AgChat Foundation To Help Farmers With Social Media

Chuck Zimmerman

That weekly AgChat Twitter conversation is nearing its one year anniversary and it has helped energize and inspire many farmers to engage online to agvocate for their industry using social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. Still wondering if farmers are engaged online?

Today the AgChat Foundation has been announced via Twitter. This farmer led group “is designed to empower more farmers to leverage social media as a tool to tell agriculture’s story. The Foundation will educate and equip farmers and ranchers with the skill set needed to effectively engage on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Linkedin and other social media services. It will give them knowledge to unlock new tools to effectively tell their story. Research shows that social media is a growing opportunity for farmers to have a stronger voice in educating people about the business of growing food, fuel, feed and fiber.” I interviewed Mike Haley, one of our farmer board members, about the announcement and have posted it below.

The Foundation is farmer led but I have the honor to serve on the founding board as an Agribusiness Liaison. In addition to a board of directors we also have an advisory board which I’ve listed below. You can find this information and more on the AgChat Foundation website. Let me also say a big thank you to Michele Payn-Knoper for getting this all started a year ago!

Board of Directors:
Chris Chinn – Missouri, Farmer
Jeff Fowle – California, Farmer & Rancher
Mark Gale – Wisconsin, Agribusiness Liaison
Eliz Greene – Wisconsin, Consumer & Healthcare Liasion
Darin Grimm – Kansas, Farmer
Mike Haley – Ohio, Farmer
Shaun Haney – Alberta, Canada, Farmer
Michele Payn-Knoper, CSP – Indiana, Professional Speaker
Ray Prock, Jr. – California, Farmer
Chris Raines, Ph.D. – Pennsylvania, Extension
Tricia Braid Terry – Illinois, Checkoff Liaison
Chuck Zimmerman – Missouri, Agribusiness Liaison

Advisory Board:

James Andu, Vancouver, British Columbia – Your Local Foods
John Blue, Indiana – Truffle Media
Zach Hunnicut, Nebraska – Hunnicut Family Farms
Janice Person, Tennessee – Monsanto
Brent Pohlman, Nebraska – Midwest Labs
Craig Raysor, Tennessee – Gillon & Associates
Nate Taylor, Illinois – ZedX
Mace Thornton, Washington D.C. – American Farm Bureau Federation
Dr. Scott Vernon, California – California Polytechnical Institute San Luis Obispo
Tim Zweber – Zweber Family Farms

Let’s meet board member Mike Haley. Mike is a fifth generation grain and cattle farmer in northern Ohio. Mike believes not only in raising healthy crops and animals, but also working to ensure that future generations will be able to continue to do the same. This not only means that Mike must continuously work to ensure that his farm is operating in a sustainable way, but also that others understand what farmers are doing on a daily basis to ensure that they are acting in a socially acceptable manner. “Social media is a valuable tool that allows us to communicate with others across the country about our farming operation while we are working on daily tasks.”

In my interview with Mike we talk about farmer use of social media and what we hope to accomplish with the AgChat Foundation. I’ll be interviewing all our board members over the next several weeks.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here.

Farming, Social Networking

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Syngenta announced the first European registration of the new fungicide isopyrazam, which is expected to enhance significantly its market position, notably in cereals.
  • AgriLabs has introduced two novel awards available to young veterinarians actively working with beef and dairy operations. Named as a tribute to Dr. W. Bruce Wren, each award will provide a $5,000 grant for professional-development training, ultimately helping these veterinarians better serve their producer-clients. The first two grants will be awarded in August 2010, with completed applications due June 15, 2010.
  • Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health is partnering with the Dairy Calf & Heifer Association (DCHA) to educate dairy leaders through the 2010 Leadership Program.
  • University of Illinois researchers recently identified a new soybean aphid biotype that can multiply on aphid-resistant soybean varieties. Soybean aphids are the No. 1 insect threat to soybean production in the North Central region of the United States.
    Zimfo Bytes

    4-H Leadership Has Some Explaining To Do

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Thanks to our Amanda for letting the world know about 4-H allowing the Humane Society of the United States to participate in their conference. Shocking but true. I was going to post a news release from 4-H that was sent to me about a new fundraising effort but I don’t think I will.

