Donate To U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance

Chuck Zimmerman

If you’ve been wondering how you can support the newly formed U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance the wonder no more. You can now make donations online.

You can support the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance and its goal to bolster the image of agriculture and enhance public trust in our food supply. Use the “Donate” button below to contribute to the cause.

We will:

* Enhance consumer trust in the U.S. food production system.
* Maintain and enhance the freedom of U.S. farmers and ranchers to operate in a responsible manner.
* Strengthen collaboration.

Donate to USFRA

Ag Groups, USFRA

ARC Meeting Highlights

Cindy Zimmerman

Warm and sunny Ft. Myers was a wonderful place to spend a few days last week for the 2011 Agricultural Relations Council annual meeting, especially since most of us were from places that have had too much cold and snow this winter. The weather was fabulous and the program was outstanding – a great combination.

The leadership of ARC is energetic and believes that public relations for agriculture is more important that ever. “Agriculture public relations is a different kind of an animal,” said Mace Thornton with the American Farm Bureau Federation, who is the new president of ARC. “This is the organization that really specializes in bringing PR people to the table in agriculture so we can talk about common challenges and discuss strategy and tactics.”

Mace says the organization is experiencing a resurgence in popularity and membership growth, after hitting a low about five years ago. ARC now has over 80 members – twice what it had about this time last year, and Mace credits the strong support of leaders like outgoing president Deron Johnson of Rhea and Kaiser. Mace and Deron are both pictured here during the Golden ARC award ceremony. That award program is also experiencing new interest after being revived last year.

We really enjoyed a great program during the meeting, starting with a panel discussion on Florida agriculture’s water and fertilizer issues. We also heard from the University of Florida’s Center for Public Issues Education on measuring the effectiveness of social media (more on that later) and from Gary Myers, former owner of Morgan and Myers, about Strategic Thinking on PR.

After a sunset dinner cruise on Thursday night, the business meeting was held Friday morning and followed by a great tour arranged by Gary Cooper of Southeast Agnet. The group visited Worden Farms, an 85-acre certified organic family farm in Southwest Florida, and Longino Ranch, a diversified citrus and cattle operation near Arcadia. There we enjoyed a Florida cracker cowboy meal of fresh venison appetizers, perfectly grilled steaks, homemade beans and can’t-get-it-anywhere-else boiled swamp cabbage. Just mmmm, mmmm GOOD!

The ranch was a great example of diversified agriculture and environmental stewardship. Not only do they produce cattle, citrus and timber on the operation, but they also maintain a preserve for endangered gopher tortoises.

Listen to my interview with Mace about the ARC meeting here: Mace Thornton Interview

2011 ARC Meeting Photo Album

ARC, Audio

AgWired and Raven Industries iPod Touch Winner

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Western Farm Show AgWired along with iPhone App sponsor Raven Industries held a drawing for an iPod Touch. I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to enter.

So now that the show is over we have picked our winner. And the winner is:

Jerry Trautman a farmer from the Kansas City area. Congrats Jerry. Your new iPod Touch will be delivered to you as soon as we can get it there.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Western Farm Show. The attendance was strong even with challenging weather conditions at times but that’s what you expect and farmers showed they were quite capable to manage.

2011 Western Farm Show Photo Album

Western Farm Show

Making Precision Ag Pay

Chuck Zimmerman

Precision ag was the topic of several educational seminars at the Western Farm Show. The presenter was Lucas Haag, Kansas State University Research and Education. The seminar going on in the photo focused on improving profitability. That’s something that any farmer would like to know. I think Lucas continued the discussion with some of the attendees long after it was over.

I spoke with Lucas about the message he had on profitability. He makes a distinction between technologies that have a quick payback and those that have a more long term payback. He says hardware like auto steer and auto swatch are ones that provide a quick payback. But in the longer term the data collection becomes more important. He encourages recording field yield data for example because that type of information helps make farm based decisions that can save money.

Lucas did get in a good plug for K-State and says that they offer opportunities for both students and adults who would like to learn more about using precision ag.

You can listen to my interview with Lucas here: Lucas Haag Interview

2011 Western Farm Show Photo Album

Audio, Education, Precision Agriculture, Western Farm Show

Apply for Green Mountain College’s Summer Farm & Food Program

Joanna Schroeder

For those interested in becoming involved in exploring traditional techniques and cutting edge research in sustainable agriculture should consider applying for Green Mountain College’s summer program. In its third year, the 12-credit summer intensive program Farm Life Ecology: A Field and Table Intensive, runs for 13 weeks from May 23-August 19. For the first time the College is also offering half-sessions for 6 credits from May 23-July 2 and July 7-August 19.

“Modern agriculture is heavily reliant on fossil energy sources, and we’ll need to find ways as a society to incorporate more energy-efficient solutions to growing food,” said farm manager and program director Dr. Kenneth Mulder. “Students in this program get a chance to manage our campus farm while gaining a rigorous foundation in sustainable agriculture.”

Over the past three years, the college’s Farm & Food Program has received nearly $250,000 in grant funding to further develop their fossil-free agriculture initiatives.

“The Farm and Food Intensive combines a rigorous classroom experience with individual research projects and hands-on farm work,” Mulder continued. “Students also get a chance to participate in some pretty exciting research that will teach them to run farms that are productive, profitable, and environmentally sustainable.”

