IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders In Belgium

Chuck Zimmerman

Here are the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism award winners who were able to make it to this year’s IFAJ Congress. The award recognize the leadership potential of young members from countries belonging to the International Federation of Ag Journalist (IFAJ). Recipients each receive 1,000 Euros to support their participation at an IFAJ Congress.

Pictured are Billy Frey, far right, Alltech, and then from left, Andrea Bahrenberg, Germany; Aleksander Radovic, Serbia; Liza Berger, South Africa; Sarah Trickett, UK; Lilian Schaer, Canada; Tatjana Kren Hlebic, Slovenia.

Due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the winners that were not present were Soledad Ricca, Argentina; Terhi Torikka, Finland; Margaret Donnelly, Ireland; and Jesus Lopez Colmenarejo, Spain.

I feel their pain. I spoke with Delta today about my flight refund which they promise within the next 6 weeks. Thanks to Billy for providing the photo. I’ll be seeing him soon in Lexington, KY for Alltech’s 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium.

Alltech, IFAJ

Novus Tour Opens New Ideas, New Doors for Students

John Davis

Some students who have benefited from Novus International’s contribution to the Missouri Colleges Fund have had the chance to tour their benefactor’s suburban St. Louis facilities and the animal health company’s research farm.

Rachel Weber, a junior at William Woods University in Fulton, MO, majoring in biology with a concentration on equine science, says she was impressed with Novus’ environmentally friendly building … Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum level … and the company’s openness to a wide variety of backgrounds for their workers.

“A lot of people think you have to go pre-med, pre-vet or you have to stay in a laboratory doing boring research. I think this is opening a new door to a lot of scientists to see that we can be innovative in our research and that research is not boring and doing tedious paperwork.”

She hopes to take away some new ideas and apply some of those to her studies. Plus, it could be the kind of place where she could see herself working one day.

“I know they need a lot of specialized people and with a veterinary degree, maybe I could assist.”

You can hear more of what Rachel had to say in the player below.

2010 Novus International Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers Photo Album

Audio, Novus International

All About NAMA

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 258I suppose I could be more of an evangelist for the National Agri-Marketing Association but I’m not sure how. If you’re involved in agribusiness marketing and communications then this is the one group you really have to belong to. I love all of them but NAMA is the one that has truly meant the most to my career over the years.

In this week’s program you can hear a NAMA convention wrap-up with NAMA CEO Jenny Pickett and the latest on how well the Agri-Business Educational Foundation is doing with Mike Gustafson, Deer’s Landing Communications. Mike is VP of the ABEF. This NAMA convention was a record breaker and all the feed back has been good so far. The ABEF is doing very well too and I encourage and challenge you to become a member of the ABEF Century Club. I did at the convention.

Since the NAMA convention theme was “From America’s Heartland to the Rest of the World” the program ends with a song titled, “Heartlands” by Ian Babington from Music Alley.

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

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.

Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The AgGateway Board of Directors is pleased to announce Wendy Ann Smith, Ph.D. will join the organization in the role of executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
  • The National Agri-Marketing Association announced that its 2010 annual conference has achieved the highest attendance in more than a decade – 1,150.
  • To evaluate current trends, summarize key vulnerabilities, and identify possible solutions to current and future challenges, the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) convened a Task Force of eight scientists, educators and resource analysts who have prepared a new CAST Issue Paper, Water, People, and the Future: Water Availability for Agriculture in the United States. Watch the “Water, People and the Future” Video here.
  • The J.R. Simplot Company issued a first summary of its sustainability practices.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Novus Employees Stress Importance of Experience, Flexibility

    John Davis

    One of the first people the students touring the Novus International facilities in suburban St. Louis is someone who was in their exact same position not very long ago.

    Research engineer Sarah Perdue started with Novus just last summer. Like the students she met, Perdue was looking to build on her experience she had gained through the years.

    “I would highly recommend to get some kind of experience so that you can be exposed and also looks good on your resume and will give you an ‘in’ as far as moving into a company like Novus.”

    Perdue says while disciplines in the animal nutrition field are important at Novus, many science fields find a fit in the company.

    “As a chemist, you could do analytical chemistry. If you got into biology research, you could do cell culture cultivation and use that for a product.”

    She says it really boils down to being someone who is curious and looks to innovate.

    More of my conversation with Sarah is available in the player below.

