RFA Ethanol Podcast

WMBD Farm Broadcaster Raises Big Bucks for Food Bank

Cindy Zimmerman

Lots of people in central Illinois will be having a heartier and happier holiday thanks to the efforts of our dear friend Meghan Grebner, agribusiness director for WMBD and WIRL in Peoria.

Megs has been so excited about this promotion where she partnered up with eight county farm bureaus and their young leaders and asked farmers from Central Illinois to donate a minimum of 10 bushels of corn or soybeans to their local participating grain elevators. The money from the donations was presented to the Midwest Food Bank in Peoria on Friday.

“We raised a total of $28,700 for the Midwest Food Bank’s Tender Mercies Program, which is a packaged meal given to local food banks,” she told me in an email. The money will fund 57,400 packages of Tender Mercies and each package feeds anywhere between 4 and 6 people. That means the $28,700 that Meghan helped to raise will feed approximately 229,600 people! Wow!

Doesn’t she look cute in this photo? It was taken by one of her colleagues at the radio group, Courtney Lynne Bickerman. Congratulations to all who helped out with this project. Great job, Megs!

Media

Obama Signs Bill Giving Death Tax Relief

Cindy Zimmerman

President Obama held a public signing ceremony for the tax bill passed by Congress this week that delivers early Christmas presents for everyone, giving farmers and ranchers good reason to be thankful this holiday season.

Securing meaningful estate tax reform for farm and ranch families has been a top priority for the American Farm Bureau Federation. “We commend President Obama and congressional leaders for being committed to securing passage of this tax bill. It offers considerable relief that will help farmers, ranchers and rural communities in these difficult economic times,” said AFBF in a statement.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Steve Foglesong says they are pleased to get the estate tax at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption, at least for two years. “I speak for all cattlemen and women when I express my gratitude to those members of Congress who understand the importance of keeping small businesses, including farmers and ranchers, from receiving a financially devastating death sentence on New Year’s day,” he said.

The National Corn Growers Association is grateful for both the death tax relief and extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. “We are very happy to see the one-year extension of the ethanol blender’s credit and a two year reformed estate tax move,” said NCGA President Bart Schott of North Dakota. “These extensions were among the top priorities for our organization in 2010; failure to renew both would have done much to harm our nation’s rural economy and the future of America’s farms.”

Among those in attendance at the signing today were some 150 members of Congress, administration officials and key stakeholder and advocates who worked to pass the bill, including representatives from the ethanol industry. Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen and Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis were both in the audience at the bill signing.

The biodiesel industry is especially pleased with passage of the new bill, which retroactively renews the biodiesel tax credit that expired at the end of 2009. “Reinstatement of this proven incentive helps provide the policy framework needed to meet the nation’s renewable goals, and the NBB sincerely appreciates the bipartisan cooperation and support that made extension of this worthwhile incentive possible,” said Joe Jobe, National Biodiesel Board CEO.

AFBF, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Corn, Ethanol, NCBA, NCGA, RFA

Happy Holidays From Rhea + Kaiser

Chuck Zimmerman

Rhea + Kaiser has produced a holiday card that showcases various personas you may be familiar with that include the Traditionalist, Holiday Homemaker, Kid-at-Heart, Holiday Prepster, Non-Traditionalist, Eco-Maniac, Fashionista, Office Party Over-Indulger, Ad Agency Creative Director and Ad Agency Client.

Got a holiday card you’d like to share?

Agencies

New Media Statistics To Ponder

Chuck Zimmerman

If you need some current information about who is using new media and how then Pew Internet and American Life Project has a new report for you called, Generations 2010. This is a follow up to their Generations Online In 2009 report. I don’t really see any surprises in the report but you may find some. They highlight the fact that blogging is the only activity that is down in use among Millennials. However, they point out that the younger crowd is actually doing “blogging” via social networking sites. You also shouldn’t confuse posting onto your own blog with reading a blog. The study also found out that older demographics have increased their use of blogging.

Here’s some other summary information that I have edited and highlighted:

Millennials, those ages 18-33, remain more likely to access the internet wirelessly with a laptop or mobile phone. In addition, they still clearly surpass their elders online when it comes to:

* Use of social networking sites
* Use of instant messaging
* Reading blogs

Finally, the biggest online trend: While the youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet activities are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These include:

* Search engine use
* Getting news
* Buying products
* Downloading podcasts

Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations are making notable gains. Some of the areas that have seen the fastest rate of growth in recent years include older adults’ participation in communication and entertainment activities online, especially in using social network sites such as Facebook. Among the major trends in online activities:

* While the youngest generations are still significantly more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.

