Chairman of Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. John BonnerThe Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America is Dr. John Bonner, CAST. During National Ag Day activities he was busy and had the pleasure to introduce the Essay Content winners. I’ll more on that in my next post. I spoke with him about ACA and Ag Day.

John says that ACA is having a great year and points out that all week is “ag week and all year is ag year.” He says that the events of National Ag Day bring in a lot of students who have been making visits with elected officials. I interviewed several of them and will be sharing those soon. John says that Ag Day is very important as a method to help educate the public about American agriculture. He also mentioned a new paper that was published this week by the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology that examines the importance of agricultural research. With all the talk about budget cutting in Washington, DC, that seems to be a timely publication. You can find it on the CAST website.

You can listen to my interview with John here: Dr. John Bonner Interview
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
Agriculture Council of America and American Seed Trade Association and Syngenta

Ag Day, Audio

Facebook Is Big Dog In Social Networking

Chuck Zimmerman

It looks like Facebook is the big dog in the social media world according to you. Our last ZimmPoll asked the question, “Which social network do you use the most.” A majority say Facebook, 64%, followed by Twitter, 16%, YouTube, 8%, Linkedin, 5%, Other, 5%, Classmates.com, 1%, Flickr, !% and MySpace, 0%. I can’t remember when I’ve checked my MySpace account either.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “When will planting season start this year?” It’s that time now that we’re in Ag Week with spring just around the corner! Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

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

ZimmPoll

Old Tractors

Melissa Sandfort

Our family farming operation bleeds green. To any John Deere lover, you know what I mean. The tractors today are bigger, have more horsepower, more options and enable growers to accomplish so much more in a short amount of time. It wasn’t always so.

The top photo is a Mogul 8-16 breaking sod on our family’s farm in the early 1900s. This was McCormick’s (International Harvester) first attempt at a smaller tractor and was manufactured in 1915. It had one forward and reverse speed: 1.5 miles per hour.

The middle photo is a Titan 10-20, also an International Harvester, and was also built in about 1915. It had a maximum speed of 3 miles per hour. My grandmother’s family used this tractor to harrow 70 acres per day. (Brand new, the price was $950.)

Both the Mogul and the Titan ran on kerosene.

The bottom photo is a Farmall … my great grandfather’s first tractor he purchased in 1929.

Today’s equipment is built to cover more ground, more efficiently, in an effort to provide food for a growing domestic and world population. Just remember – bigger doesn’t mean ‘corporate’. It just means there’s a farmer out there working long hours, farming more acres, so that you can go to the grocery store and buy affordable, healthy food for your family. Farmers today just have more mouths to feed.

Until we walk again …

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Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Farm Journal Media recently received the Grand Neal Award, which recognized the service and multimedia strength of the Farm Journal Legacy Project.
  • Chris Nelson, Pete Holman, Bill Freeman and Col. Randy Baxley have joined forces to form Roundup Internet Livestock Marketing, based in Visalia, Calif.
  • The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and the National FFA organization announce the availability of classroom-ready resources aligned with national curricula standards for science, math and social studies. The free materials are available online via the NASS website and the FFA Learning Center.
  • American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) have scheduled a series of free webinars for producers and veterinarians, designed to provide specific steps that can be taken on the farm to insure appropriate use of animal health products.
Zimfo Bytes

National Ag Day Keynote Speaker

Chuck Zimmerman

Michael ScuseAt the National Ag Day dinner in Washington, DC our keynote speaker was USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse. He welcomed us to this day of celebration.

He starts out describing his support of ariculture today by saying, “Our farmers and ranchers are the best in the world, bar none.” He has a lot of statistics that show how well American farmers have done in recent years. It’s time to remind people you know to thank a farmer.

You can listen to and download his remarks here: Michael Scuse, Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture.
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
Agriculture Council of America and American Seed Trade Association and Syngenta

Ag Day

House Ag Chairman Lucas Addresses Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman

Victor SalazarWe’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction and he did an awesome job. I’ve got his intro on the audio file you can listen to below.