While in the program, students will manage all aspects of Green Mountain College’s 22-acre Cerridwen Farm while receiving a curricular focus in three core areas: the fundamentals of organic crop and animal management; efficient integration and management of diverse farm systems; and development and utilization of appropriate technologies in agriculture. In addition, their home base will be the Solar Harvest Center where the students prepare communal meals from produce they grow and harvest from the farm.

Phillip Ackerman-Leist, Director of the College’s Farm & Food Project and Associate Professor of environmental studies added, “Cerridwen Farm has become an agricultural lab of sorts, and our students contribute to that research. Like traditional ag programs students will learn a lot about agricultural practices and systems. They’ll also learn how to be part of the current food revolution that is transforming farming and how we view food.”

Agribusiness, Education, Sustainability

Western Farm Show Update

Chuck Zimmerman

Day two of the Western Farm Show is concluding. I spoke with Jeff Flora, CEO, Southwestern Association, about how the show’s going. He’s very happy with it. Although the weather could cooperate better.

Jeff says that the first night of the Championship Tractor Pull exceeded expectations for attendance and tonight should be even better. I can attest that the traffic was much higher today and as I’m writing this is still strong.

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

2011 Western Farm Show Photo Album

Audio, Western Farm Show

AgWired Gadget Grips

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the items Western Farm Show folks are collecting from the AgWired booth are “gadget grips” that you put on the back of your iPod or mobile phone to keep it from slipping off your dashboard or some inclined surface. They’re great and something we’ve received the most positive feedback over the last several years.

You’ll be able to find them at our booth at the April NAMA Convention just so you know.

2011 Western Farm Show Photo Album

Western Farm Show

Social Media Session At Western Farm Show

Chuck Zimmerman

This morning at the Western Farm Show I conducted a session on social media. The focus was on the “how-to” of social media for communications and marketing purposes. Yesterday my session with Kansas Farmer Darin Grimm, focused more on using social media to agvocate. Thanks to ZimmComm intern John Brown, Columbia College, Columbia, MO for taking the photo for me.

Some of the points that I tried to present using live examples included:

1. If just getting started, pick just one social networking application and use it, get comfortable with it and then expand. Ex. start with Twitter, then add Facebook and then YouTube, etc.

2. Go ahead and register your name or company name for social networking accounts even if you don’t use them right away. It’s a protection thing.

3. When you’re ready to start your blog or Twitter account make sure you post something at some level of frequency and then pay attention to your followers and people who leave comments. Engage them, don’t ignore them.

4. Think of social media as an electronic form of personal discussion. Kind of like participating in a discussion with some people at a cocktail party for example.

5. There are lots of metrics. Start looking at them right away and keep a record of them. They provide a benchmark for comparison over time. And you will need time to let your social networking begin to pay dividends!

We went over a lot more with some great Q&A. Thanks to everyone who attended! I hope to get to do it again soon.

2011 Western Farm Show Photo Album

Western Farm Show

Golden ARC Award Winners

Cindy Zimmerman

Winners of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) 2011 Golden ARC Awards Contest were announced at the association’s annual awards banquet in Ft. Myers on Friday night. A total of 24 Golden ARC winners and 19 Merit winners were recognized as the elite in agricultural public relations. The number of entries this year was twice what it was last year!

Agency Weber Shandwick led the prize winners with four Golden ARC Awards and three Merit awards for clients Syngenta Seeds and Dairy Management Inc. On the corporate side, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health won three Golden ARC Awards and two Merit Awards.

Other organizations winning multiple awards included Osborn & Barr with three Golden ARC Awards and four Merit Awards; Syngenta Seeds with two Golden ARC Awards and three Merit Awards; CHS with two Golden ARC Awards and two Merit Awards; Charleston Orwig and Dairy Management Inc. with two Golden ARC Awards and one Merit; Egg Farmers of Ontario, David & Associates, Pfizer Animal Health and Bader Rutter & Associates each with two Golden ARC Awards; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Rhea + Kaiser (Bayer CropScience) with one Golden ARC Award and two Merit Awards each; and Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition with one Golden ARC Award and one Merit Award.

The American Farm Bureau Federation won in the podcast category for their “FoodieCast Thanksgiving Special” and in the Blogs/Electronic Newsletters category, the winner was – ZimmComm New Media for the National Corn Growers Association Corn Commentary blog! Congrats to all!

Find out all the winners in all the categories here.

Here is my photo album from the event – 2011 ARC Meeting – not the best photos I have ever taken since I was just using my little “toy camera” (Canon Power Shot). We were getting our good cameras and lenses serviced and checked out for Commodity Classic next week. If any ARC members (like Janice or Amy who were using better cameras) would like to send me some, I will add them to the photo album.

ARC

Kentucky Corn Growers Ready To Plant

Chuck Zimmerman

Adam AndrewsAdam Andrews, Kentucky Corn Growers Association Director of Programs (right), says they were at the National Farm Machinery Show to talk to members and also to resolve issues with friends throughout the industry. The show provides them a good opportunity to interact with a lot of members. He says the American Ethanol show car opened a lot of eyes about the level of involvement they have in promoting the use of the renewable fuel. They had a drawing for tickets to an upcoming race in Kentucky.

Looking ahead he says growers are excited about the new season since they had an early harvest last year. That gave them time to get caught up on a lot of projects on the farm. He says that within in the next three weeks Kentucky growers will be planting.

You can listen to my interview with Adam here: Adam Andrews Interview

Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr or visit their blog.

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:
New Holland

Ag Groups, Corn, National Farm Machinery Show