New US Wheat Associates Board Officers

Melissa Sandfort

The U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Board of Directors installed new officers at its annual meeting July 12, 2010, in Bozeman, Mont. Don Schieber of Ponca City, Okla., was installed as Chairman, while Randy Suess of Colfax, Wash., became Vice Chairman, and Darrell Davis, of Ipswich, S.D., began his term as Secretary-Treasurer. Janice Mattson of Chester, Mont., moves to Past Chair and will chair the USW Budget Committee. These USW officers were elected to their one-year positions at a January 2010 Board of Directors meeting.

USW’s next Board meeting will be held jointly with NAWG, in Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 22 to 25, 2010.

Uncategorized

Golden ARC’s To Be Presented At Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s just one more reason to want to attend this year’s Agricultural Media Summit.

The re-birth of ARC continues with the re-introduction of the 2010 Golden ARC awards presentation set for July 27 at the Ag Media Summit in St. Paul. The awards will be given out as part of the Tuesday PR block workshop, from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

First, attendees at the PR Workshop “Characteristics of a winning public relations program” will be treated to a dissection of one of the campaign winners from the 2010 contest. Following that seminar, the winners and merit selectees from about 20 categories will be announced by Contest Manager Amy McDonald of McDonald Marketing Communications and ARC Board President Deron Johnson of Rhea + Kaiser Marketing Communications.

Ag Media Summit, ARC

Weber On The Grill iPad App

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s an interesting looking app for your iPad. However, the $4.99 price tag makes me hesitate. Me, a carnivorous grill-a-holic. What do you think? Worth $4.99?

Almost one year after the launch of its successful Weber’s On the Grill recipe and grilling technique app for the iPhone and iPod touch, Weber-Stephen Products Co. has just released a new Weber’s On the Grill app for the iPad®.

Like its iPhone and iPod touch cousins, the Weber’s On the Grill app for the iPad has a colorful, clean and greatly intuitive interface connected to a wide variety of multi-media functions. At an affordable $4.99 from the iTunes store, this grilling app has more than 250 triple-tested recipes from cookbooks such as best-sellers Weber’s Way to Grill(TM), Weber’s Real Grilling(TM) and Weber’s Charcoal Grilling(TM)–all written by 2010 James Beard Award nominee Jamie Purviance. iPad users can tag favorite recipes; view videos; create and share master shopping lists from selected recipes to easily take to the grocery store; and browse by the app’s wide variety of recipe food categories (appetizers, red meat, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables, fruits and yes, even desserts). Forty sauces, marinades and rubs are also part of the repertoire. Weber’s On the Grill app also features a handy grilling timer that sounds off when food is done.

Food

The Biology of Fungi

Chuck Zimmerman

Fungi like to move around and so does this conference where you can learn all about them.

The British Mycological Society, in association with Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information, today announced the final programme for the 9th Mycological Congress IMC9: The Biology of Fungi. This congress takes place every 4 years at a different venue around the world.

Taking place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, a comprehensive programme encompasses the latest research in all areas of fungal biology. More than 300 oral presentations are arranged within 45 thematic symposia and supplemented by over 1000 posters, optional special interest group meetings, field trips and an exhibition. A complementary public exhibition, entitled ‘From Another Kingdom’, will be hosted at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh during the Congress and later into Autumn 2010.

Fungal biology has never been as important in our everyday lives as it is today because of the commercial importance for biotechnology, medicine and the food industry. Fungi also provide a model for studying the eukaryotic mode of life. Further, fungi are crucial to the functioning of the ecosystems of our planet because of the role they play in decomposition and nutrient cycling. New areas of research will be reviewed within the following five main themes of the congress: Cell biology, biochemistry and physiology; Environment, ecology and interactions; Evolution, biodiversity and systematics; Fungal pathogenesis and disease control; Genomics, genetics and molecular biology.

