A Blast From My Past

Melissa Sandfort

I’m starting to age myself by writing this column. See, I show you pictures of Grandpa’s old things, but then I go and post pictures of MY old toys and you can tell just how old I really am!

These are the rollerskates I used as a kid and get this – you left your shoes on and they adjusted as your feet grew. Do any of you remember these? If you hit a pebble, you were taking a nosedive to the ground. And forget a stopper on the front…you had to skid sideways to put a halt to your fun. I later graduated up to a pair of white slip-on rollerskates with a pink stopper, for which my grandmother knitted a pink “puff” that tied to the shoelaces. That was big-time.

These old metal skates have long been retired and the skating rink burned down, but they do bring back memories. Disco balls, slow-skates, skating trains, birthday parties…

Until we walk again …

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Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Michael Dillon and Michael “Smitty” Smith, will lead Osborn & Barr’s creative efforts, serving as executive creative directors. Adnan Sabic also joins the team with returning creative talents Zach Arnold and David Boesch.
  • A reliable supply of high quality ammonium thiosulphate will soon be available to ag producers throughout the Upper Midwest as a result of an agreement between Kugler Company and Hydrite Chemical Company.
  • National Corn Growers Association President Bart Schott presented the President’s Award to Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).
  • Scientific Certification Systems is now an accredited certification body for the Bonsucro standard for sustainable sugarcane.
    Zimfo Bytes

    2011 NAMA Boot Camp

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Are you new to agrimarketing? Want to do some industry networking? How about NAMA Boot Camp? The National Agri-Marketing Association has a full program lined up.

    Whether you’ve just entered the rough working world or one who’s been through the NAMA Boot Camp drill before, sign up for this program today to learn more about the agri-marketing industry. This year the Boot Camp will take it to a new level expanding on marketing and agriculture basics.

    Join the National Agri-Marketing Association for the 8th annual NAMA Boot Camp, August 16-18, 2011 in Kansas City.

    All attendees will receive a notebook packed with agricultural terminology, facts, case studies and speaker presentations. This notebook has become one of the most popular aspects of the boot camp experience.

    Register here.

    NAMA

    ARC 2012 Spring Meeting Will Be In Charleston, SC

    Chuck Zimmerman

    If you’re looking at things to put on your 2012 calendar then mark down March 21-21 for the Agricultural Relations Council spring meeting. It will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Charleston, SC.

    The annual meeting, held in February the past several years, was moved to March by the ARC board of directors at its meeting in Fort Myers in February. “The board felt moving the meeting a month forward to late March would get us beyond most of the major mid-winter ag trade shows,” said Mace Thornton, ARC board president. “We are excited about Charleston and the move to March.”

    Watch for more information from ARC on the program for the meeting. If you’re interested in serving on the program committee, please contact the ARC office at (952) 758-5811 and ask for Den or Barb.

    ARC

    Argonne Studying Biofuels Production

    Chuck Zimmerman

    CTIC TourDuring the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project field tour we heard a presentation from Cristina Negri, an agronomist with the Argonne National Laboratory. Cristina told us about a project they are working on in the watershed to see what types of agricultural production will work best for biofuels. They’re looking for marginal land that doesn’t lend itself to growing corn and looking at alternative crops. Efficiently using nitrogen will be important to whatever crop is found to work best for biofuels. The name of the project is “Biomass Production and Nitrogen Recovery.” You can read about it here (pdf).

    To determine the opportunity, relevance and sustainability of a biomass production scenario and BMP that recover marginal land and impaired water to support productivity. This scenario by design maximizes sustainability benefits at the farm and landscape/watershed levels.

    Cristina participated in the CTIC tour to learn more about the production practices being used by farmers in the watershed and says she learned a lot. You can learn more about her project from a presentation she gave our tour group during lunch: Cristina Negri Presentation

    CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

    AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by
    Audio, Biofuels, Conservation, Corn, CTIC, Ethanol, Research

    Lightsquared Threat To GPS

    Chuck Zimmerman

    I spent a lot of my career in the broadcasting business and never saw the Federal Communications Commission take action like they have been on the proposal from a company called Lightsquared to utilize high-powered, close-proximity transmissions from a network of ground stations that would cause substantial interference with GPS signals.. It is unheard of for them to allow a company to move ahead on a major project like this without doing full testing first. However, that’s what they’ve done. Fortunately the whole thing is on hold at the moment pending public comment. I think we’d all like more high speed internet access in rural America but not at the expense of GPS. Think about how much has been invested in GPS systems!

