Understanding Recruitment Philosophy for Ag

Cindy Zimmerman

A panel discussion on recruitment philosophy for careers in agriculture at the AgCareers.com 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable on Tuesday featured a conversation from both the education and employer perspective.

Ashley Collins, Education Coordinator with AgCareers.com, moderated the panel which included Deanna Pieper of Crop Production Services, Stephanie Shampine of ADM, Catherine McGinnis from Penn State University, and Noah Freeman of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. “Probably the hot topic that came out of the discussion was parental involvement in college recruitment,” Ashley said. “Young students involving their parents in the interview process, job search process and job acceptance process and how companies are reacting to that and how universities are trying to help students help their parents with whether or not to be involved in that.”

Other topics was involvement with industry associations and organizations students, how resumes are changing, and the bottom line importance of good communications skills.

Listen to my interview with Ashely here: Ashley Collins of AgCareers.com

2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

AgCareers, Audio

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Victor Vasquez will retire as USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development, effective July 29, and Doug O’Brien will take his place, effective Aug. 1.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association launched its new website during the 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.
  • Kinze unveils “Autonomous grain cart” featuring a driver-less tractor. Watch the video to see the Kinze Automation Project demonstration.
  • The National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame Committee is pleased to share their selections for the 2011 class of inductees.
Zimfo Bytes

Hearing From Herman Cain

Chuck Zimmerman

This evening at our first general session we heard an awesome presentation from Presidential Candidate Herman Cain. As I walked out of the session I had one of our attendees say, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a presidential candidate get elected with whom you agreed with everything he said?” I can’t remember a one. Herman wowed the crowd and received multiple standing ovations. He spoke as one business man to another. That’s a very refreshing thing in today’s political world.

You can listen to the full presentation by Herman Cain here. Herman Cain Presentation

2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Alltech on Raising the Bar for Student Recruitment in Ag

Cindy Zimmerman

Instead of competing with each other for a limited talent pool, agribusinesses need to work together to increase interest in agricultural careers.

Dan Rice, Strategic Analyst with Alltech, spoke on Raising the Bar for Student Recruitment in agriculture at the AgCareers.com 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable on Tuesday morning. He says part of the issue is pubic perceptions of agriculture in general. “Everybody’s after the same resources so we’ve got to change the way we’re doing things in training our young people and getting them interested in agriculture,” Dan says.

Alltech used a venue at last year’s World Equestrian Games to reach out to the general public and educate them about careers in agriculture. The animal health company also sponsors a Young Scientist Program and offers students a chance to be involved in working on meetings Alltech holds around the country.

Find out more in my interview with Dan here: Interview with Alltech's Dan Rice

2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

AgCareers, Alltech, Audio

American National Cattlewomen Working at Summer Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

This afternoon as I was leaving one of the committee meetings at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference I ran in to two people I had hoped to find and interview. How coincidental is that and convenient too! So I spoke with Sarah Bohnenkamp (left) Program Manager, American National Cattlewomen (ANCW) and Tammi Didlot, President-Elect, ANCW.

I spoke first with Tammi. She says that ANCW holds meetings here like the other organizations to do planning for the future and conduct educational sessions for members. They set goals for committees and then look at how those committees are performing. She says they’re looking at new ways to educate youth and get collegiate cattlewomen involved.

You can listen to my interview with Tammi here. Tammi Didlot Interview

Sarah is managing the Beef Ambassador program as well as the Telling the Beef Story program. ZimmComm sponsors the Beef Ambassador Blog and this was my first chance to meet Sarah in person. She says the ambassadors have been out at very large consumer events connecting with people who are curious about things they’ve read and heard about beef, a lot of which is from very uninformed sources. Sarah says that just like other Beef Checkoff funded programs, she has authorization requests in for committee review here at the Summer Conference. We wish her well with her presentation tomorrow.

You can listen to my interview with Sarah here. Sarah Bohnenkamp Interview

2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference

NCBA Offers Cattle Producers Drought Resources

Joanna Schroeder

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) offers many services to its members (such as the newly launched www.beefusa.org website) including producer education. During the Cattle Industry Summer Conference today, I was able to spend some time with To Field, NCBA’s executive director of field eduction to learn more about some of the myriad of resources available.

Field said they do a number of things under the purvey of producer education but one that they are especially proud of is their work in the Stockmanship & Stewardship Tour where they feature a number of their clinicians including Ron Gill from Texas and Curt Pate from Montana. Within this program, producers are reminded of the time honored art of stockmanship and low stress cattle handling, which does a couple of things.

“One, we improve productivity of cattle when we handle cattle correctly, and secondly, we improve our image as an industry,” said Field.

Another key issue for NCBA’s members is the hemorrhaging of research and development at land grant universities and NCBA is working on developing solutions for this trend. In addition economic turmoil along with long-term drought have been, and continue to be critical issues in the South. Field said this, along with unfavorable policy is causing some ranchers to liquidate their businesses.

