New NAFB Website Live Now

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB websiteThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting website has been “made over” and it’s live now. So check it out and see what you think. I’m glad I can visit it now on my Mac with Firefox. The previous version caused havoc with the browser. So I guess you could call it a much more “friendly” website.

And doesn’t it just make sense to put member audio news right there on the home page? That’s what I’m talking about. I would make a recommendation to change the video player they’re using though. At least in my browser I can start the video clips but I can’t stop or pause them. But I like the concept!

All in all this seems like a major improvement. What do you think?

NAFB

Beef Cook-Off Winner

Chuck Zimmerman

Beef RecipeNow here’s a winning recipe for you meat lovers. Sonoma Steaks with Vegetables Bocconcini. Mmm. Mmm. That’s the winning recipe in this year’s National Beef Cook-Off. Prepared by Mary Hawkes of Prescott, AZ, she wins the top prize of $25,000.

This year’s Cook-Off “Sonoma Style” theme focused on fresh, flavorful ingredients paired with nutrient-rich beef cuts. The winning Sonoma Steaks with Vegetables Bocconcini recipe featured grilled beef top loin steaks, zucchini, yellow bell pepper and red grape tomatoes tossed with herb-marinated fresh mozzarella balls. In addition, the dish is an excellent source of protein, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, selenium and zinc; and a good source of iron.

Ag Groups, Beef

Getting Renewed With RFA

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 232 - What's New With RFAIt may be dairy week for ZimmComm but that doesn’t mean it’s the only segment of the industry we’re working on. I’ll be introducing you to a new client later this week for example that is also new to agribusiness. In the meantime, this week’s program is about an old client. And I don’t mean old as in “they’re old.” I mean one of our long time clients, the Renewable Fuels Association.

Renewable Fuels Association LogoAs I posted earlier, RFA has a new logo. That prompted me to call on CEO Bob Dinneen, the Reverend of Renewable Fuels, to find out what the new look signifies for the organization. To start with, Bob says that RFA has doubled in staff size in the last 18 months with new staff in the area of communications, research and lobbying. He sees a bright future for ethanol and RFA even in spite of continuing challenges like the proposed RFS2 that EPA is working on.

So, get up to date with RFA and listen to this week’s podcast. The program ends with some music from Music Alley (formerly Podsafe Music Network). It’s a song titled, “The Milk Mix” by The Mighty Blue Ford. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.

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, Energy, Ethanol, RFA, ZimmCast

Should Your Pet Be A Vegetarian?

Amanda Nolz

scope Coming from Texas A&M University, this article from the Veterinary Department, “Should Your Pet Be A Vegetarian?” kind of surprised me. It came out in their newsletter, and the article discussed planning a well-balanced vegetarian diet for pets. Why? What is this world coming to anyway? Since when do pets have to stand for a cause? Why can’t they just be our beloved companions? Here is an excerpt from the article…

There are so many human vegetarians that some of you may have wondered if your beloved four-legged friend is able to share the same passion and cause as you. If you have ever been interested in having your pet become a vegetarian it should be helpful to know the certain nutritional needs that your pet has, in order to make the right decision regarding vegetarianism. There is no scientific basis on the idea that a specific breed of cat or dog would fare better as a vegetarian, it is simply an issue between the species. In the Canine world, being a vegetarian has no negative effect on their nutritional needs.

“Dogs are opportunistic carnivores” said Dr. John Bauer, M.L. Professor of Clinical Nutrition at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, “which means they will eat meat when they have the chance or when no other type of food is available. For wild dogs, prey is not guaranteed, so especially in the colder seasons dogs will eat more plants and vegetables as meat is difficult to find. As for pet dogs, they can easily be converted to vegetarians, and if done properly, it is just as healthy as an omnivorous diet is for a dog.”

Dogs have the same types of protein balances in their bodies that humans have, therefore making it easy and safe for them to convert back and forth from a vegetarian diet to one of an omnivore.

“One problem with having your dog become a vegetarian” said Dr. Bauer “is that it is easier to feed him meat and vegetable based diets, without having to worry about protein types. There are commercial plant and vegetable based diets around for dogs, which seem to work well for the animal’s health and overall well-being.”

Animal Activists, Animal Health, Feed

Syngenta Soybeans Raising the Bar

Cindy Zimmerman

Syngenta Seeds Dan DyerSyngenta Seeds is launching the new NK-1 Class Soybeans for the 2010 planting season.

Dan Dyer, Syngenta Seeds Soybean Product Development Lead, told ag media during the grand opening of the company’s new headquarters that varieties like this prove how Syngenta Seeds is raising the bar. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed in our own data and what we are hearing back from the field, about just how strong the performance is in our varieties,” Dan told me in an interview. “If you’re looking for top yields, these really are the top-yielding beans in the market.”

“It’s real simple for us, doesn’t sound too sophisticated, but we’re going to sell the highest yielding soybeans,” Dan said. “Our objective is to make the growers the most profitable they can be.”

Listen to or download my interview with Dan Dyer below.
Sponsored by

Audio, Seed, Soybean, Syngenta

New Logo For RFA

Chuck Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association LogoSometimes a new logo means there are big changes in a company. Not so with the Renewable Fuels Association, at least not in terms of the work they’re doing. They announced their new logo today but say the organization will supply the “same great service.”

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), long recognized as the voice of America’s ethanol industry, has gone through some changes in the past 24 months. New staff additions have bolstered the RFA’s already unparalleled expertise and expanded its activities beyond its traditional role as ethanol’s chief advocate in Washington.