International

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Darlington dairy producer, Jay Stauffacher, has been re-elected to a sixth term as chairman of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Connie Seefeldt, Coleman, was re-elected vice chairperson, and Ed Jasurda, Phillips, was re-elected Secretary.
  • David Macedo – city councilman, 2006 World Livestock Auctioneer Champion and veteran California marketman – is Livestock Marketing Association’s president for 2010-2012.
  • Pfizer Animal Health has launched a new online resource offering technical and actionable information on mastitis management and milk quality.
  • Massey Ferguson introduces the new RK Series rotary rake in three models, each designed to help hay producers optimize hay quality.
    Zimfo Bytes

    The Context Network Gets New Partners

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Mark and Mark have become Partners with The Context Network. Both Mark Nelson and Mark Holland were Senior Associates.

    Context Managing Partner, Blake Sieker said, “Context is very pleased to announce the advancement of Mark Holland and Mark Nelson to Partners. Their contributions and expertise as Senior Associates have proven their commitment to consulting excellence. The actionable solutions and solid, strategic results they provide have had a profound and indelible positive influence on our clients, our industry and on The Context Network. We are confident their contributions will bring continued growth and business success to our clients.”

    Agribusiness

    The Trials and Errors of Lab Work

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Zachary Larson, Borlaug Summer Intern, is on location at Nanjing Agricultural University and providing us with updates this summer of his trip. Here’s his latest. You can also find a photo album he’s got started here: Borlaug Summer Intern Photo Album. The internship is being sponsored by the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute.

    My lab work here in the wheat lab has been a bit of a trial and error experience, but I take this as an experience every person who wants to get involved in a research setting must undergo before they can actually conduct a research task proficiently.

    For the last few weeks I have been solely working on helping my friend Wang Jia do his lab work, and understand his research. He is trying to detect the genetic differences between a variety of wheat, and a species of grass that shows a serious resistance against a variety of wheat disease. To do this, he first has to run hundreds of PCRs and Page Gels in order to get enough data to find the genetic differences. Read More

    Education, International, University

    USDA Says Ask The Expert

    Chuck Zimmerman

    If you have questions, USDA has answers. They just launched a new portal to Ask The Expert.

    . . . a knowledge-based search engine that optimizes customer experience while conserving taxpayer dollars. This intuitive tool relies on self-service to deliver reliable and relevant information 24/7, greatly reducing wait time and USDA resources associated with the previous system.

    USDA

    Web Browser Compatibility

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Since so many of you have become more web savvy than you used to be I thought I’d point out a growing problem that I’ve been seeing lately. It’s website browser compatibility. Have you ever looked at your website in a browser other than the one you use? I highly recommend it and you may be very surprised at what you find. Does your web developer do this? You should make sure.

    Why? Well if you look at this graphic which shows AgWired visitors for the last month by type of browser they use you can see a top ten list. That’s right. Ten different browsers and there are actually more. So not everyone is using Internet Explorer or Firefox. And although Internet Explorer (IE) is the biggest you need to realize that there are multiple versions of IE. There’s IE6, IE7, IE8 and a test version of IE9. Google Analytics isn’t breaking them out here. Your website could look different in each of them if it isn’t properly coded. And besides the browsers you have to also consider the operating system of your computer. What version of Window are you using or Mac OS? It makes a difference.

    I’ve seen this browser compatibility problem with all kinds of websites and companies lately even including my bank where I do online banking. Now, even when we upgrade to a new version of our website software we have to fix all kinds of little bugs that pop up depending on which browser you’re using. It’s a pain in the you know what! But it’s reality. BTW. We find the most problems with IE and its various versions. And if I go back just 2 years ago IE was at 70% and of course there was no Chrome.

    Internet

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • Rabobank recently appointed David C. Nelson as Global Strategist, Animal Protein Grains and Oilseeds for the Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory group based in Chicago.
    • The newly released Soybean Cyst Nematode Management Guide, produced by the North Central Soybean Research Program and the Plant Health Initiative, is a comprehensive guide to SCN and how to manage it.
    • Agriculture Future of America is excited to announce that the 2010 AFA Leaders Conference will be held Nov. 4-7, 2010, in Kansas City, Mo.
    • Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson presented Osborne Industries with the 2010 Kansas Governor’s Exporter of the Year Award.
      Zimfo Bytes