Nutrena Creates The Feed Room

Chuck Zimmerman

Showing that there is a career in professional blogging even for horse enthusiasts Cargill’s Nutrena brand launched a new blog site called The Feed Room that is designed to be a central source for horse enthusiasts to get the latest information on the care and feeding of their horses.

The site will cover a wide range of topics including horse feed, feeding tips, digestive health, weight control for horses, training tips & tricks, and industry events. Visitors can view videos, leave comments, ask questions and subscribe to receive updates via RSS feed or e-mail.

“Every day we engage in conversations with passionate horse owners across the country,” said Jackie Rieck, Nutrena® brand marketing manager. “We wanted to provide a central location for horse enthusiasts to educate themselves, interact with us and find a community of their peers.”

In developing The Feed Room, the Nutrena® brand commissioned a team of experts in the horse industry to blog and respond to site visitors’ questions, with new posts featured weekly. Featured bloggers will include experts from Cargill’s Nutrena® team and industry experts from outside the company.

Agribusiness, Horses

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey Takes Ride in Indy Car

Chuck Zimmerman

A good friend of mine likes to say you need to get “whomped up” for an event. They’re getting whomped up in Iowa in advance of this week’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 and so am I, especially after hearing that Team Ethanol will be running again.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey found a fast track through morning rush hour traffic yesterday in an Indy Car. He was joined by representatives from Iowa Speedway and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board for breakfast and a quick trip into work. The group is celebrating the 4th running of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 this weekend at Iowa Speedway.

Following breakfast, Northey was given a ride to his office near the statehouse in a two-seat Indy Car. “It was a fun ride. I definitely got some looks this morning. It’s a fun chance to tell folks a little about the Iowa Corn Indy 250.”

“Certainly Ethanol is huge for the state of Iowa. We produce twice as much fuel as we use in the state. 3 Billion gallons of fuel of ethanol are produced in the state. It helps our corn markets as well as 40 plants out there producing jobs across the state so it’s huge. And so the visibility the Indy 250 gives to ethanol, not only here but around the world by the coverage it gets encouraging people to use ethanol as well.”

I’ll be on location starting tomorrow afternoon at a pump promotion featuring several of the Indy Car drivers.

Ag Groups, Corn, Indy Racing

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal released a list of the top 100 Minnesota private companies, listed by revenue. Food and agriculture companies are a leading demographic in this list, holding nearly 40% of the spots. Further, the Agri-Growth Council is proud to have six companies included in their membership within the top ten.
  • The U.S. Wheat Associates have developed an executive summary titled: Analysis of the Effects of Trade Agreements on U.S. Agricultural Exports and U.S. Market Development Programs.
  • The National Milk Producers Federation’s Board of Directors voted to support the package of concepts contained in the Federation’s approach to reforming dairy policy entitled “Foundation for the Future.”
  • The new State FFA Officers were elected at the Illinois FFA State Convention in Springfield.
    Zimfo Bytes

    ACE Members Discuss Future

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The members of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences discussed the future of the organization during lunch today. I’m doing back to back sessions on social media this afternoon and will update this post when I find out if they accomplished anything.

    We’re using the #ACE2010 hashtag on Twitter in case you want to see what’s being tweeted or add to the conversation.

    From what I am being told, the discussion at lunch focused on the strengths and weaknesses and the effect of changing demographics. The organization will unveil a new website within the next month too.

    ACE

    Team Ethanol Back On Track At Iowa Corn Indy 250

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Cindy and Joanna are on location at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop this week. And yes, Cindy and I stayed in different hotels in different parts of the same city last night. It’s a little strange but . . .

    Joanna came up with some news at FEW that’s going to make my coverage of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 more exciting. I’ll let her explain:

    There was some big news announced during the Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) – Team Ethanol is back. Dave Vander Griend, the founder of ICM and one of the three original sponsors of the Team Ethanol IndyCar program, delivered the news that Team Ethanol will be back on the track for the first time in nearly two years at the upcoming Iowa Corn Indy 250 on Sunday, June 20th. Ryan Hunter-Reay will be returning as the driver, as part of Andretti Green Racing.

    I asked Dave how the return of Team Ethanol came to be and he explained, “We thought this is an excellent opportunity to showcase the fact that fuel ethanol is also biodegradable.” He continued, “Some of the things that are happening here in the Gulf Coast and some of the issues surrounding this oil spill would not be as severe if there was a higher use of ethanol and a lower use of non biodegradable fuel in our tanks.”

    ICM is a title sponsor of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 and will be a supporting sponsor through the remainder of the season. They are also hoping to raise sponsorship dollars so that Team Ethanol can compete in several more races this season.

    Vander Griend concluded that the best thing about the renewable fuels industry is that they produce fuel year after year and the money stays in America. “When we spend our money on foreign oil, we use the oil up, burn it in our cars, the fuel’s gone. The money’s gone. With renewables, the fuel may also be gone but we still have the money. And that is probably the most important thing if we want to revitalize our economy.”

    You can listen to my interview with Dave below and check out photos from FEW 2010 in our Flickr photo album.

    Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Indy Racing

    Off to the Pig Races

    Joanna Schroeder

    Apparently I’m the last to know about the sport of pig racing. While I was at the World Pork Expo (WPX) last week, I watched a few of these cute little pigs race to the finish line. The motivation to race? A Fig Newton. I must say, these are my kinds of pigs! The pigs are trained at the Hedricks Exotic Animal Farm in Nickerson, Kansas and travel all over the country to entertain crowds.