    At the InfoAg Conference our closing session was titled, “GPS Under Seige: Lightsquared and the Threat to High-End Global Positioning.” This presentation was conducted by Kevin Kobb, Topcon (right) and Doug Schmuland, NovAtel. I spoke with them after their presentation. Kevin and Doug told me it has caused the major GPS producers and distributors to come together to understand the threat and then present that to the public and then work toward a favorable conclusion to the situation. The potential exists for this proposal to affect just about every device relying on GPS satellites. They say that now is the time to act and make your voice heard before the proposal receives a final FCC decision. You can find a lot of information on the website, Coalition To Save Our GPS.

    Listen to my interview with Kevin and Doug here: Interview with Kevin Kobb and Doug Schmuland

    2011 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Audio, Internet, Precision Agriculture, Technology

    FMC Field Tour A Two Way Value

    Chuck Zimmerman

    To get a wrap-up perspective on the FMC Summer Plot Tour I spoke with Tom Becker. Tom is a Retail Market Manager for FMC.

    Tom wanted tour participants to leave viewing FMC as a partner in their business, especially since they’re branching out more and more in the herbicide business with new products like Anthem. As part of their outreach effort to ag retailers he says FMC set up this series of plot tour stops to showcase the performance of these new products. Seeing it “live” in the field is the best product demo I can think of. Tom says participants have asked good questions and in fact the plots were set up to anticipate and answer many of those questions. He says the field tour has a two way value, customers learn what’s new with FMC while FMC learns more about what their customers want.

    You can listen to my interview with Tom here: Tom Becker Interview

    During lunch at the York, NE tour stop FMC held a drawing for a 40″ flat screen tv. Congrats to Dustin Chrisman, Ag Choice Sales Mgr. from McCool Junction for being the lucky winner!

    FMC Summer Plot Tour – York, NE

    Agribusiness, Audio, FMC

    Improving Soil & Water Conservation

    Chuck Zimmerman

    CTIC TourThe Ag Resource Coordinator for the Livingston County, IL Soil & Water Conservation District is Terry Bachtold. He was one of the coordinators for the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project field day. He says this project is all about water quality and what farm management practices will help improve it. A good percentage of farms in the watershed have signed up, in fact, I believe it’s about half of them!

    Terry says these farmers are using different techniques to apply nutrients and conducting much more testing so they can fine tune how and when and where they make applications, including moving to more summer time application. They’re hoping to see results within three years with more farm participation and adoption of these new practices within a couple years after that.

    You can listen to my interview with Terry here: Interview with Terry Bachtold

    CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

    AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by
    Agribusiness, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, Fertilizer

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • Pioneer Hi-Bred unveils FIT® Studio, an extension of Pioneer FIT Services.
    • To help producers mow and condition more hay in less time, John Deere introduces the Triple-Mounted Mower-Conditioner for 2012.
    • The United Soybean Board and soybean checkoff will co-sponsor the American Soybean Association’s Conservation Legacy Awards as a way of recognizing U.S. soybean farmers who demonstrate outstanding environmental and conservation achievements.
    • A partnership between America’s soybean farmers and the Sherwin-Williams Company has received the Presidential Green Chemistry Award from the EPA. The honor recognizes the development of an innovative new paint formulation that utilizes soybean oil and recycled plastic bottles and reduces volatile organic compounds by 60 percent.
      Zimfo Bytes

      Precision Gets Social

      Chuck Zimmerman

      Social media was part of the buzz at the InfoAg Conference this year. The conference is held every other year. This means that since the last one we’ve had a new iPhone, the iPad and Android! I’ve got some interesting stories to post on our Precision Pays website that include how a new company is using the iPad for precision applications.

      So this is the stage from this morning when Paul Schrimpf, Croplife Media Group, Jeremy Wilson, Crop IMS and I conducted back to back session on social media. I want to thank all the folks who tweeted in using the conference hashtag – #InfoAg. Click on the link to see what the conversation was all about.


      2011 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

      Precision Agriculture, Social Networking