    2010 Novus International Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers Photo Album

    Audio, Novus International

    Novus Provides Insight, Network for Science Students

    John Davis

    About a dozen students along with some of their advisors have toured the Novus International headquarters in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles and the company’s research farm. The tour is part of Novus’ 2nd annual “Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers” days, where students who have received Missouri Colleges Fund scholarships (funded, in part, by Novus) get to see firsthand how they might be able to apply their science degrees in the future.

    “Our hope is really for them to get a glimpse of what a science and math degree can do for them out in the ‘quote-unquote’ real world,” said Dr. Joyce Cacho, Chief Sustainability Officer for Novus.

    Dr. Cacho says Novus supports these students through the Missouri Colleges Fund because of the nature of the students’ degrees.

    “The largest plank in our relationship with the Missouri Colleges Fund is Novus’ commitment to encouraging a pipeline of young people to innovate in science and mathematics as it relates to health and nutrition for livestock, as well as the human area. [The] fund offers us a structure to reach out to young people to attract them to our industry and to attract them to our mission and vision of feeding the world sustainable food and improving the quality of life.”

    She adds, however, Novus welcomes more than just people with math and science degrees. Dr. Cacho points out there are lots of employees who come from marketing, business, and even physical training backgrounds who have found homes at Novus. The key is to find people who want to innovate.

    Listen to more of my conversation with Dr. Cacho below.

    2010 Novus International Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers Photo Album

    Audio, Novus International

    Getting Face To Face

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Paul AdamsI wish I could have attended all the breakout sessions at NAMA but it’s really difficult to get away when the Connection Point is in full swing and you’re an exhibitor. However, I did make it to some of them.

    One of our presenters was Paul Adams, President, Paul Adams & Associates. His session was titled, “Put the “High Touch” Back in Your “High-Tech” World.” At first I thought he was going to talk about technology but that’s not the focus. He says, “I’m really low tech.” He says we need to get back to more face to face communication in a world of high technology. Hmm. Do we really still do that? He laughed at that question and said, “I don’t know.” His presentation was geared to sales people and looked like it was really well attended.

    You can listen to my interview with Paul below.

    2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
    is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

    Audio, NAMA

    Blogging From iPad

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Chuck and CindyI’m just playing with my iPad. Got my camera connection kit which includes a USB dock connector as well as an SD memory card dock connector. So I experimented with connecting my compact flash card reader and it works!

    Since my Nikon uses compact flash I can now download pics from it to my iPad and edit them with Photogene, upload to Flickr (iPhone version, no iPad version yet) and then add to my post. I’m not using the WordPress app though. It’s not ready yet as I already found out. I’m just logged in via the iPad Safari browser.

    Now if I can just figure out an easy way to link to an audio file I’ve edited on here. I’ve got the Caster audio editing app but haven’t figured out how to get that file to a web url. The one added below is the test file I emailed to myself and added from my Mac.

    Uncategorized

    New Mexico Wins Student NAMA Competition

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The Aggies of New Mexico State University were the winners of the student NAMA competition this year. This is the second time the Aggies have won the top honors, but it has been awhile – so they were celebrating big time!

    Other top winners in the student NAMA awards included Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, which took first place for Outstanding Student Chapter; and Iowa State University, which received first place and $3000 for their chapter as the John Deere Signature Award winners; and Mike Gustafson regained his title as “Hard Ass” judge of the year – three times in the past four years!

    Curt Blades of Successful Farming was honored as outgoing NAMA Careers chair for his years of working with the student NAMA chapters. He was presented with an engraved beer stein for his heroic efforts!

    Congrats to all the winners!

    2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
    is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

    NAMA

    Successful Farming Has Customer Insight

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Successful Farming TeamAgricultural media and marketing is a team sport. Here is the Successful Farming team in the Agri-Marketing Conference Connection Point. Believe me when I say it’s not easy getting them all together and I know we were still missing a few. I’ll let you guess who. These folks are constantly on the go.

    One of the team members I spoke with during the conference was Scott Mortimer, Publisher, Successful Farming. He is included in the photo. Successful Farming partnered with us again this year to provide coverage of the event.

    I asked Scott what their support of NAMA means to them. He says it is very important to the future of the industry and they contribute more than just dollars but staff support as well. He says it this way, “We not only support NAMA with our pocketbook but our people.”

    In light of the changes in communications technology Scott says the company continues to work on customer insight to understand what the needs of their readers and agribusiness partners are and then developing solutions around that. They do this via market research which really helps drive their business. This includes multiple Successful Farming Market Research Panels. They have new research available now which you can obtain by contacting them.

    You can listen to my interview with Scott below.

    2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
    is sponsored by: Successful Farming. They know.

    Audio, NAMA