    Instead, I would like to call on the leadership of 4-H to explain their decision. I’m sure supporting ag groups would love to know. You can read lots of comments about this matter on their Facebook Page. After scrolling though pages of them I don’t see an official response. C’mon 4-H. It’s the age of social engagement and you’re not using your opportunity. Even one of the deceivers at HSUS has left comments!

    I invite you to post a comment here and let us know what you were thinking. I only wish I had been involved in 4-H when I was young but I never took that opportunity. I’ve met many wonderful people through the organization over the years though. This news was very disturbing and I hope we get a response soon.

    If there still is anyone wondering why this would be disturbing then I encourage them to visit HumaneWatch for information that includes facts and actual documents that reveal their true vegan agenda.

    Post Update: Here’s the full response by the 4-H National Headquarters (via NIFA Facebook Page). Hard to believe but true.

    4-H National Headquarters statement regarding the presence of the Humane Society of the United States at National 4-H Conference

    Today at 8:07am

    Each year, 4-H National Headquarters puts out a call to internal and external groups to propose workshops for presentation at the National 4-H Conference. When received, the proposals are reviewed independently by youth and adult members of the planning committee. The planning committee then considers the reviews for all submitted workshop proposals and selects a set of them as most acceptable for National Conference.

    Workshops are an opportunity for youth to self-select topics of their interest. Materials disseminated at workshops generally are copies of slides and/or general information brochures/toolkits that are mostly available via the web.

    For the 2010 National 4-H Conference, a proposal titled “Animal Instincts: Service Learning and Animal Welfare” was submitted by the Humane Society of the United States. It was reviewed by the planning committee and found acceptable. The proposal addressed the National Conference central theme of citizenship and showed alignment with programming areas for community service, youth volunteerism, service learning, and youth voice. Read More

    Ag Groups

    Spring Planting Advice

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 254It’s spring planting time and in this week’s program you’ll hear some ideas and suggestions for row crop farmers. I interviewed Syngenta Crop Protection Technical Support Representative, Michael Leetch this morning.

    He’s based in Iowa and says there are areas that still have up to five percent of their corn left standing. Couple that with a very wet start to the spring and there are challenges out there. He thinks the big issue is “timeliness.” Soil preparation is behind due to the winter and early spring challenges and that includes using a pre-plant, soil active herbicide which he’s a big proponent of. He’s afraid there will be some very loose soil out there that never fully froze due to early snow cover. However, we’ve had some good weather all of the sudden that’s helping dry things out.

    We also discussed topics like insect pressure and nematodes in corn fields. I asked about post-emergence weed control and he brought up the issue of glyphosate resistance. He says there’s no way post-emergence weed control is going to be enough so that’s why pre-emerge is so important and when you factor resistance in it might be time to look at a conventional herbicide that has an alternative mode of activity.

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

    You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

    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.

    Agribusiness, Audio, Syngenta, ZimmCast

    Meat-In Day

    Melissa Sandfort

    Penn State students in the College of Agricultural Sciences once again joined forces to put on a showing of their support for animal agriculture. This year marked the 4th anniversary of Meat-In Day, an event originally started by Penn State Alumnus and former National Beef Ambassador Chris Molinaro.

    On March 18, approximately 175 students from the College of Agriculture Sciences donned two different t-shirts to show their support around campus. And, members of four major college student organizations came to help with the event that was established as a proactive response to the Great American Meatout Day, which celebrated its 25th anniversary. More than 1,700 pieces of beef jerky were handed out at the student union building as well as in the dinning commons area. The jerky was accompanied by educational flyers about the health benefits of beef.

    Because of Meat-In Day efforts, students enjoyed learning about what beef producers do on a daily basis to take their food from the pasture to plate.

    The National Beef Ambassador Program continues to provide an opportunity for youth to educate consumers and students about beef nutrition, food safety and stewardship practices of the beef industry through activities such as the Meat-In Day.

