Agvocate Training at AG CONNECT Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

The AgChat Foundation will be holding an agvocate training session in Atlanta during the 2011 AG CONNECT Expo. It will be held January 8 from 3-6pm. If you’d like to attend then get your ticket by registering now.

Training is a major pillar of the Foundation and this unique opportunity provides an excellent opportunity for farmers attending AgConnect equipment show, American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting and the National Cotton Council’s Beltwide Cotton Conference a chance to spend a few hours focused on telling their farm’s story using social media.

Ray Prock, ACF secretary and a dairy farmer from California, says “The concept is to take advantage of the opportunity of having so many good agvocates gathered in one place, broaden the Foundation’s reach & further empower a small group of farmers to increase social media skills and knowledge.”

Prock said the plan includes a three-hour hour hands-on session featuring ACF Board members and others in the AgChat community as trainers and presenters.
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Ag Groups

A Blurb About Blurb

Cindy Zimmerman

For the past three years, we have been creating year-end photo albums for some of our clients with a service called Blurb. There are others out there that can do the job, but I started using Blurb and have stuck with it and I think it’s just great – easy to use and not very expensive for a really high quality product.

If you want to check out the books we have done, just go to Blurb.com and type zimmcomm in the search box and all of our books will come up – or you can just use this link. I wish we could do photo albums for all of our clients, but they are a bit time consuming – although I am getting better at it every year! Next year I hope to make a few personal ones for our family. Daughter Chelsea has used iPhoto on the Mac to make some for family. She is currently designing one for Chuck’s brother and his family, who just lost their house to a fire last weekend, that includes some of the many photos we have taken on visits there over the years. I’m sure they will treasure it.

In this age of digital photography, I have heard many people complain that looking at pictures on the computer is just not the same as having those prints in nice albums that you can take out and pour through the memories, and most of us just don’t want to take the time and trouble to have them printed to put in albums. Doing it on-line is a great way to solve that dilemma – and with custom backgrounds and colors and text boxes, etc – it’s actually easier, more fun and makes really long-lasting and beautiful books that can be bring memories for years. Plus, you can make multiple copies to share!

The fire that destroyed Chuck’s brother’s house really made us think about all those memories we have lining the shelves of our house. We have at least 40 albums containing more than 10,000 photos that we could never get out of the house if there were a disaster. So the big project next year will be to get them all digitized to save – along with the 70,000 plus digital that we already have on the home server from work and personal events over the past seven years or so! I had already looked into getting our old 8mm videos digitized by a service called iMemories and they do photos as well. If anyone has already used a service like this and have some feedback, please let us know.

Wishing everyone a blessed and joyful holiday full of memories that will last forever!

Photography

Farmers Night Before Christmas

Chuck Zimmerman

Thanks to Aimee Chandler, Ag Program Coordinator, University of Illinois Extension for a farmers rendition of the Night Before Christmas. I hope you enjoy it.

FARMERS NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2010

Twas the night before Christmas when down on the farm
The animals were resting in the warm, cozy barn.

Now was the time to reflect on the past year
Saying thank you for all the great things they had here.

A calf had been born to the brown and white cow
All bedded in straw from up in the hay mow.

The horses they whinnied with such a great joy
They were a present picked out for the farmer’s young boy.

The pigs they all squealed with every ounce of their might
For the farmer’s wife gave them extra apples tonight.

Even the dogs gave a bark to say thanks
While wagging their tails the children all yank.

A nice quiet night is what they all thought
But little did they know quiet it was not.

When what to their wondering eyes should appear
But the farmer’s whole family had all gathered here.
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Farming

New Look for Corn Commentary

Cindy Zimmerman

Have you seen the new look for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) blog Corn Commentary?

ZimmComm New Media gave the three year old site a face lift that just went live last month. Corn Commentary was developed in 2007 to provide NCGA with an outlet for providing opinions on issues impacting the industry, especially in the areas of environment, food safety, health and energy.

The blog was recently updated with a new design and multiple staff members of NCGA have taken over as primary contributors to the blog, which includes new posts several times a week. The new design also incorporates a Flickr photo album feed, as well as links to social network profiles on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In addition, there is a live Twitter feed of tweets by Corn Commentators and a featured video built in to the new design. Those Corn Commentators include Ken Colombini, NCGA communications director; Mark Lambert, NCGA senior communications manager; and NCGA communications managers Cathryn Wojcicki, Susan Powers and Janice Tolley Walters.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

NCGA

Jazz It Up At Ag Media Summit in 2011

Chuck Zimmerman

As we deal with cold why not think ahead to a warm New Orleans and an awesome Ag Media Summit? Here is some new information taken from the latest Livestock Publications Council newsletter. Thank you Diane!

The AMS program committee has been hard at work since the conclusion of the 2010 AMS and there are some exciting announcements of speakers who have been confirmed. We are taking a unique angle with this year’s keynote speaker at Tuesday’s luncheon and will hear from Ted Jackson who is a staff photographer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He paddled into the Lower Ninth Ward just after the levee broke and spent harrowing days in the devastation that followed, challenging himself both as a photographer and as a human being. He’s going to share his stories and images with us. According to program chairman, Steve Werblow, “We are in for an unforgettable look at Katrina and New Orleans that will touch us personally and professionally”. For some insight on Ted, click here.

Other news:

Ann Wylie is back! She is a dynamic and insightful writer and coach and will conduct four workshops on Monday.