    The pig races at WPX are a fan favorite and the stands were full for most of the races. I watched three heats the first being an all female heat called the “Powder Puff Derby.” Representing the red team was Britney Squeals, the white team featured Lindsey Loham, the blue team Hamma Montana, and on the yellow team Miss Piggy. And the winner was….you’ll just have to watch the video to find out who won this heat. And if you get a chance, don’t miss the racing pigs coming to a track near you.

    You can check out all the World Pork Expo 2010 Photo Album.

    AgWired coverage of the World Pork Expo 2010 is sponsored by:
    Novus and boehringer-ingelheim.

    Pork, Swine, Video, World Pork Expo

    ACE Is The Place For Excellent Ag Communications

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ACE is the place if you’re involved in agricultural communications at a land grant university. I am now at the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences Annual Meeting. Now that is a mouthful.

    The Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) is an international association of communicators, educators and information technologists. It offers professional development and networking for individuals who extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources and life and human sciences.

    I got here just in time for the welcoming reception. Speaking to the group is meeting committee member Terry Meisenbach, eXtension. So I got him to sit down for a few minutes to tell me more about this organization.

    Terry says the program here has 5 keynote speakers who will speak at different times during the program as well as many breakout sessions of which I’m doing one on social media. You can find the program here (pdf). The organization does ongoing professional improvement programs including virtual workshops using Adobe Connect. He says the membership has been holding steady in the last couple years primarily due to budget challenges at many universities. We also talk about eXtension too.

    You can listen to my interview with Terry here.

    ACE

    Very Social Media And Cooperative Communicators

    Chuck Zimmerman

    We had a lively discussion on social media today at the Cooperative Communications Association 2010 Institute. Thank you to one of the participants for snapping a photo and to CCA for inviting me to present.

    One of the points I brought up was that in my opinion blogs are more relevant today than ever. In fact, I view them as the hub of the social media wheel or perhaps the workhorse of social media. Let’s face it. Blog is a dumb and boring word but it is a powerful tool. You can sure communicate more on a blog post than you can on a tweet. My blog posts “feed” out to all my other social media mechanisms in some way or another. This allows my visitors, subscribers, followers, fans, friends and contacts to get my information whenever and wherever they want. I’ve learned that different people have different social media preferences and I try to satisfy them all.

    So, there you have it. One little tidbit from today’s session. Let me know if you’ve got questions or would like a presentation of your own.

    Uncategorized

    WATT Online Feed Forum is Just Around the Corner

    Joanna Schroeder

    Looking for a way to learn strategies to improve your feed quality? Then look no further than your computer. On June 24, 2010, WATT is offering a free “WATT Online Feed Forum.” This virtual forum offers researchers, producers and executives an opportunity to learn about the latest research and products that will not only improve your feed quality but also improve your bottom line. The forum will cast a wide net with the audience but offer a narrow focus with the presentations.

    I caught up with Jeff Miller, the Director of Strategy of Sales and Marketing in the Novus International booth during World Pork Expo to learn more about this virtual feed forum. Novus is a supporter of this event. He explained, “This is synonymous with a live trade show but its on the internet. So we’re putting five presentations on in which an audience of knowledge seekers from over 100 countries from around the world have signed up to attend these presentations and they also have the ability to mingle with their colleagues from all over the world. And of course they have the opportunity to go to sponsor booths that are also in the virtual event.”

    The presentation topics include:

    Although the presentations are pre-recorded, event day participants will have the opportunity to join a live Q&A session with the speakers. However, if you can’t make the live event, the feed forum will be archived for three months.

    Miller said that while they appreciate being at live events, his company strongly feels that there is a global audience of people who are looking for knowledge and education in any channel available. “This virtual trades show platform is another channel for professionals to get quality information about agribusiness,” concluded Miller.

    Listen below to my full interview with Jeff. You can register for the free feed forum and see the archive of the Watt Poultry Nutrition & Health Forum, at www.wattevents.com.

    You can check out all the World Pork Expo 2010 Photo Album.

    AgWired coverage of the World Pork Expo 2010 is sponsored by:
    Novus and boehringer-ingelheim.

    Agribusiness, Audio, Feed, Novus International, Research, World Pork Expo

    AG CONNECT Expo 2011 Set For Georgia

    Melissa Sandfort

    The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and AG CONNECT Expo 2011 announced they are teaming up in 2011 with the co-location of the 2011 AFBF Annual Meeting and AG CONNECT Expo 2011, both to be held in early January 2011 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga.

    AFBF’s 2011 Annual Meeting will be Jan. 9-12, while the AG CONNECT Expo runs Jan. 8-10, with “Preview Day” on Jan. 7 by special admission.

    The co-location will provide Farm Bureau members attending the 2011 AFBF Annual Meeting with the added value of convenient access to the AG CONNECT Expo show floor on January 8-10. The 5,000-plus attendees expected at the AFBF Annual Meeting will have the opportunity to participate in an event that offers the best in technological advances and showcases innovative agricultural equipment, inputs, components and services. This unique opportunity for Farm Bureau members – a one-time exception in AG CONNECT’s standard registration – became a reality after AG CONNECT Expo organizers approached AFBF about teaming up in Atlanta, according to AFBF President Bob Stallman.

    Uncategorized