Representative Frank LucasU.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Ag Committee, thanked, “Mr. President,” which got a good chuckle since we were in the Capitol Bldg. He says the last time he came in third in a political contest was for FFA Reporter in Oklahoma once upon a time. He then talked farm bill and budget and says it’s going to be a tough year. He asked everyone to help educate members of the House who may not fully understand the business of agriculture.

You can listen Victor and Chairman Lucas here: Ag Comm. Chrm. Lucas Comments
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
Agriculture Council of America and American Seed Trade Association and Syngenta

Ag Day, Audio

A Voice For Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman

Orion SamuelsonThe man with the voice no one will forget, Orion Samuelson, WGN, emceed the National Ag Day Mix & Mingle Luncheon today. I spoke with Orion before the program got started to get his thoughts on Ag Day and learn what we’ll be doing this celebrate American agriculture day.

Orion says that we’ve had Labor Day to honor labor in the fall forever and now in just the last 30 years we have a day to kick of the spring that celebrates those who work on our farms. Attendance here is at an all time high. It’s very appropriate that we’re having three meal time functions! After all we’re honoring those who put food on our table as well as on our backs and in our cars.

You can listen to my interview with Orion here: Orion Samuelson Interview

I now have a photo album started with all my luncheon photos. Thanks to the USDA “internet man” for his help! I’ll add to the album after tonight’s dinner too: 2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
Agriculture Council of America and American Seed Trade Association and Syngenta

Ag Day, Audio

National Ag Day Activities

Chuck Zimmerman

I finally made it to Washington, DC but not without missing last night’s Agri-Pulse reception with Michael Peterson. Here’s the Agri-Pulse banner crew in action before the party.

I was able to attend the Mix & Mingle Luncheon and have lots of photos. We’re going to have the big dinner tonight at USDA and I’ll have lots of photos from it as well. I have tried uploading them with both a Verizon Mifi and my iPhone but no luck. Not much in the way of a signal even at the entrance to the building. So, I’m waiting on a USDA IT person to see if I can get on some kind of internal access. Until then, I’m not going to be able to upload anything else.

I have lots of audio and interviews to share and will be featuring them all week as we celebrate American agriculture and the farmers who feed us.

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
Agriculture Council of America and American Seed Trade Association and Syngenta

Ag Day

“Bury Derry Day” Details

Cindy Zimmerman

It may sound disrespectful, but our good friend Derry Brownfield always referred to the day of his funeral as “Bury Derry Day” – so that’s what we’re calling it!

Derry BrownfieldThe official obituary has been published now in the Jefferson City News Tribune with the important facts of his life distilled into a few short paragraphs. Those who knew him could write a book about him!

But here are the details for visitation and funeral and such:

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, at 11:00 a.m. at California United Church of Christ, California, Mo. Burial will be in California Masonic Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, from 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Bowlin-Cantriel Funeral Services, California, Mo. Memorials are suggested to the Gideon’s International, c/o Derry Brownfield, P.O. Box 79, Centertown, MO 65023. Arrangements are under the direction of Bowlin-Cantriel Funeral Services, California, Mo.

I will be there tonight for the visitation. Chuck is hoping to get back from DC early enough tomorrow morning to get to the funeral. We know that many of Derry’s friends and fans will be there – along with his wonderful family. It is sad to know that his voice will no longer be coming out live from a microphone here on Earth, but we will be celebrating the time we had with him and his new life in Heaven this week!

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Friends Support America’s Heartland

Cindy Zimmerman

With federal funding for public broadcasting on the chopping block in Washington, programs like “America’s Heartland” need friends more than ever.

AmericaNow in its sixth season, the PBS show shares the stories of America’s farmers and ranchers with a sophisticated public television viewing audience and is seeking production funding for its seventh season. To that end, the grassroots “Friends of America’s Heartland” website is offering fans of the award-winning series a way to support it by making donations and encouraging others to do so.

The Friends campaign will supplement the sponsorships already promised for season 7 by the American Farm Bureau Foundation, Farm Credit Services, and the United Soybean Board while additional major funding support is still being sought. America’s Heartland is on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and is produced by KVIE Public Television in Sacramento.

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