Working The Booth At NAAA

Chuck Zimmerman

At the NAAA convention, BASF held a drawing for some custom airplane nose art. The winner is Terry Harchenko of Salem, OR. Hey, Terry, send us a photo of your plane with the new artwork if you get a chance.

Sometimes the unsung heroes of a trade show booth are the company sales representatives who work in shifts and answer questions for hours and hours each day. I spoke with two of them during the NAAA convention starting with Tony Goede, seen in the photo making sure aerial applicators got their drawing entries done right. Tony is the aerial manager for BASF. He says BASF has formed a very strong relationship with NAAA over several years. Most recently that has grown to include new scholarships. Tony says that since the industry is mature it’s really important to bring new people into the business.

You can listen to my interview with Tony here: Tony Goede Interview

Another one of the hard working BASF reps is Chris Wharam. About the only shot I got of him was this one as he was interacting with customers. Chris is a technical services representative from North Dakota. He thought the 20 degree weather we were having in Savannah was warm compared with home!

Chris says that BASF made another commemorative NAAA convention patch for the applicators that they could pick up at the booth in addition to entering their drawing for custom nose art for their airplane. He says that the NAAA folks are very “energized” and I would echo that.

You can listen to my interview with Chris here: Chris Wharam Interview

2010 NAAA Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAAA Convention is sponsored by BASF.

Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, NAAA

First ZimmPoll Results

Chuck Zimmerman

The results of the first ZimmPoll are in. The question was “How do you think agricultural interests will fare in the new Farm Bill?” We thought we’d give you an easy one to start. The results were pretty well mixed with “Too early to tell” getting the most votes. You can add your comments about the question or the results using the comment feature here at the bottom of the post. Feel free to let us know what you think.

Our first poll had participation from 5 countries including 25 states in the U.S. The top ten states with participants were IL, CA, VA, IN, NJ, TX, KS, MO, NY and SD. Thanks to all of you.

The new poll is now live and the question is, “Do you participate in social media?” Social media consists of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, podcasts and a whole variety of other services. Let us know by taking the poll and next week we’ll post the results and you can add your comments add feedback at that time. Feel free to suggest questions for our poll anytime too.

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

ZimmPoll

BASF News From ASTA Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

At the same time Chuck was in Savannah covering the National Agricultural Aviation Association meeting on behalf of BASF Crop Protection last week, the company was making news at the 40th annual American Seed Trade Association’s (ASTA) 2010 Seed Expo in Chicago.

In several updates provided to seed partners, BASF announced a label expansion for Stamina® F3 HL. The fungicide seed treatment is now available for use on corn, sorghum, rye, oats and triticale, in addition to wheat and barley, which were previously approved.

Also at the expo, the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) announced that BASF grower teams placed first in all four 2010 Yield Challenge districts they competed in during the American Seed Trade Association meeting in Chicago.

Each first-place team used a combination of BASF products, such as Headline® fungicide, Respect® insecticide and Kixor® herbicide technology, to intensively manage their acres and achieve winning yields. The BASF District 6 team, led by BASF Sales Representative Brad White, was also awarded the Novel Practices Award for earning the largest yield difference between traditional and high-yield practices in the entire state.

Read more about the ISA yield challenge results here.

BASF, Soybean

Change is Necessary to Fight PRRS

Cindy Zimmerman

Since Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome (PRRS) has been a problem in the U.S. hog industry for more than 20 years and is costing producers nearly $600 million per year, Boehringer Ingelheim (BIVI) is working with the industry to find and implement changes that will help control and even eliminate it.

Dr. Dale Polson, a member of the BIVI Area Solutions Team for PRRS which leads the company’s Area Regional Control and Elimination (ARC&E) efforts, says their concept is a game changing strategy of producers, veterinarians and industry working together. “We’ve got to do things differently to make progress because we’ve been dealing with PRRS for so many years,” he says. “So we just have to fundamentally change the way we approach it and that’s where change the game comes in.”

BIVI introduced the idea of ARC&E about three years ago and Dale says it is slowly gaining momentum. “Success builds on itself,” he says. “What we’ve seen is that people are starting to recognize that this is working better than what we were doing and could work even better if we have more areas involved.”

Listen to my interview with Dale here here: Dale Polson

2010 BIVI PRRS Area Regional Control Workshop photos

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

2011 Advocating For Agriculture Award Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

The winners of the AG CONNECT Expo 2011 “Advocating for Agriculture” award have been announced. These awards recognize those who support “in a compelling way the work of farmers and ranchers to provide abundant and affordable food and fiber.” Online voting by the Ag community helped select the winners, and more than 12,500 votes were cast for the nine finalists.

The “Advocating for Agriculture” award winners are:

Ag Woman of the Year — Beverly Hall from Baxter, Tennessee
Community Advocate Award — Ray Bowman from Frankfurt, Kentucky
Next Generation of Ag Award — Elliott Marsh from Statesboro, Georgia

The “Advocating for Agriculture” awards seek to create a wider public understanding and appreciation of the industry’s role and the significant contribution that production agriculture makes to our quality of life. The achievements and significant contributions of the award winners also serve as an inspiration for future industry leaders.