    For more information about the Beef Ambassador Team, visit NationalBeefAmbassador.org.

    Beef

    Using Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers for Corn and Wheat

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Greg SchwabUsing enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEF’s) in corn and wheat was the subject of a presentation by Greg Schwab, University of Kentucky, at the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference. We’re just starting to see these products make their way into large acre crop use.

    I spoke to Greg after his presentation and he says he works very closely with farmers and crop consultants. They want to know how these products will affect yield. So, he works in field environments testing various EEF, especially the stabilized nitrogen products. He’s found that some products work very well and some don’t in his environment. He says farmers need to take into account all the elements of their system and perhaps seek some advice from a professional. I also asked him how these products fit into precision application mechanisms and he says they do so very well, especially when it comes to controlling rates.

    You can listen to my interview with Greg below.

    Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the New Ag International Conference
    on Enhanced-Efficiency Fertilizers is made possible by .

    Audio, Fertilizer, Uncategorized

    BASF LEGOs Donated to FFA

    Cindy Zimmerman

    basf legosRemember the LEGO sculpture at BASF’s Commodity Classic booth in Anaheim? Ever wonder what they did with that? Turns out that BASF donated the thousands of LEGO bricks used in the custom barn and crop sculpture to the National FFA Organization in Indianapolis.

    The organization plans to utilize the LEGO bricks beginning this fall as part of leadership conferences and workshops for high school students. The LEGOs will also be used in October during the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. “National FFA is very thankful to BASF for such a generous contribution to our organization,” said Whitney Danker, Education Specialist for FFA. “The LEGO donation will be part of the curriculum more than 20,000 students will use in order to glean leadership lessons to apply to their lives.”

    BASF hired brick artist Nathan Sawaya to build the sculpture at Commodity Classic to illustrate how BASF products provide building blocks to help growers get the most out of every acre. Over the course of the trade show, Nathan constructed soybean pods, corn stalks and wheat shafts, as well as the BASF barn, using only standard LEGO bricks while attendees watched and took photos. In case you missed it, here’s a link to the interview Chuck did with Nathan at the close of the show.

    BASF, Commodity Classic

    Live From ZimmComm World Headquarters

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Good morning from ZimmComm World Headquarters. I was streaming live from my iPhone at my desk for a while this morning. I might do that more often. I heard from folks like Gardner Hatch at Gibbs & Soell, Ron Hayes from RON in Oklahoma and Allie Hembree at Alltech.

    It’s a beautiful day in the midwest again and I’m betting the fields are seeing some good action before the Easter weekend. I just finished an interview with Mike Leetch, Syngenta, for a new ZimmCast on advice for growers as they get out in their mostly cool wet fields. That will be posting soon.

    Uncategorized

    Navy Jet To Fly On Biofuel

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen was on location at the site of President Obama’s speech this morning on energy initiatives for the United States and we were following him on Twitter. The event was held in a hanger at Andrews Air Force Base with the backdrop of a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet jet that will fly on biofuels on Earth Day.

    According to the Navy:

    Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-23 will be testing the full envelope of the ‘Green Hornet’ with a drop in replacement biofuel made from the camelina plant in an effort to certify alternative fuels for naval aviation use.

    The ‘Green Hornet’ flight is an important step in the certification and ultimate operational use of biofuels by the Navy and Marine Corps.

    The president was expected to announce new energy policies that rely heavily on domestic production of traditional energy sources, including opening up new off-shore oil drilling. However, Dinneen says, “Relying on 20th century energy sources to address 21st century challenges will not solve the problem. America’s energy policy must be focused on renewable sources that have great potential for innovation and improvement. Renewable fuels, such as ethanol produced from a variety of feedstocks, hold great promise to reduce our need for imported oil, address climate change concerns, and create enduring economic opportunity. Oil and other fossil fuels are finite resources. While we cannot ignore their contributions, neither can we ignore the reality that reliance on them is simply unsustainable.”

    Biofuels, Ethanol

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes