favourite retail outlets, restaurants and places to stay you will know it is home to real local food. The brand exists to support local businesses and farms and represents a group of people who are ….Passionate about the way local food is grown, prepared, presented and enjoyed, and how real it tastes!

You can listen to my interview with Channing here: Channing Strom Interview

Our on-farm dinner included fresh picked and boiled sweet corn. It is definitely some of the best I’ve ever eaten. Having more than one ear was desert for me! There are plenty more photos in my photo album from our trip to the farm this evening.

2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

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

AGROTAIN Displays Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Farm Progress Show I stopped in at the “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World” and visited with Jeff Whetstine, AGROTAIN. The company worked with several others to put together a massive display of corn test plots that demonstrate the work of Dr. Fred Below which is aimed at finding out how much new high tech products can improve yield in corn. Jeff describes how they put the test plots together that are part of the exhibit and how they dealt with very challenging summer weather conditions. Jeff says Dr. Below has been able to show a 50 bushel yield difference between a grower’s standard practice and the “high tech package.”

You can listen to my interview with Jeff here: Interview with Jeff Whetstine

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
Agribusiness, Audio, Corn, Farm Progress Show

Motivation For IFAJ Master Class/Boot Camp Students

Chuck Zimmerman

How do you stay positive even when you’re in a negative environment? The IFAJ Master Class and Boot Camp class attendees heard multiple ways from motivational speaker Declan Coyle, Andec Communications. Declan’s presentation was sponsored by Alltech. I heard him first earlier this year at the Alltech Symposium.

Declan uses a strategy based on what he calls the green platform. Think of your thoughts and actions as if you’re looking at a traffic light. Red stops you but green makes you go. So when you think negatively you’re on the red platform. When you think positively you’re on the green platform. Of course this is where you want to be. Declan provided many anecdotes from his own personal life as well others from various studies and individuals who have lived a life that provided a good example of his points. I recorded one of those stories for you.

You can listen to a portion of Declan’s presentation here: Declan Coyle Presentation

I have started a photo album for the 2011 IFAJ Congress. It will contain photos from the pre-Congress classes I’m attending, the Outdoor Farm Show and the full Congress: 2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

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

Welcome to Canada and IFAJ 2011

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s time for the 2011 IFAJ games to begin. Kim Waalderbos, freelance writer, is checking us in this afternoon at my hotel. I’ve already run into several of my IFAJ friends that I haven’t seen in a couple of years.

Tonight we have a welcoming reception for participants in the pre-Congress Master Class/BootCamp. I thought I’d take advantage of some lobby wireless while my room is getting ready.

This program will get started with sessions tomorrow morning. I’m sharing duties for one of them in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to working with a diverse group of ag journalists!

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

Mac Light

Chuck Zimmerman

Good morning from the agriblogging highway. My Mojo (mobile journalism kit) is getting lighter. This is my new Macbook Air. Came in yesterday afternoon and I am hoping I’ve got it all set up. I’ll find out this week in Canada while attending the 2011 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress.

First impressions of the Macbook Air are very positive. I have a 13″, i7 processor w/256GB SSD. It’s fast and thin and light and so far so good. With this new laptop I did not do a Time Machine restore from my other Macbook Pro backup. I started clean and had to install all programs and transfer only the files I want. I’m going to use an external drive even more to keep this hard drive as clean as possible.

Time to board so I’ll see you from Canada!

Uncategorized

ScoutPro Announced at FPS

Chuck Zimmerman

Entrepreneurship is alive and well at Iowa State University. I visited with Michael Koenig at the Farm Progress Show about it.

ScoutPro, a business started by 3 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students at Iowa State University will be launching their first products: ScoutPro Lite™ Soybean and ScoutPro Lite™ Corn at the 2011 Farm Progress Show on Aug 30-31 and Sept. 1, in Decatur, IL.

Seniors Michael Koenig, Holden Nyhus and junior Stuart McCulloh founded the new venture, ScoutPro, a software applications development company, following their involvement in an entrepreneurship in agriculture course taught by Kevin Kimle, director of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative at Iowa State University.

The company has developed a crop scouting app which eliminates the guess work in crop scouting, while increasing producer’s efficiency and profitability. Through systematic questions, the app narrows down pests to ensure a correct identification. Additionally, the app creates field specific crop scouting reports to help producers make better management decisions. The ScoutPro Lite™ apps are compatible on all smartphones, iPads or other tablet devices.

In addition to the app, producers will also be able to manage all scouting reports and gain access to aggregated pest data through their own private, secure website.

ScoutPro Interview

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Precision Agriculture

Pioneer Offers Local Resources to Improve Profitability

Cindy Zimmerman

farm progress show 2011Pioneer Hi-Bred’s big announcement at the 2011 Farm Progress Show was a new program focused on evaluating innovative production practices on a local basis through a national network of agronomy trial managers (ATMs).

“The focus is really local,” says Curt Clausen, Pioneer agronomy sciences director. “It’s really about local crop management, innovation and knowledge.”

Pioneer is doubling the number of ATMs currently in the field to over 40 in the next three years. “This is the next level of service to our customers,” Curt said during the Pioneer press conference at FPS.

Listen to Curt’s press comments, introduced by Pioneer’s Jerry Harrington, here. Curt Clausen of Pioneer

farm progress show 2011One of the real live Pioneer ATMs out in the field is Jake Vossenkemper from the Decatur area, who says growers have hundreds of agronomy questions that they want answered. “They want to do the best job they can just like everyone else and our job is to step in and help them answer those questions,” Jake says.

Jake says Pioneer has been performing some specific experiments in certain regions, like an intensive soybean management experiment to look at factors that have been shown to consistently increase soybean yields. “Some of those factors include seed treatments, foliar applied pesticides and fungicides, as well as planting date,” he said.

Listen to Jake’s comments here. Pioneer ATM Jake Vossenkemper

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
Farm Progress Show, Farming, Pioneer

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, announced the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards, a new program to recognize dairy farms, businesses and collaborative partnerships for efforts that deliver outstanding economic, environmental and/or social benefit.
  • The 2012 Potato Industry Leadership Institute will be held Feb. 23 to March 1, 2012. The Institute is an eight-day program designed to identify, develop and cultivate new leaders within the potato industry.
  • The USDA announced that Washington state potato growers voted to continue their federal marketing order program.
  • According to data released by the federal government, U.S. ethanol exports in July set a new monthly record.
Zimfo Bytes

David Aeschliman Starts Growth Enterprises

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 318In this week’s program let’s get caught up with Dave Aeschliman, Growth Enterprises. If you don’t know David then you’re missing one of the original Advertising Rat Pack members who took this dude under their wing starting at NAMA meetings once upon a time. We got connected via my post last week about missing Gary McKenna, who was also one of the members of that infamous group.

David has just recently started a new business called Growth Enterprises. He works directly with companies to create a strategic growth plan that’s very comprehensive. He also works on a pay for performance basis. In our conversation he provides a phone number if you want to reach him. His business is so new the website isn’t ready for prime time yet. David says new communications technology have certainly changed the way you do marketing today. I think you’ll appreciate some of his comments.

Listen to my conversations with Dave in this week’s ZimmCast: Growth Enterprises

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 “Oh Canada” by Danny Fong. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

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, ZimmCast