No-till Cotton Provides Conservation Opportunity

Chuck Zimmerman

Jon BlackDuring the Conservation in Action Tour one of our farm stops was the Carter Farm where we met Jon Black (pictured left). He gave us a presentation on no-till cotton which he is standing in. I caught up to him on the phone afterward since we didn’t have time for an interview there.

Jon says continuous no-till farming is the main conservation practices he employs on his farm. He says most of the land on his farm hasn’t been worked up in over 15 years. He says this helps keep a cover crop or mulch cover on the ground all the time which controls runoff and keeps the nutrients intact. He says yields for corn and cotton have been good using this no-till method except when they follow corn with wheat but a lot has to do with the weather. Imagine that! He has employed nutrient products from AGROTAIN although he tries not to apply more nitrogen than the crop will take. He says these products become more important if there has been a lot of rain or heat. In the case of heat he says you worry about volatility and AGROTAIN products help with that.

Jon Black Interview

Conservation In Action Tour 2010 Photo Album

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Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, Farming

Farm Podcaster Tool

Chuck Zimmerman

With a name like Olympus LS-11PKG it must be a good gadget for the Farm Podcaster. I haven’t tried one but they’re on special now at BSW.

The Olympus LS-11 handheld PCM recorder features two high-sensitivity microphones and 8GB of internal memory as well as up to 24-bit/96kHz linear PCM recording in multiple formats for better than CD audio quality.

In addition to its 8 GB of internal memory, the LS-11 has the capacity for another 32 GB of memory utilizing SD or SDHC cards. It also offers up to 32 hours of battery life.

With the LS-11 you can do stereo or mono recording in WAV, MP3 or WMA formats, fine tune your recording with an LCD-displayed level meter, edit the audio files, or use an auto-record function that activates (and shuts off) the LS-11 at pre-set levels. It also boasts two built-in reference speakers for handy stereo monitoring.

And you can plug in an external mic or other audio source.

Equipment, Podcasts

There Is Truth In Food

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 269When it comes to food we all need a little bit of truth. Well, maybe a lot of truth. So TruthInFood.com sounds like a good idea. To learn more about this intriguing project I spoke with Mike Smith, Food Chain Communications.

Mike and I had a great conversation about understanding why people from both production agriculture and the urban consuming public think the things they do. To effectively communicate you need to understand your audience and not just preach at them. Sounds easy, eh? Not really. However, Mike and Kevin Murphy set out a year ago to create an online location to post thought provoking stories about the Truth In Food.

Truth in Food traverses the entire food chain, traveling the long and winding road from conception to consumption armed with the farmer’s natural skepticism and the scholar’s thirst for knowledge, the mechanic’s understanding of nuts and bolts and the philosopher’s impulse toward the sublime, all blended with insight, scholarship, thought and good old fashioned humor.

The most popular story they’ve posted so far is “The Ten Reasons They Hate You So.” I encourage you to read it. So let’s learn more about TruthInFood.com and what Mike has learned during this past year. ZimmCast 269

The program ends this week with Truth of the Matter by Drew Vics from Music Alley.

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, Food, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

Zimfo Bytes

Novus in the Beef Market

Cindy Zimmerman

novus international mechanical cowWhile there is no big trade show at the Cattle Industry summer conference, the major animal health partners in the beef and dairy industry still have a presence, and one of the newer players there was Novus International. Novus introduced itself to the beef industry during the Cattle Industry Conference in January, with the help of a mechanical steer named Wally that was on display at their booth.

scott fleetwoodNovus Executive Director for Global Markets and Products Scott Fleetwood says the company’s products were originally focused in the poultry industry, but since 2004 they have expanded into other markets. “Including aquaculture, dairy, swine, and this year we acquired a company called Albion to expand our footprint and move into the beef market, because it obviously has similar needs,” said Scott during an interview at the summer conference. “We focus on gut health, nutrition, feed quality, all of those are common, so it was a natural fit for us.”

Most of Novus’ products are feed additives, like chelated minerals and amino acids, that help improve the overall efficiency of animals. “The goal is to get to one kilogram of grain in to one kilogram of meat or milk or egg out,” said Scott, noting that efficiency not only increases productivity, it also is key to sustainability. “Something that is very important to the beef industry is the sustainability aspect of it and the utilization of resources and there is a lot of misconceptions in the general population,” he said.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Scott from the summer meeting here: Scott Fleetwood Interview

Animal Health, Audio, Beef, Novus International

Public Relations Etiquette

Chuck Zimmerman

When I bring up PR etiquette in a conversation it usually generates a few chuckles. Now why would that be? Maybe I should refer to this as public relations professionalism. Whatever you want to call it the recent Ag Media Summit provided several opportunities to comment on it. During the event’s InfoExpo I had two situations that provide a real good lesson in what “not to do.”