Photographer Peter Krough will deliver two sessions on digital workflow management. The step after shooting a photo is knowing what to do with it and where to find it next. Krough is expert at every step of the process.

Other topics for the 2011 Jazz It Up Ag Media Summit are:

Measuring results in digital media.
Sales and marketing
“How-to” session on surveys and statistics
Ethics case study review
“Nuts and bolts” session with photography

These are just a few teasers to whet your appetite for AMS 2011! Have a topic you want more
information on? Let us know we might still have time to get them on the docket.

Ag Media Summit

ZimmPoll Shows Strong Participation In Social Media

Chuck Zimmerman

Another week, another ZimmPoll. In answer to the question, “Do you participate in social media?” the majority say they do. According to the numbers, 53% say yes and they post regularly, 28% say yes but they rarely create their own posts, 27% say no and they never will and only 1% say no but plan to start participating soon.

It is possible, as has been pointed out to me, that our results might be skewed slightly since so much of this particular poll question is being seen by those who already participate in social media. I can see that. However, we have a lot of website visitors who I’m sure are not yet social media savvy.

The new poll is now live and the question is, “Do you think the general consumer perception of agriculture changed in 2010?” This should resonate since the whole topic of consumer perception of farming is so top of mind right now. In fact, it has given rise to new agricultural organization efforts like the USFRA and of course it is one of the goals of the AgChat Foundation to help consumers better understand where their food comes from and who is producing it and how. Can’t wait to see the results from this one!

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

ZimmPoll

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Syngenta and DuPont announced that Syngenta will grant Pioneer Hi-Bred a non-exclusive, global license to its corn rootworm trait MIR604 (Agrisure) for corn seed.
  • BASF Plant Science and Bayer CropScience announced a long-term collaboration agreement to improve rice productivity through plant biotechnology.
  • GlyTol glyphosate-tolerant technology, a proprietary trait from Bayer CropScience, will be commercially available to cotton growers in 2011.
  • Bayer CropScience AG and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have signed a non-exclusive agreement to improve wheat breeding and generate new wheat varieties.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Drake & Company Making Dreams Fly

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 286Let’s meet a different kind of agency, an association and cause management company. Let’s meet Drake & Company and who better to talk about it than the man himself, Steve Drake. This is the continuation of my series of podcast conversations with the leadership of various types of agricultural communication agencies.

    I remember when Steve got his company started about 18 years ago and he’s done nothing but grow. In fact, when it comes to what’s new with DrakeCo, growth is part of the story. For example, we can point to the fact that they are the management firm for the newly formed U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. In our conversation we talk about this and just what the company will be doing for the new effort. It’s clear that a lot of formative work is being done. One thing Steve makes a point of is that his company will be “managing” and not actually performing project work of whatever type USFRA decides on.

    Other topics covered in our conversation include the Trees for Troops program, Christmas Tree Journal excellence award, managing association conferences, including on an international level and how digital media and content management is impacting associations. Steve says they’ve just completed a strategic growth plan that has re-structured the company into three major divisions. They’re hiring too! So listen in and learn what’s new with Drake & Company: ZimmCast 286 - Drake & Company

    This week’s program ends with some music from Music Alley. It’s called “That’s What Christmas Means” by Maximum Fidelity.

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems 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

    Agencies, Audio, ZimmCast

    Evaluating DTN/PF iPad App

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It’s nice to see the big boys catching up to us little boys! LOL. DTN/The Progressive Farmer now has a free iPad app (opens iTunes) and it’s really well done. I’ve added it to my iPad and first impressions are that content is intelligently layed out and easy to navigate. Information opens and refreshes quickly on my wifi. I like seeing posts from their blogs and videos along with “traditional” information like news, wx and markets. Have you tried the app yet? Your impressions?

    As a new breed of mobile and technology-savvy professionals increases within the agriculture industry, DTN/The Progressive Farmer continues to lead the way in providing solutions that keep pace with the evolving needs of farmers and agribusinesses. For the first time, professionals can have enhanced access to award-winning agriculture news, market data and industry-specific weather information offered in an optimized format for iPad users.

    With the flick of a finger, iPad users are able to browse breaking industry news, access more than 13 blogs from DTN/The Progressive Farmer editors and analysts, and view daily weather and market videos. Additionally, the app offers users commodity market data, charts and graphics as well as interactive, location-specific weather information and maps. Knowing agriculture professionals are rarely confined to their office, farmers can quickly access the DTN/The Progressive Farmer while they have a Wi-Fi or 3G internet connection and download the latest industry information that they can take with them and access whenever and wherever it is most convenient for their busy schedules. The DTN/The Progressive Farmer agriculture app is available for free at www.dtnpf.com/ipad (opens iTunes).

    Remember that you can also get AgWired on your iPad or iPhone with our AgWired App. We’ve had over 1,000 people download it and are still seeking a sponsor! A sponsor would let us take it to the next level which would be optimization for iPad! Interested?

    Media

    Get on Santa’s List by Taking our Survey

    Cindy Zimmerman

    We’re making a list of all the nice Agwired readers who have taken our survey – and checking it twice to see who will win $250 to help make the holidays brighter.

    We know that people hate giving out personal information on the internet, but we are asking so that we can improve our on-line publications by knowing who our readers are and what they want to know about. That’s why we are offering everyone who takes our survey the chance to win $250 cash money each month. We already sent a check to one lucky reader at the end of November – the next one will be pulled at the end of this month.

    It only takes about three minutes to fill out the survey – Agwired Survey – so do it today and you might be $250 worth of happier for the holidays!

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