Tillage Practice ZimmPoll Results

Chuck Zimmerman

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked about tillage practices with the question, “Which tillage practice do you employ on most of your farming operation.” It looks like No-Till is the winner with 24%, followed by Conventional at 21%, Other at 9% and Strip-Till at 6%.

ZimmPoll 8

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Will commodity prices be higher or lower a year from now??” Let us know and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

ZimmPoll

Agwired Cattle Convention Coverage Delayed

Cindy Zimmerman

It looks like the 2011 Cattle Industry Annual Convention & NCBA Trade Show will be officially kicking off on Wednesday without us, although we are still trying to get there.

I know we are not alone, there are lots of cattlemen and women across the country who are having problems getting to Denver for the big event this week, but it’s still frustrating. Our original flight was scheduled for today (Tuesday) and although we tried to beat the storm by rescheduling for early Monday evening, our flight was canceled after we arrived in Kansas City. We made the drive through freezing rain to and from KC airport safely and re-booked for Wednesday afternoon, wishfully thinking that the worst would be over by then. Apparently, not so much. Our 1:30 pm flight has already been canceled.

Sooo, we are now re-scheduling on a different airline to try and get in late and still be there for all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We can only hope. At this point, however, we will definitely miss the Cattlemen’s College, opening general session and Trade Show Welcome Reception.

We are determined to make it there yet so that we can still bring coverage to others who may still not be able to get there, so stay tuned!

NCBA

Beef Board Blogging

Chuck Zimmerman

I was supposed to be Beef Board Blogging by now but am stuck in Missouri snow. Hopefully Cindy and I will make it tomorrow (or sometime). In the meantime, the show goes on as can be seen on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Blog. Diane Henderson and Melissa Slagle are picking up my slack I see. So, meetings are taking place because the work of the Checkoff will go on! Here’s an excerpt from one of Diane’s posts today:

Snow, ice and cold across much of the country are making it difficult or impossible for a lot of folks to reach the 2011 Cattle Industry Convention this week in Denver, where the high temperature has remained below zero today. Some people flew in early — yesterday and today — to get in front of the storms in the Midwest and East, but others have faced one canceled flight after another, to no avail.

But the convention must go on. And so it does. A few meetings have gotten under way today, including a meeting of state beef council execs with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s collections compliance staff to discuss checkoff collections issues across the country. Another meeting going on this afternoon is of the members of the Beef Industry Long Range Planning Task Force, which will be presenting a proposed three-year plan to the industry later this week.

Cattle Industry Conference

Snow Can’t Keep Growers Away From Iowa Power Farming Show

Joanna Schroeder

Despite blizzard conditions throughout much of Iowa and across the country, the weather couldn’t keep thousands of growers from descending on Des Moines for the 56th annual Iowa Power Farming Show that kicked off today. This three day show, which ends on February 3, 2011, is expected to be one of the largest in the show’s history and I’m here courtesy of our sponsor, Ag Leader Technology. The show is conducted by the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association.

Tom Junge, Show Manager, said that this year there are 100 new exhibitors out of more than 680 total exhibitors. There are more than 1680 booths spread out between three major convention centers and 50 companies were still on a waiting list. Next year, the show will expand to Vet’s Auditorium and that should accommodate another 100 exhibitors.

I asked Junge what some of this year’s trends were. He said that in one of the surveys that they sent out to growers prior to the show, 24 percent of them indicated that they are planning on purchasing a tractor this year. Another 22 percent plan on expanding their precision ag applications. As a result, Junge said a majority of precision ag exhibitors expanded their booths this year.

I also asked Junge what one of the coolest things on the trade show floor was. He said that farmers are very interested in being more self sufficient on the farm for their own energy. This year there are six energy companies at the show and they are getting a lot of traffic. Junge noted that he feels offering a diversity of companies makes them unique; yet, they pride themselves in keeping everything ag related.

To learn more about the this year’s Iowa Power Farming Show, listen to my interview with Tom Junge. Tom Junge Interview

You can also see pictures from the show in my Iowa Power Farming Show flickr album.

Ag Leader, Audio, Farm Shows

CommodityUPDATE Receives Investment From Farm Journal Media

Chuck Zimmerman

Commodity UpdateOur good friend Joel Jaeger, CommodityUPDATE, has a big announcement today. I just got off the phone with him so you can hear it from the man himself: Interview with Joel Jaeger
Joel JaegerIn a joint announcement today, CommodityUPDATE, LLC, and Farm Journal Media announced that Farm Journal is making a significant equity investment in the company. The agreement strengthens CommodityUPDATE’s leadership position in the rapidly expanding mobile marketplace in agriculture and creates new cross-media marketing opportunities for companies striving to effectively engage with the nation’s top farmers.