Podcasts, Social Networking

AgCareers.com Gingerbread Cookies

Chuck Zimmerman

Decorate your own gingerbread cookies courtesy of AgCareers.com.

Happy Holidays from all of us at AgCareers.com!

We invite you to decorate “virtual” gingerbread cookies. Click here to begin decorating.

Enjoy! These cookies have no calories, but they are deliciously fun.

Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year!

Sincerely,

The AgCareers.com Team

Ag Day

National Corn Yield Contest Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2010 National Corn Yield Contest winners have been announced by NCGA.

The National Corn Yield Contest is in its 46th year and remains NCGA’s most popular program for members. With 7,119 entries, the 2010 NCGA National Corn Yield Contest set a new participation record again this year. This is a 2.3 percent increase over 2009 (6,960), a 5.8 percent increase over 2008 (6,727) and an incredible 44 percent increase over 2007 (4,932).

he 24 winners in eight production categories had verified yields averaging more than 301.721 bushels per acre, compared to the projected national average of 154.3 bushels per acre in 2010.

While there is no overall contest winner, yields from first, second and third place farmers overall production categories ranged from 263.6 to 368.444 bushels per acre.

The national and state contest winners will be honored at the 2011 Commodity Classic in Tampa, Fl. March 3-5. Contest winners will also be featured in a special edition of Farm Journal magazine. Click here for the national winners (pdf).

Ag Groups, Corn, Farming, NCGA

Ding-a-Long With Woodruff Sweitzer

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s Christmas time and the holiday cheer is spreading. I will confess that this musical greeting was too hard for me. I tried it though. Maybe you can do better

Sing along with Woodruff Sweitzer

Every holiday season the Woodruff Sweitzer Choir gets together to sing some of our favorite yuletide carols. This year we need your help to hit all the right notes.

To conduct our merry band of troubadours,

Just click here!

Agencies

Early Christmas on Capitol Hill

Cindy Zimmerman

Christmas came more than a week early this year, as the House voted just before midnight Thursday to pass the tax package that includes presents for everyone.

The final vote was 277-148 on the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (H.R. 4853) which is expected to be signed into law immediately by President Obama. The bill includes another year of unemployment benefits for those who are out of work, estate tax relief for farmers and ranchers who want to pass their operations on to their families when they die, extensions for both ethanol and biodiesel tax incentives – and something for just about everyone else. All this happening in just about a week – truly a Christmas miracle to see something move so quickly in Washington DC!

The package passed virtually unchanged from the deal President Obama made a week ago with Republicans, despite opposition from Democrats in the House who especially wanted to challenge the estate tax provisions. The bill allows for an exemption on estate taxes of up to $5 million dollars for an individual or $10 million for a couple, and 35% on anything higher than that. Agricultural groups have been united in fighting for reform of the so-called death tax because it can result in heirs having to sell off family farm operations to pay taxes. There has been no estate tax at all this year, but it was scheduled to go back up to 55% with the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of this year. At the end of last month, more than 30 agricultural organizations sent letters to Congress and the president and held a press conference urging reform of the tax. Among the groups were the National Cattlemen’s Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, the National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, National Farmers Union National Milk Producers Federation, National Pork Producers Council and the Public Lands Council.

Merry Christmas to all – and for all a very good night!

Uncategorized

Chatting About The Beef Checkoff

Chuck Zimmerman

Leaving an icy downtown St. Louis this morning Cindy and I traveled to Columbia, MO where the Missouri Beef Industry Council was holding a board meeting. It was a slow trip since I-70 still had lots of icy spots. We lost count of the cars, trucks and semi’s that had run off the highway and were waiting for tow trucks. Needless to say slow was the safety word of the day.

Most of the MBIC board was able to make the meeting and we enjoyed seeing them. The MBIC was ZimmComm’s first client and we’re heading toward seven years of spreading the good news about beef! Cindy is pictured interviewing MBIC board member Sally Angell for an upcoming episode of the Checkoff Chat podcast, one of the oldest farm related podcast series. The MBIC is meeting in conjunction with the 42nd annual Missouri Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show.

Ag Groups, Beef

Gateway NAMA Holiday Dinner

Chuck Zimmerman

This is the Gateway NAMA holiday dinner group. Not a big one thanks to some icy weather. Cindy and I only had to walk a few blocks to our hotel though.

We had a wonderful dinner at Copia Urban Winery & Market and didn’t worry about the weather. Hopefully you’ll support your local chapter and realize that the greatest value you get out of your professional organization are the relationships you develop through activities like this.

NAMA