Social Media at AgCareers.com Ag HR Roundtable

Cindy Zimmerman

ZimmCast 314This edition of the ZimmCast features a couple of interviews from the AgCareers.com 2011 Ag HR Roundtable held last week in West Lafayette, Indiana where social media in the spotlight – like it is everywhere!

One of the featured speakers at the event was Eve Mayer Orsburn, CEO of Social Media Delivered, one of the largest social media optimization companies in the world. Eve has developed this multi-national company in just three years, serving clients like GM and Sheraton with consulting, training and managing their social media services. Eve also hosts a weekly radio show called “Social Media for the CEO” and is author of a book by the same name.

Eve spoke to the Ag HR Roundtable about how companies can use social media in their recruiting efforts, as well as their marketing efforts. She will get more in-depth on that topic at an AgCareers.com workshop in Des Moines, October 12-13 titled “Implementing A Successful Social Media Strategy to Boost Recruitment.” The first 25 participants to register for the workshop will get a complimentary copy of her book “The Social Media Business Equation.”

Kathryn Doan coordinates social media efforts for AgCareers.com from the company’s Guelph, Ontario office. Kathryn grew up on a dairy farm and is now a turkey and cash crop farmer with her husband in Ontario. She talks about the AgCareers.com social media strategy and their goals to create conversation within the agriculture and food industries.

Listen to my conversations with Eve and Kathryn in this week’s ZimmCast: Social Media and AgCareers

2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

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

AgCareers, Audio, Social Networking, ZimmCast

Baby Raccoons?

Melissa Sandfort

What do you get when you cross a Black Kitty with a raccoon? Four odd-looking baby kittens! I doubt if Black Kitty mated with a raccoon, but her offspring sure look as though she did. These newborn kittens have gray bodies, black heads and ringed tails. They’re the oddest foursome I’ve ever seen – and faces only a mother (and me) could love.

Of course, the birth happened while I was out of town, but my husband and son took good care of them. We’re still debating about names and as creative as we get, they’ll probably end up named One, Two, Three and Four.

Black Kitty’s mothering skills have been superb but I’m not sure where she’s getting the strength and energy since she’s still scrawny as all get-out.

Pretty soon they’ll be able to move from the garage to the shed we’re building out front. I think the hay bales will make for a perfect winter get-away. In the meantime, we just have to be careful pulling in and out of the garage!

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

    Amanda Radke – Chidren’s Book Author

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Former AgWired contributor and current daily blog editor for BEEF Magazine Amanda Radke is now a published author of a new book for kids.

    “I’m pleased to announce the release of “Levi’s Lost Calf” (ISBN 1463514425), an illustrated children’s book that offers young readers a glimpse of life on a working cattle ranch,” Amanda said in an email to friends this weekend.

    When a young boy, Levi, rides out one autumn morning with his family to roundup the cattle and bring them home from the pasture he quickly sees a number of familiar faces. But, Levi was surprised to learn that one calf was missing – Little Red, his favorite red heifer calf. Determined to find the calf and prove his independence, he begins to search with his horse Pepper and trusty dog Gus. In his hunt for Little Red, Levi discovers a whole world of fun, playful animals living on the ranch, and Levi invites the reader to help find the baby calf before the sun goes down.

    In a time where today’s consumers are three generations removed from the family farm, this book will introduce kids to ranchers who serve as stewards of the land and the caregivers to the many animals. Readers will get to experience a real-life cowboy adventure, complete with horses, cattle and a new understanding for where our food comes from. Parents will enjoy the positive message of the book and might be reminded of the good old days when they may have visited Grandpa’s farm.

    Featuring original illustrations by cattle rancher Michelle Weber, the book is intended to inform and entertain young readers while helping them to understand what life is like on a cattle ranch. The book also features a kid-friendly recipe for “Hungry Cowboy Tin Foil Dinner and Dessert” and a glossary to help explain ranch terminology. “Levi’s Lost Calf” is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.

    Amanda will be on a book signing tour starting this month at Dakotafest in her home town of Mitchell, SD. You can order the book on-line here.

    Congrats, Amanda – this is so cool!

    Beef

    John Deere Gearing Up For Major Product Launch

    Chuck Zimmerman

    At the Ag Media Summit I visited with Barry Nelson, John Deere, to find out what’s new. There is definitely going to be something new from John Deere very soon he says.

    “On August 24th and 25th we are going to have the largest most significant product introduction in our history.” Barry says the new equipment will be unveiled at the Farm Progress Show. I’ll be there for the launch in August and can’t wait to see what’s new.

    You can listen to my conversation with Barry here: Barry Nelson Interview

    2011 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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

    Parting Comments from Ag HR Roundtable

    Cindy Zimmerman

    By any measure, the 9th AgCareers.com North American Ag HR Roundtable was a big success and next year will likely be even bigger and better.

    I talked with Emily Gray with the University of Tennessee College of Ag Sciences and Natural Resources who has attended every one of the nine roundtables. “This is a very valuable event,” she told me. “It gives us as career service professionals from the universities a great opportunity to network with companies who hire our students. We’re always impressed year after year with the variety of companies who attend, the interest they have in our students and the number of companies we’re able to network with.”

    Listen to my interview with Emily here: Emily Gray, University of Tennessee

    There were 90 companies in attendance at the event this year, the most ever by far according to AgCareers.com, with a wide variety ranging from precision agriculture, to seed companies, biotechnology, and even artificial insemination.

    Pioneer is one company that has supported the Roundtable from the beginning, hosting three of the nine events at company headquarters in Iowa, including the very first one. I didn’t get a chance to interview them – but here is a photo of a few of their representatives – Alan Roberts, Tom Drake who conducted one of the breakout sessions, and Human Resources Manager Cindy Heser.