Founder Joel Jaeger will remain CEO of CommodityUPDATE and continue to manage the Jaeger family’s controlling interest in the company they formed in 2006. Two Farm Journal Media executives will join the board of directors, and the Farm Journal Media sales team will play a direct role in expanding sponsorship of the mobile service.

Jaeger says the partnership will help agrimarketers more effectively reach the nation’s top farmers via a diversified media portfolio that integrates mobile, the fastest growing segment of the marketing mix.

“Since we launched the business, the mobile medium has evolved, and so too has the way companies communicate with farmers,” he says. “Used properly, mobile provides the direct, interactive and immediate connection to the farmer that we all seek, while complementing and connecting with other media and campaign elements.”

Media

Taking International Poultry Tour With Novus

Chuck Zimmerman

Shawn AtkinsInternational is in the name of the show and our sponsor for coverage of the largest poultry show in the world. Novus International shows that by having a number of their representatives on hand for different areas of the world. I spoke with several of them during the International Poultry Expo starting with Shawn Atkins, Sales Director, Poultry & Dairy, in the United States. Shawn talks about how their products can help with feed optimization which is crucial to raising poultry successfully. He says attendees have been asking about specific products in the specialty area.

Shawn says the industry is in a precarious position in the U.S. because demand has declined while input costs have gone up. It’s like a double whammy on producers and Novus is working on products to help on the input side. You can listen to my interview with Shawn here: Interview With Shawn Atkins

Albert Van DijkTurning to another part of the world I spoke with Albert Van Dijk, Market Manager, Poultry & Swine, EME. Albert handles the European and Middle East territory. He says poultry is a challenging market in the EU right now since growth has stabilized. However, in areas like the Ukraine, Turkey and Russia poultry is growing.

He says that since the best way to reduce feed costs is to reduce the feed conversion ration in the animal and this is where Novus fits in. They can save up to five percent or more on feed costs. Additionally, Albert says that since antibiotics were banned in the EU in animal feed, Novus products have played an important role in the feeding program. You can listen to my interview with Albert here: Interview With Albert Van Dijk

Jorge GonzalezOur next stop on our world tour with Novus is the northern Latin America region. Taking care of business there is Jorge Gonzalez, Sales Manager, LAN. His region includes Mexico. Jorge says the business is big and growing. It has also been expanding beyond poultry into swine and ruminants.

The poultry industry in his territory depends heavily on grains from the U.S. and so the higher costs of late have been challenging. This is why enzyme products like those sold by Novus play a key role in helping them be competitive on the world market. He says a trade show like this one are very important to producers in his area since it’s their opportunity to get first hand knowledge of technology that they can bring home to their operation. You can listen to my interview with Jorge here: Interview With Jorge Gonzalez

Craige AllanFinally, let’s look at the Asian/Pacific market with Craige Allan (pictured right), Regional Marketing Manager, South East Asia. He says all areas are experiencing growth in production/consumption since the population is growing so much. Craige enjoys finding out the needs of his customers and then helping them to formulate a solution. He says this strategy works well for Novus.

In his territory is a range of sizes and types of producers from large integrators like here in the U.S. as well as a lot of smaller operators. He thinks the market area will eventually become an exporter to other countries, particularly in the EU. Some of the customers he’s spoken with here are from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladash. That shows the international nature of this show! You can listen to my interview with Craig here: Interview With Craige Allan

2011 International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo Photo Album

AgWired IPE/IFE coverage sponsored by: Novus

Animal Health, Audio, International, Novus International, Poultry Expo

Last Survey Winner Announced

Cindy Zimmerman

The final ZimmComm publication survey winner has been drawn and the lucky one is Rita Ruud, a nutritionist with North Dakota State University and World Dairy Diary reader. She will be receiving a check in the mail for $250 for taking just about two minutes of her time to fill out our survey and help us do a better job of serving the folks who read this on-line publication.

January was the third and final month for the ZimmComm publication survey since we have now received enough responses to make it statistically significant. We would sincerely thank everyone who took the time to help us out.

