AgriMarketers Building New Community Ties

Chuck Zimmerman November 11, 2009

This week’s NAMA Trends In Agriculture conference provided a great program opportunity for this week’s ZimmCast. You’ll get to hear from the morning panel on day two. I interviewed each of them and have included them in the program. The session focused on how agrimarketers are building new community ties.

3G-enabled smart phones, the “Tweeting Farmer,” and unusual partnerships are all part of the new ag community. This general session will feature practical case studies from marketers inside and outside of agriculture that have forged new links with their customers using new media and non-traditional collaboration. Joe Grigsby, VML, Leslie Bradshaw, a farm kid and University of Chicago educated Communications Manager with New Media Strategies in Washington, D.C., and Joel Jaeger, Commodity Update shared their experiences.

I’d like to thank AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast. AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference is sponsored by Paulsen Marketing.

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.

Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort November 11, 2009

Veteran agribusiness professional Dr. Jim Budzynski announces the founding of MacroGain Partners.
Through a Section 24(c) Special Local Need Registration for INSTINCT nitrogen stabilizer in Iowa during 2008, growers got a first look at the product’s performance in on-farm field trials. This summer, INSTINCT received federal registration and now is widely available across the Corn Belt.
J. R. Simplot Company and leading emissions reduction project developer and offset marketer, Blue Source LLC, (www.bluesource.com) announced the formation of a strategic alliance to assist American farmers interested in engaging in the carbon economy.
A genetic code for domestic swine has been uncovered, which should lead to a host of new insights in agriculture, medicine, conservation and evolution.

Zimfo Bytes

Interview With Dr. David Kohl

Chuck Zimmerman November 11, 2009

Once again this year I’ll be posting video interviews from the NAMA Trends In Agriculture conference produced by Paulsen Marketing. Here’s the first one with our opening keynote speaker, David Kohl.

Combined NAMA Trends In Ag/NAFB Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference is sponsored by Paulsen Marketing.

Agencies, NAMA, Video

Producers Talk About New Ag Community

Chuck Zimmerman November 10, 2009

It’s one thing to say there’s a new ag community. It’s another thing to live in it as a farmer. At the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference a panel of producers addressed this subject. The panel included a row crop farmer from Texas, a dairy producer from Wisconsin and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.

Their task was to share specific examples of how success and growth today require more than good agronomic practices. A lot of the discussion focused on the growing anti agricultural forces that are reaching consumers with messages that are not based on good science and often meant to obtain a political agenda. They all agreed that new technology offers communications channels that can help farmers tell their story.

I spoke with one of the panelists, Daphne Holterman, Rosy-Lane Holsteins, after the session. She says that they all realize that they can’t just be “a farm in our little neighborhood or rural communities anymore but we have to be a big player in a bigger pond.” She says it’s important to talk out about being the true environmentalists. The digital age is making this more necessary than ever.

You can listen to my interview with Daphne below.

Combined NAMA Trends In Ag/NAFB Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference is sponsored by Paulsen Marketing.

Audio, Dairy, NAMA

BASF Headline Harvest Report – North Missouri

Cindy Zimmerman November 10, 2009

Missouri farmers made some significant harvest progress last week, especially with soybeans. According to USDA, Missouri’s corn harvest increased 13 percent last week to 62 percent complete and farmers harvested 31 percent of the soybeans in the state last week, up to 64 percent complete as of Sunday.

We saw some of that progress being made in the state last week on our BASF Headline Harvest Report visits. Terry Smith in Chillicothe, Missouri was just about finished with his soybean harvest when Chuck visited with him on Wednesday last week. “We’ve been slow off and on because of the weather, but the early beans we got out helped a lot. They were ready early and the weather was better.”

This is the first year Terry has used Headline fungicide on his beans and he saw a nine bushel yield bump. “The plants were healthy, they grew a little taller. When they yield nine more bushels, that’s significant,” he said.

Here is a YouTube video of Chuck’s interview with Terry and some shots of him harvesting beans.

BASF, Farming, Video

Expert Advice From United Soybean Board

Chuck Zimmerman November 10, 2009

Welcome new AgWired sponsor, United Soybean Board. Over the coming weeks we’re going to learn more about their Expert Advice website module. You should check it out. The website contains a commenting section so please feel free to post your feedback and questions.

“Expert Advice” is a new addition to the official soybean checkoff Web site, that provides farmers with the answers they need from the experts who know. Readers can register on unitedsoybean.org to ask questions, offer perspectives and engage with experts and other farmers. Registration is quick and simple – taking a minute to register can save farmers hours searching on the web.

Four columnists contribute to the Expert Advice Column:

David Asbridge – “Market Production Analysis & Market Outlooks”
Michele Payn-Knoper – “Giving a Voice to Agriculture through Social Media”
Pablo Adreani – “South American Soybean Industry and its Impact on the World Market”
John Baize –“Soybean and Oilseed Industry Issues”

I’ll be featuring interviews with the experts and we’ll learn about what advice they have here during this harvest season.

Soybean, USB

Multiblogging at NAMA

Chuck Zimmerman November 10, 2009

Thanks to John Walter, Successful Farming, you can see the @AgriBlogger in action, doubling as the NAMA Blogger.

Yes I can multitask. In fact, during the opening keynote presentation here I was also moderating today’s FuelChat session for the Renewable Fuels Association. I think I was only having to post via about 10 different social media channels. Piece of cake.

Combined NAMA Trends In Ag/NAFB Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference sponsored by Paulsen Marketing.

NAMA

The New Ag Community

Chuck Zimmerman November 10, 2009

Our opening keynote speaker at the NAMA Trends In Agriculture conference is David Kohl, Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Finanace and Small Business Management, Virginia Tech and President, AgriVisions, LLC. His topic is “Defining the New Ag Community.”

David set up his session with a number of facts and figures including the fact that 70% of North American farm ground will change hands by 2025 and that women and minorities will become major decision makers. Then since we’re all agrimarketers he started talking about the move to the digital world. He asked participants how many were involved in social networking and podcasting. Only a couple of hands were raised for podcasting. I think he was surprised by that. Yeah. Let’s go agrimarketers. Get your podcast on!

He offered the 10 C’s of going digital which include: Commitment, Collaboration, Consumers, Customers, Community, Connecting, Competition, Control, Communication and Cost & Capital Return. He offered a parting thought that “success in social media/digital is balance of high tech and high touch.”

I’ll be posting a video interview with David that’s being produced by Paulsen Marketing. I’d like to thank them for sponsoring AgWired coverage of this year’s NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference once again.

You can listen to my interview with David below.

Combined NAMA Trends In Ag/NAFB Convention Photo Album

Audio, NAMA

NAMA Reaching Out To Members

Chuck Zimmerman November 10, 2009

The NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference is underway in KC, MO at the Hyatt. The first order of business was the board meeting. You can see NAMA President-Elect Susie Decker, Farm Progress Companies, leading the group. I got there just as they were wrapping things up.

I actually interviewed Susie with my new SONY PCM-M10 but had a “whoops” and it didn’t record. So I caught board member Beth Burgy, Broadhead+Co, in the hallway and got it right.

Beth and Susie said that the board will be surveying members to find out what other professional organizations they belong to and what their preferred methods of communication are including Twitter, Facebook, etc. The idea is to find new ways to engage members “where they are.” It’s an initiative that will be playing out in the coming year.

You can listen to my interview with Beth below.

Combined NAMA Trends In Ag/NAFB Convention Photo Album

Audio, NAMA

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