“The reality is that drought has been an ever present risk on our business. We’re a land dependent, weather affected industry and have been since the first cattle came to this country,” said Field. “Drought on a wide spread scale does two things. One, it limits the opportunity for producers to have choices in how they manage cattle. Secondly, at some point in time it creates a cost structure to where break evens aren’t even possible in this historic high markets and so liquidation becomes the option.”

Despite the current challenges, Field does think producers will come back when conditions improve.

Listen to my interview with Tom Field here: Tom Field Interview

Photos from the conference will be posted to this photo album: 2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album. Check it often as we add to it over the next several days.

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

Farm Credit Sponsors America’s Heartland

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Ag Media Summit I met Michael Sanford, head of production at KVIE Public Television which produces America’s Heartland, the tv show about agriculture that airs on PBS stations and RFDTv.

Michael says the show is going into its seventh season. He says that Farm Credit, the InfoExpo booth in the photo, has come on board as a primary sponsor. He says they’ll be traveling to all fifty states producing stories and they will have some new features that include Ask a Farmer, Off the Shelf and others.

You can listen to my conversation with Michael here: Michael Sanford Interview

2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by BASF and AgHaven
Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, Audio, Media

Merial Sponsors News Center and Introduces New Products

Chuck Zimmerman

The sponsor for the news center at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is Merial. We really appreciate their support of the ag media who cover the conference. Here are some of the things you’ll find new from the company.

Merial is putting the spotlight on parasite control through a bold new program called “EPRINEX Kills It.” Because economic losses from parasite infections of cattle can be significant,1 effective parasite control is vital to the health of a herd and the profitability of an operation. In fact, of all the animal health practices used to increase production, treating beef cows for parasites gives the greatest economic return – up to $201 per head.

To set its parasite control messaging apart and emphasize product performance, Merial put a humorous twist on the features of its IVOMEC EPRINEX product.

Here’s one of the videos that Merial produced for the campaign.

Merial has also just introduced a new product – ZACTRAN®.

ZACTRAN® (gamithromycin), a new antimicrobial from Merial, provides producers with a rapid-response weapon in the battle against BRD.1 It can be used for control of BRD in high-risk cattle or as a first-pull treatment of sick cattle.

“BRD causes between $800 to $900 million annually in economic losses from death, reduced feed efficiency and treatment costs.3 Given the significant impact of BRD, producers need cattle to respond quickly to treatment,” says Bruce Nosky, DVM, Manager, Merial’s Large Animal Veterinary Services. “In field studies, cattle treated with ZACTRAN showed a rapid improvement in BRD clinical signs.1 More than three- quarters of the cattle with a fever had a significant decrease in temperature within 24 hours.4 And the majority of those cattle treated with ZACTRAN remained healthy throughout the 10-day study.”

2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Beef Board Leadership Kicks Off Summer Work

Chuck Zimmerman

The leadership for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board kicked off their meetings with the Executive Committee this morning. Leading the way is Acting Chairman Wesley Grau (center). I spoke to him before things got started. He says they’ll be working on industry solutions and “settling some of the dust that’s been stirred up the last few years and we’re basically changing our attitude and getting on with the job of promoting beef.” He says the “Checkoff is as good as its ever been.” However, if you adjust the Checkoff dollar for inflation and other factors you’re only using about 23% as much money to promote beef as in 1985!

You can listen to my interview with Wesley here. Wesley Grau Interview

The Beef Board Interim CEO is Polly Ruhland (left). I asked her about the type of activities the Beef Board will be involved in here at the summer meeting. Polly says the Beef Board meets with the joint committees and reviews all of the authorization requests for proposed work that the Operating Committee will then review in September. It’s grass roots in action as cattle producers meet here in all these committees. It’s a very important meeting for the Beef Checkoff.

Polly also told me that she has spoken with quite a few board members recently and of course the staff. She says they’re all excited to move forward and have the stuff that has been happening behind them. She calls it a renewed relationship with NCBA and the Federation of State Beef Councils.

Polly also describes the “dashboard” that has been created to monitor the progress being made on the new industry long range plan. This includes a regular check on the objectives which will be done here at this meeting.

You can listen to my interview with Polly here. Polly Ruhland Interview

2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Shining Boots at Cattle Industry Summer Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

A cattle industry conference of any kind is a great place for a shoeshine expert to find work. Lisa Crawford, Solefully Yours, loves her cowboys and has been shining shoes and boots for 30 years! Lisa took care of my shoes earlier this morning. I think the last time I saw Lisa was at a Missouri Cattlemen’s convention. She does get around.

Lisa started working for a company before starting her own later in her career. When she had a chance to work at a trade show she moved into that niche and has been doing it ever since. Usually she is working at a convention for a sponsor. Here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference her sponsor is Roto-Mix. You can find her set up in the lobby in front of registration.

You can listen to my interview with Lisa here. Lisa Crawford Interview

2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Audio, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA