Kum & Go Welcomes Indy Car Drivers To New E-85 Location

Chuck Zimmerman

Iowa Corn Kum & Go Pump PromotionTeammates Marco Andretti (left) and Ryan Hunter-Reay were on hand to promote American corn ethanol today at the grand opening of another Kum & Go E-85 pump location in Des Moines, IA. For two hours this today you could fill your tank with 85 cent/gallon E-85 and a lot of people came out to do just that.

Today’s promotional event was the kick off of my coverage of this year’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 race weekend thanks to the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. I’ll be attending various events and reporting here and on Domestic Fuel. The race is scheduled for 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon. I’ve got a photo album started for the weekend which I’ll be adding to periodically: Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album.

The drivers were signing autographs and doing interviews. I spoke to both of them and they’re very glad to see the support they’re getting from Iowa corn growers. They like the fact that their cars are running on a renewable fuel and after doing so for years now they’ve proved the performance capability of the fuel.

You can download my interview with Ryan (mp3) or listen here: ia-corn-indy-2010-ryan.mp3

You can download my interview with Marco (mp3) or listen here: ia-corn-indy-2010-marco.mp3

Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Indy Racing, Video

Crop Protection Needed to Feed the World

Cindy Zimmerman

Combine increasing global population and decreasing land availability with pests and diseases that like the same crops we do and you get a continued demand for crop protection tools to feed the world.

BASF ChicagoThe problem is that the public in general views pesticides as unsafe, even though they both safe and necessary, according Dr. Jeff Driver, a toxicologist with George Mason University, who spoke at the BASF Ag Media Summit on sustainability last week in Chicago. “These perceptions or biases exist,” says Dr. Driver. “What consumers need to appreciate further is the risks and benefits of having or not having pesticides, whether in their food or dealing with public health threats like Lyme disease.”

He gave an example of comparing the toxicity risks of aspirin to peaches. “It’s the dose that makes the poison,” he said. “One could consume 32 aspirins of 325 mg strength and reach an acutely toxic dose. In comparison, to reach an acutely toxic dose of an example pesticide in a conventionally grown peach, one would have to consume over 1,000 peaches in one sitting, which obviously would not happen, not even in the best peach eating contest!”

Driver says that consumers have little understanding of the rigorous approval process that crop protection chemicals go through, which is even more lengthy and thorough than for a pharmaceutical product, and it is up to the scientific and agricultural community to do more to educate the public, even starting in elementary school.

Download Driver’s interview or just listen here basf-chi-driver.mp3

BASF ChicagoFollowing up Dr. Driver’s presentation, BASF Product Stewardship Manager Andrew Goetz got specific about what BASF goes through to get a crop protection product registered for use and ensure that it is safe for people, animals and the environment as a whole.

“Just in the pre-development time period, we’ll do 40-50 studies and spend $2.5-4 million,” Andrew said. “We’re as highly regulated as the pharmaceutical area in toxicology. In the environmental fate area, we do more, we look at how it behaves in the environment. And in the eco-tox area we do more than pharmaceuticals. So, overall we are probably more regulated than the pharmaceutical industry.”

Listen to Andrew’s interview below.

Audio, BASF

PureSense Adds Irrigation Manager iPhone App

Melissa Sandfort

PureSense Environmental Inc. announced that its Irrigation Manager iPhone application is now available through the iTunes App Store.

Built as a mobile platform for PureSense subscribers, the PureSense app brings the reporting power growers have come to expect from Irrigation Manager to the iPhone, allowing the grower to be more informed, efficient and mobile than ever before.

Growers can access timely, accurate data for each monitored irrigation set. With a single tap in the Charts feature, growers can view powerful PureSense charts used to support important irrigation decisions. The Alerts feature enables the viewing and analyzing of all recent moisture or weather related alerts, including frost, heat and wind alerts.

The app is available through iTunes and is only available to growers with a PureSense login. The Irrigation Manager app can be found here. For more information visit PureSense.com or call 888.882.7873.