Given the additions and expanded capabilities of the association, the RFA has refreshed its logo and color scheme. For more information on the logo, including how to use it in place of the old logo, please email Christina Martin at cmartin@ethanolrfa.org.

RFA President Bob Dinneen welcomed both the expanded capabilities of the association as well as the unveiling of the new logo:

“America’s ethanol producers are in a constant state of innovation, creating new processes and developing new technologies that will increase our ability to produce ethanol is an increasingly sustainable manner. As it is with the ethanol producers, so too is it with the trade association representing them. The Renewable Fuels Association has undergone a transformation over the past 24 months, adding expertise and capabilities to better serve America’s ethanol industry beyond its traditional role as the voice of the industry in Washington. Such expansion in the capabilities of the RFA required a refreshing of our logo and image. Thus, the new look – but same unparalleled expertise – of the Renewable Fuels Association. “

RFA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • NPD Group Vice President Harry Balzer, a leading expert and spokesperson on the food, beverage and foodservice industries, will be one of the general session speakers at POTATO EXPO 2010.
  • TerraSphere System engineers have developed a solid state lighting system that is currently being used to support plant germination. The company is working to apply their advanced system to support the entire growing operation.
  • To better understand and proactively address farm animal welfare issues, the Department of Animal Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine are holding an Animal Welfare Symposium, “Building Partnerships to Address Animal Agriculture,” on Friday, Oct. 16 at the university’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center.
  • Novus International is partnering with Vitamin Angels on a new humanitarian program that supplies children with zinc in order to relieve severe diarrhea.
    Zimfo Bytes

    ZimmComm Will Be Very Dairy

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Alltech Global Dairy 500 ConferenceWe’re heading into dairy industry time. First up is the World Dairy Expo which kicks off tomorrow. Cindy will be attending along with daughter Carly. They’ll begin posting tomorrow morning here but primarily on World Dairy Diary.

    The dairy industry’s spotlight will be trained on Madison, Wisconsin, when the 43rd edition of World Dairy Expo takes place September 29 through October 3, 2009. “Legendary” is the theme of this year’s show – a celebration of the legendary trade show, legendary cows and legendary people that make the first week in October one to look forward to.

    Alltech Global Dairy 500 ConferenceImmediately following this week’s World Dairy Expo is the Alltech Global Dairy 500 Conference. I’ll be attending this one. So, ZimmComm will be very dairy focused for the next week. We’ll be looking for what’s new and bringing it to you.

    “A global forum where dairy is the only topic and dairy farmers the main drivers”

    2008 was a banner year for Alltech on many fronts including the inception of the Global Dairy 500 Conference. Over 300 dairy professionals representing over 40 nations assembled in Lexington to share ideas, experiences, and their own personal vision on the future of dairying worldwide.

    Join us in 2009, as Alltech will renew its commitment to producers by again hosting the Global Dairy 500 Conference.

    Alltech, World Dairy Expo

    Celebrate National Eat Together Week with Pork!

    Amanda Nolz

    niki taylor Last week, the National Pork Board kicked off National Eat Dinner Together Week, in conjunction with Feeding America—the national organization that supports our nation’s food banks. For every recipe on the pork website that is printed or downloaded—they donated five pounds of pork to the nation’s food banks! The goal of this week was to promote pork nutrition information and recipes, while donating food to a great cause. America’s Pork Producers promised to donate up to 10,000 pounds of pork – which is 50,000 meals! What a great cause!

    To help get the word out, the National Pork Board enlisted all-American supermodel and celebrity mom Niki Taylor, mother of twins Jake and Hunter, and baby Ciel. Says Niki, “With all we’ve got going on, it can be difficult to fit in family meals. However, because we’re so busy, it’s more important than ever to get in quality family time, and eating together is a great way to do that.”America’s pork producers are helping those in need enjoy a meal, too.

    Although we missed out on the week of donations, it’s still not too late to enjoy some pork favorites. Link here to check out some great pork recipes for your family to enjoy this week!

    Pork

    Lessing-Flynn Gets Reel Social

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Lessing FlynnMore and more agencies are ramping up staff understanding and expertise on new media. The latest is Lessing-Flynn. Lessing-Flynn has introduced a new, turnkey service developed specifically to assist businesses in both developing and executing social media marketing strategies. The new service, called Reel Social, was designed to help marketers tap into the marketing potential of emerging new media tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs.


    “Most companies know there is tremendous potential in social media marketing because research shows that’s where people are spending more and more of their time,” said Josh Fleming, Interactive Marketing Director at Lessing-Flynn. “However, most either don’t know where to start, don’t know how to use social media effectively or just don’t have the internal resources to do it themselves.

    Recent studies support a growing need for companies to engage with their customers using social media:

    • 88% of marketers surveyed indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes.72% reported this was a new initiative within the past few months. (Michael Stelzner, WebProNews)
    • Social networks and blogs beat other online activity, including personal email, to become the 4th most popular online activity. (Nielson Online) • 80% of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees. (NielsonOnline)
    • 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. (“Socialnomics”,ErikQualman)
    • More than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily. (“Socialnomics”, Erik Qualman)
    • YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. (“Socialnomics”, Erik Qualman)

    “Social media is essentially a whole new type of marketing tool,” said Fleming. “It’s totally different from traditional media like tv, radio and print. There’s no reason why social media can’t be a very effective tool for any company – if it’s backed by the right strategy, then well executed.”

    I won’t argue with that.

    Agencies