Here’s a few interesting things we learned from the survey about Agwired readers:

By far, the largest percentage of our readers are in Advertising/Marketing/Sales or Communications/Public Relations – making up 20% in each category for a total of 4 out of 10 of our readers. Another 13% are with agribusiness associations or organizations and 7% are media. Over 20% are in crop or livestock production – including crop and livestock producers, dairy farmers, crop consultants, etc. There were some categories that applied to production agriculture but several also checked the “other” category.

We had responses from 21 states, three countries, and the District of Columbia, with the Midwest significantly leading the pack. Most responses came from Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Thanks again to everyone who filled out the survey!

ZimmComm Announcement

Texas Cowboy Crossroads Gathering Should Be Good Agritainment

Chuck Zimmerman

A social media experiment with an agricultural event will be conducted this week when the Texas Cowboy Crossroads Gathering takes place Feb. 3-6 in Van Horn, TX. Bob Kindord, The Bovine Blog, wonders if all the efforts we’re putting into social media to tell the farm story is reaching consumers and having an impact. Good question and one that a lot of people are pondering.

Texas Crossroads Gathering

Here’s an excerpt from a recent post of his on the subject.

The next question is, can we come up with an agricultural event that is educational, yet entertaining enough for the average person to attend? If we can come up with such an event, do we wield enough social media clout to make an event go viral? Could we get an event to trend on Twitter, or spread on Facebook enough that it would possibly make national news? It would be an interesting experiment on the power of social media, and one we could do fairly easily.

February 3rd through the 6th I put on the Texas Crossroads Gathering, a small cowboy poetry gathering in Van Horn, Texas. There are a few things about this event which makes it unique. First, we actually live-stream video to the internet. Second the entertainers are not paid (the event is a small, but growing talent show.) Finally, all money raised from this event is donated to the local 4H Club and Christian Homeless Shelter.

So Bob suggests following @TexasCrossroad on Twitter and the “near perfect” hashtag #kamikazecow as well as #agritainers. You’ll have to read his blog to understand the hashtags. They’ll be live streaming from the event too.

Uncategorized

Midwest Snow Affecting Travel

Chuck Zimmerman

Midwest SnowI was really hoping the weather experts were wrong about this midwest snow thing. But as of early this morning in mid Missouri, it’s snowing. It is expected to be heavier snow this afternoon so I might do a new version of this post then.

Yesterday Cindy and I changed our plane reservations from Kansas City to Denver from today to late yesterday evening. We need to be at the Cattle Industry Convention and thought maybe we could beat the storm out there. So after driving through light freezing rain to the airport we got there just as they canceled all the rest of the flights for the evening. Let’s just say it was a miserable drive round trip as things started getting icier. We’re now booked on a flight out tomorrow but I think a lot will depend on how much snow we get and when it all ends.

We know of quite a few people who have already canceled their plans for attending the convention. So all we can say is, “Travel safe.”

Cattle Industry Conference, Video

Learning About Certified Humane

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 290During the International Poultry Expo I met Adele Douglass, CEO, Humane Farm Animal Care. This is the organization that has created the Certified Humane program. To display their logo a farm has to: “Meet the Humane Farm Animal Care program standards, which includes nutritious diet without antibiotics or hormones, animals raised with shelter, resting areas, sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviors.”

I learned that there are several organizations attempting to create a type of a label or brand to achieve similar results and that they don’t all see eye to eye. HFAC has created a chart comparing the five main organizations which you can download here (pdf). Personally, I really don’t see the need for an organization like this at all, much less competing ones. Most farmers I know take very good care of their animals. I’d rather see efforts like this aimed at the humane treatment of human beings instead! There are lots of educational resources for farmers that teach them how to take good care of their livestock and if they are or want to be successful then they do.

Adele says she got started on this after visiting farms and seeing conditions she didn’t like. She doesn’t understand why farmers use cages and gestation stalls for example. So she decided to create a certification program after studying one in the UK. She sees a distinction between meeting an animal’s behavioral needs and whether or not they’re producing well. In the first year of the program there were 143,000 animals enrolled in the program. In 2010 that number was 26.5 million.

Learn more about Humane Farm Animal Care in this week’s program: ZimmCast 290 - Humane Farm Animal Care

What do you think? Do we need these types of programs? Adele says the farms enrolled with them make more money. What is your experience if you’ve tried this type of program?

Interestingly, this week’s AgChat topic is animal welfare! It will feature a guest from a different organization, Tim Amlaw, American Humane Certified. So from 8-10pm Tuesday, join in the online conversation.

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

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page

Audio, Food, Poultry Expo, ZimmCast