Irrigation, Technology

International Visitors Enjoy World Pork Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

2010 world pork expoMore than 20,000 producers from 30 countries and over 400 exhibitors, including Novus International, celebrated the pork industry’s return to profitability during the 2010 World Pork Expo in Des Moines last week.

One of the international visitors who stopped by the Novus tent at WPX was Leonardo Cuevas, a consultant from Chile, who said the event provided him with lots of new information to bring back to his country. “I think we have to improve our industry, in nutrition, minerals and vitamins, especially in the sow and breeder aspect,” Leonardo told me. “Also artificial insemination, environmental control and management of mortality, composting, etc.”

He says this was his third visit to Pork Expo. “I would recommend for everybody to come here. It’s a good investment for producers.”

Leonardo Cuevas interview wpx10-novus-chile.mp3

2010 world pork expoIt’s also a good investment for exhibitors who offer products and services to help producers be more efficient and profitable. Novus International Global Marketing Manager Felipe Navarro says Novus is in about 80 countries, so it World Pork Expo is a great place for them to meet with their customers in many countries. “The only two areas we are missing in this show are China and Asia Pacific. This is related to the business situation, they’re not doing very well right now, but hopefully they will get to the same point where we are now in North America and Latin America where people are starting to make some profit again,” Felipe said.

He says that there are opportunities and challenges for a company like Novus marketing globally, with different regulations, production methods and diseases from country to country, but all producers want to increase performance, which is where Novus is focusing right now. “Especially sow performance,” Felipe said. “Because by working on the sow, which is the source of your revenue at the end of the day, they produce the piglets that you will raise to market weight.”

Novus representatives spent lots of time visiting with producers about their specific products that include chelated trace minerals, enzymes, mycotoxin technologies and anti-oxidants.

Listen to or download my interview with Felipe in the player below.

World Pork Expo 2010 Photo Album.

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

Audio, Novus International, World Pork Expo

Building Social Media Following

Chuck Zimmerman

This week I’ve had the opportunity to speak to different agricultural communications groups about social media. The interest in this subject is very high. If you’re still somewhat skeptical about social media you should watch this video below. You can find statistics from the video here.

Social Media Revolution 2 is a refresh of the original video with new and updated social media & mobile statistics that are hard to ignore. Based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman.

As you’ll see in the video it’s not a question of using social media to communicate but how well you’re using social media. Folks, you really don’t have a choice. Of course, if you choose not to participate in the online conversation then I guess you could call it a choice not to be in or have a successful business.

One of the questions I received most this week was how to get more traffic for your social media efforts with a blog being the specific channel pointed to. Good question and here are some of my thoughts on that:

1. Write about what you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.
2. Write regularly.
3. Write frequently. I can’t imagine having a blog you don’t post on at least 5x/wk.
4. Write as if you’re having a conversation with someone.
5. Don’t write only about yourself, company or products.
6. Point people to information on your subject they may not have known.
7. Use lots of links to more information, internal and external to your company.
8. Invite comment with questions. Solicit their opinion, questions, ideas.
9. Interact via comments or emails with your audience. Don’t ignore them.
10. Be persistent. Don’t give up. It will take time to develop an audience.
11. Use social networking to point people to your blog posts.

These are just a few ideas. There are more. I would also encourage you to create some objectives up front. How are you going to measure success? Realize that this isn’t about big numbers. This is about engaging your customers or members when and how they want. That will never include everyone. Think of social media as a big online cocktail party. Does everyone at the cocktail party get together in one group to chat? No. They are in many small groups. But those people mingle around and move from group to group. Influence your group and realize your audience will then go join another group and take what they learned from you with them.

The video says there are over 200,000,000 blogs. They’re not dead or no longer relevant. They’re more relevant than ever and I see them as the hub of your social media community. The spokes are Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

Podcasts, Social Networking

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