    Finally, I interviewed the sole international participant at the Roundtable, Mick Hay of the Australia-based Rimfire Resources – but I somehow didn’t get a photo of him. No matter, you’ll enjoy his Aussie accent in the interview!

    Mick says Rimfire is a recruitment and consulting business specializing in agribusiness – kind of like a down under AgCareers. “Not as much an on-line model as AgCareers, but we’ve got a relationship where we took the AgCareers site and launched that in Australia,” Mick says. He was glad to be able to attend the Roundtable and get some new ideas to implement back home.

    Listen to my interview with Mick here: Mick Hay, Rimfire Resources

    2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

    AgCareers, Audio, Pioneer, University

    The Importance of Soft Skills to Employers

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Soft skills are as important in the job market as software is to a computer.

    Soft skills include areas such as communications, leadership, problem-solving, self-management and professionalism – some of which must be developed over time rather than taught in a classroom – but the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) is taking a look at how their courses might be adjusted to do more to develop those skills.

    To that end, they did a survey this year, which participants at the AgCareers.com 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable last week got a preview of prior to it being officially unveiled at the APLU National Summit on Curricula Reform. Over 8,000 survey participants included students, faculty, alumni and employers from 31 universities and 282 companies.

    APLU’s Associate Director for Food, Agriculture & Natural Resources Programs Wendy Fink says they found through the survey that the base of all the soft skills was communications. “If you can’t communicate, you really can’t do the others,” she told me. “That’s quickly followed by decision making and then self-management.” She says the biggest surprise in the study was that international experience was not valued as highly by employers as they expected.

    The results of the study will be used by universities to evaluate their curricula going forward.

    Listen to my interview with Wendy here: Wendy Fink with APLU

    Attendees at the Ag HR Roundtable were able to participate in a live survey based on some of the questions in the soft skill survey. Watch a couple of the question and responses in this YouTube video:

    2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

    AgCareers, Audio, Video

    Fishing In The Heat Wave

    Chuck Zimmerman

    After taking care of business at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference a few of us had to get a little R&R. So we followed Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet, to his place at Cedar Island at Keaton Beach. Tagging along are Mike Deering, NCBA and Evan Slack, the Evan Slack Radio Network. Today’s Evan’s birthday so make sure you wish him a happy one.

    We have had two days of scorching heat but we did get some fish to bite. Our cooler had more in it yesterday but for the dog days of summer we felt pretty good about it. This afternoon we’re switching gears and going out scalloping before calling it quits. If you’re interested we’ve got some photos online here.

    If you’re ever over this way and need a good guide then call Captain Edward Thomas, T.G.I.F. Charters. Cappy knows where to go and when. We highly recommend him.

    It’s nice to have a couple days away from the agriblogging highway. Tomorrow we’ll be homeward bound and then off to another adventure on Monday.

    Uncategorized

    AMR Management Services Acquires Drake & Company

    Cindy Zimmerman

    DrakeCo is now part of a bigger association management company.

    AMR Management Services (AMR), a full-service association management company (AMC) serving national, regional and local client partners, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Drake & Company (DrakeCo), an accredited AMC based in Chesterfield, Mo.

    “I have known Steve Drake for more than 15 years and have always admired his commitment and passion to our industry,” said John Ruffin, CAE, AMR President and CEO. “I am honored that he would trust me to continue his commitments to the DrakeCo clients and team members.”

    “John’s offer came at an opportune time for me,” said Steve Drake, President of Drake & Company. “It allows me to start slowing down while continuing my passions of speaking about generational differences, social media and consulting with associations to develop strong boards.”

    AMR will maintain the DrakeCo office in Chesterfield, Mo., in addition to its headquarters in Lexington, Ky. Steve will be staying on to serve as a consultant to AMR through the transition and will be available ongoing to serve AMR’s clients and others through speaking and consulting engagements. In addition, all the DrakeCo employees have joined the AMR team and will continue supporting existing DrakeCo clients. DrakeCo Vice Presidents Hugh Whaley and Brian Reuwee will be retained as vice presidents in the new organizational structure while Nick Ruffin will oversee the day-to-day activities of the combined company.

    Agencies, Agribusiness

    Agricultural Bio-based Careers are Booming

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Novozymes was one of the companies that participated in the AgCareers.com 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable held this past week at Purdue University. Novozymes is a Danish-based international company which specializes in enzymes for bioag products, biofuels and bio-pharmaceuticals.

    Novozymes Recruitment and Employer Branding Manager Darlene Godsey says the company’s workforce has increased tremendously just in the last five years. “With the growth of biofuels specifically in the U.S., we grew substantially, doubling the size of our R&D team and trying to support the growth of the biofuels industry was what drove a lot of it,” she said. Godsey spoke to the roundtable of more than 150 agribusiness employers, professional organizations and college career counselors about what Novozymes is doing to recruit new “Zymers,” the term they use to describe their employees.

    Godsey says they worked with a marketing company to develop special tokens that current Zymers could hand out to prospective Zymers. The token sends them to a special website that serves to introduce them to the Novozymes culture and help determine if they would be a good fit. “We wanted the experience for the employees and candidates to be reflective of how we work, that we do things differently, we are innovative and we challenge conventions,” she said.

    The Zymer token program was just introduced in March and Godsey says they have already hired six people from that data base. “I have a target of 20 percent of our hires coming from the referral data base in the future,” she said.

    Listen to my interview with Darlene here: Interview with Darlene Godsey of Novozymes

    2011 AgCareers Ag HR Roundtable photo album.

    AgCareers, Audio, Biofuels, Biotech