Grand prize winners receive a round-trip for two to AG CONNECT Expo 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia and will be honored at AG CONNECT Expo during the “Celebration of Agriculture” reception on Preview Day, January 7.

You can see more about the winners here including their video entries. You can watch Beverly’s below.

AEM, Video

Poking Fun At Canadian Wheat Board

Chuck Zimmerman

After seeing a retweet this morning from FarmerNation I found this video posted that is a very tongue in cheek criticism of the Canadian Wheat Board. It’s on YouTube and the FarmerNation site and comments can be left and have been. I have no position on this but have to say that this video is hilarious regardless of which side you fall on. At least I hope the CWB can laugh (and comment). My favorite line from the CWB character is “You’re speaking eskimo.” Thanks FarmerNation and TheSaskFarmer for a good laugh.

International, Wheat

Regional Best of NAMA Events

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s time for NAMA Regions and Chapters to present their Best of NAMA Awards. These will be done at a variety of events. Look to NAMA for full and final details as we get closer. However, here’s some info for your calendar.

January 13, 2011 – Region II (Gateway, Great Plains, Midlands, Missouri-Kansas, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest Chapters) at Boulevard Brewing Company, 2501 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64108, starting at 6:00 pm. For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region2.htm. You can also register online at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=29.

January 20, 2011 – Region IV (Badger, Chicago, Heartland, and Mid-America Chapters) at the Chicago Marriott Northwest, 4800 Hoffman Boulevard, Hoffman Estates, IL, starting at 6:00 pm. For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region4.htm. Registration will be available soon.

January 27, 2011 – Region III (Cornbelt, Iowa, North Central, and Northern Prairie Chapters) at the State Historical Society of Iowa, 600 E. Locust St., Des Moines, IA 50319, starting at 5:30. The day will begin with a “Welcome to Iowa” tour, which includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Registration for the tour will be available soon For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region3.htm. Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=30.

January 27, 2011 – Carolinas/Virginia Chapter at Junior League of Raleigh Center for Community Leadership, 711 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27603, starting at 5:30 pm. Registration will be available soon.

February 8, 2011 – Region I (Desert Southwest and Western Pacific Chapters) in the VIP tent at the World Ag Expo, Tulare, CA, with a reception/mixer tentatively scheduled to start at 12:30 pm.

A Midsouth Chapter event will be planned and further details will be forthcoming.

NAMA

Microsoft Cloud for USDA

Cindy Zimmerman

The future forecast for USDA is cloudy.

USDA announced last week that it is on the verge of going live with a commercial cloud service offering for its Enterprise Messaging Service (EMS) which includes email, web conferencing, document collaboration, and instant messaging. USDA is the first cabinet-level agency to move its e-mail and collaboration applications to the “cloud,” a rapidly growing form of computing involving flexible, scalable services delivered over the internet.

USDA awarded the contract to Dell earlier this year for Microsoft Online Services in an effort to streamline agency messaging, reduce costs and improve efficiencies that build on existing infrastructure and allow USDA to extend its on-premise software investments agreements to the cloud solution.

Over the past six months USDA has worked closely with Dell and Microsoft on a comprehensive set of plans and actions required to successfully migrate 120,000 plus users to the cloud solution. USDA expects to begin moving employees within the next four weeks and has granted Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Authority to Operate (ATO) for the Microsoft cloud infrastructure, certifying that it provides a trustworthy foundation for operations.

Read more here.

Technology, USDA

Current State of Podcasting

Chuck Zimmerman

Had enough of social networking? How about some information about one of those “old” new media channels – Podcasting. Here’s a recorded presentation from the Blogworld event I couldn’t attend this year. The report is titled, “The Current State of Podcasting 2010.”

2010 Presentation of Edison Research data on podcasting. Originally presented at the Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas, this presentation by Edison Research VP of Strategy Tom Webster explores five years of data on podcast and downloadable media consumption habits, and presents new, thought-provoking insights for content creators.

The Current State Of Podcasting from Tom Webster on Vimeo.

Podcasts

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Yield data and field evaluations from the 2010 growing season show Syngenta’s Agrisure Viptera trait delivers unsurpassed control of ear-feeding insects, demonstrating improved control vs. triple stacks.
  • Bayer CropScience LP recently announced that it has finalized a licensing agreement with Heads Up Plant Protectants Inc. for access to Heads Up seed treatment.
  • Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has chosen Wright City to be the location of its newest production and distribution facility, a capital investment of nearly $8 million that will create 14 new full-time immediately and a total of 25 as the facility progresses.
  • The Board of Directors of the American Soybean Association has confirmed Alan Kemper from Lafayette, Ind., as President and Rob Joslin from Sidney, Ohio, as Chairman.
    Zimfo Bytes