The first one involved me walking to a scheduled appointment with an exhibitor to conduct an interview. While walking past a certain exhibit one of the people in the booth grabbed me by the arm, stopping me and “asking” if I could interview their representative who was at that moment already being interviewed. I explained that I had a scheduled interview and could come back later. My arm was still being held and further pressure was applied verbally to stay. I don’t know about you but even though I like a good welcoming hug, I’m not fond of being grabbed. Needless to say I did not return to this booth.

Another situation involved me in conversation with my scheduled appointment and prior to starting me interview (audio recording), a PR professional from another booth walked in between me and the person I was speaking with and proceeded to try to start a conversation as if I wasn’t there. I had to speak over the shoulder to my contact and say that perhaps we could finish if this was more important. Turns out it wasn’t and they were told to come back. Needless to say I did not visit their booth. Read More

Public Relations

Social Networking and Blogs #1 Online Activity

Chuck Zimmerman

This is no surprise to ZimmComm New Media but it may surprise many agrimarketers. According to a post on Nielsen Wire titled, “What Americans Do Online: Social Media And Games Dominate Activity,” social networks and blog dominate people’s web use.

Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase) according to new research released today from The Nielsen Company. The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Up 43 percent! That’s huge. The company also released a report that says seventy percent of people worldwide now watch video online!

Social Networking

AAEA and LPC Awards Lists

Chuck Zimmerman

I’ve been meaning to link you to the listings of the awards presented by the American Agricultural Editors Association and Livestock Publications Council. These were announced at the Ag Media Summit.

AAEA Awards List (pdf)
LPC Awards List

ACN, Ag Media Summit, LPC

Citrus Expo Trade Show Sold Out

Chuck Zimmerman

The Florida Citrus Expo has a sold out trade show this year and pre-registration is strong. It’s the 19th year of the show.

More than 150 exhibitors are scheduled to show off their goods on Aug. 18-19 at the World’s Premier Citrus Expo at the Lee Civic Center in Fort Myers.

Attendance is free both days to bona fide grove owners and managers, citrus production managers, professional crop advisers, association representatives, board members and the citrus research community. For easiest entry and to help the Citrus Expo team develop the best head count for event planning, those expecting to attend either or both days of Citrus Expo are encouraged to preregister at www.CitrusExpo.net or by calling 352-671-1909. Advance-registration brochures have been distributed industry-wide, and registration will be available at the door as well.

Citrus, Farm Shows

Hang On!

Melissa Sandfort

You’re 10. You’re on the first uphill climb on a rollercoaster, about to surge down the other side at 100 mph with just a small lap belt holding you in. Your car-mate yells, “Hang on!” and you can’t help but notice your heart skipping a beat. And in 3 minutes, the ride is over, hair is crazy, but if you were like me, you lined up to do it all over again just for the thrill.

I guess that’s what life and work is all about. Hanging on for the thrill of the ride. I was once asked: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I was 17. I didn’t know where I’d be the next day, let alone 10 years from then. Some kids are born with the desire to work in agriculture; for others, it’s an “acquired taste.” I took for granted the freedoms I had on the farm growing up: The picnic bench watermelon-eating fiascos, the treasured arrowheads buried deep beneath the hay bales, the pigeon songs in the old barn. As a youth, I loved agriculture. I just didn’t know I wanted a job in ag.

So what really inspires today’s youth to work in the ag industry? Is it classes they take in school? Being a member of a club like 4-H or FFA? Guidance counselors, friends, parents, the media? According to a study by AgCareers.com (top link), perceived benefits to a career in agriculture include “rewarding opportunities that provide good benefits” and “optimistic about the number of opportunities available.” Now if we can only help shape the perceptions of influencers (parents, peers) who believe that a life in ag is hard work and little pay.

Most days it IS hard work, and the pay, well, volatile. But farmers and ranchers and those in the ag industry seem to like the thrill of the ride. After all, that’s what life is all about, right? And, like this tree frog on our sliding glass window…hang on. We’re in for one heck of a ride.

Until we walk again…

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