Catch Me On The Road!

Amanda Nolz

amanda1 It’s looking like things are going to continue to stay busy for me in my first year as an agriculture writer and speaker. In addition to my work on the ranch, I have been traveling across the country speaking to various agriculture groups on hot topics such as the next generation of food producers, online social networking, agriculture advocacy and more. Here is a list of my upcoming events; I would love to catch up with you on the road, if our schedules allow. Let me know if you’re in the area! And, if you’re in need of a speaker for your next meeting or event, just give me a holler! Hope to meet some of you soon!

Sept. 16, 2009 – SDSU Beef Leadership Experience Opening Keynote, Brookings, SD; Address to SDSU animal science freshmen on the importance of getting involved. I will also be speaking to the Block and Bridle group that evening to expand upon the same topic.

Oct. 9-11, 2009 – 2010 National Beef Ambassador Contest, Fort Smith, AR; I will present the inspirational keynote to the ambassador contestants, as well as present a workshop to the CattleWomen on online social networking.

Nov. 21, 2009 – Agriculture Banquet, SD Department of Ag, Pierre, SD; keynote address, “What Happened to the Next Generation of Agriculturalists?”

Jan. 30-31, 2010 – North Dakota Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Conference, Minot, ND.

Feb. 12-13 – Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference, Frankenmuth, MI.

Advertising

MOSES Helping Organic Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education ServiceAt this year’s Farm Progress Show Eric Hatling, Development and Communications Coordinator for the MOSES, the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service, visited with me about the organization. It sounds like their has continued to grow.

Eric says that since last year the organization continues to grow. He says they had almost 2,700 people attend their Annual Organic Farming Conference and Organic University. He says they exist to help farmers who want to grow organic become successful. The next annual conference is scheduled for Feb. 25-27 in Lacrosse, WI with over 60 workshops on all aspects of organic and sustainable farming.

You can listen to my interview with Eric here:

Ag Groups, Organic, Sustainability

Penn & Teller on Dr. Borlaug

Chuck Zimmerman

There is absolutely no way I can improve on what Penn & Teller say about Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. This video has been out for a while but I just saw it for the first time and I’m still laughing. Penn Jillette narrates this video and let’s just say he expresses my thoughts on Greenpeace wackos perfectly with the word, BS. It’s worth watching to the end and as far as I’m concerned it’s an awesome tribute to Dr. Borlaug. (Warning: there are a few choice words in the video that may not sit well on sensitive ears.)

I may not agree with them on other issues but this one is dead on the money.

Food, Video, Wackos

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • New perspectives on rural economic growth will be discussed at the Farm Foundation Forum on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
  • The National Corn Growers Association has added two new managers, Susan Powers and Cathryn Wojcicki Dixson, to fill vacant positions on its award-winning communications team as it works to promote the image of corn farmers and the importance of U.S. corn and corn products.
  • The public is invited to help dedicate Iowa State University’s BioCentury Research Farm on Sept. 22, 1:30 p.m. at the farm, which is located at 1327 U Avenue, about 5 miles east of Boone.
  • The Westchester Group is pleased to announce that Roderick (Rory) Robertson has joined the company as executive vice president. Rory will be establishing a new office in Fresno, Calif.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Passes Away

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Dr. Norman BorlaugNobel Peace Laureate, Dr. Norman Borlaug has passed away. You can find more information from The Borlaug Institute. He’s pictured with his Nobel Peace Prize.

    Norman E. Borlaug, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner for developing high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat used to prevent famine in developing countries throughout the world died today in Dallas, Texas.

    Borlaug, whose career was dedicated to employing science to combat international hunger, was Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture in Texas A&M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. He was 95.

    In 2007, he accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor of the United States. This capped a string of major awards and honors throughout his scientific and humanitarian career.

    “We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted,” Borlaug said in recent interview. “There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often.” Even at age 95, Borlaug still traveled internationally working tirelessly for improvements in agricultural science and food policy. He regularly could be found in his office on campus in College Station advising students and providing counsel to fellow faculty members on research and scholarship.

    Memories and thoughts celebrating the life of Dr. Borlaug can be submitted by clicking here. *This website is external to Texas A&M but is moderated by the Borlaug Institute.

    The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to:

    Borlaug International Scholars Fund
    401 George Bush Drive
    College Station, TX 77840

    This fund is for land-grant university degree training of future leaders in agriculture and food security from developing countries. This fund will be administered by the Texas A&M Foundation, a non-profit organization.

    Education

    NAFB To Study Farmer Internet Usage

    Chuck Zimmerman

    National Association of Farm BroadcastingYou know how much farmers like to be studied don’t you? Yeah. You’ve got that right. Well now the National Association of Farm Broadcasting is conducting a new survey of how farmers use the internet and what types of information they get from it and how. Most recently we saw results of a similar study by Nicholson Kovac and of course there’s lots of data in the USDA NASS survey. And if you contact your Successful Farming representative they’ll share data from their study that was available earlier this year.

    More information is always better and with a lot of information circulating about how marketers are moving their budgets online, this should be good information for ag media planners to have. I do hope questions are asked about social networking mechanisms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. We know from other studies that farmers are reading blogs and listening to podcasts while even producing their own. The social networking phenomenon is taking place in ag and I have no doubts we’ll see that verified by this new study.

    NAFB is initiating its third major national research study in four years, with the Internet Ag Information Usage Study commissioned with Ag Media Research, Sioux Falls, S.D.

    Building on the National Producer Media-Use Wave Study of 2008, the new project is asking large farmers and ranchers about their Internet access practices and preferences for agribusiness information, including use of the mobile Web. The survey, to query 1,200 national producers, also asks about the relative value of different types of agribusiness information as delivered via the Web.

    Media veteran Ted Haller has consulted on the project, including seeking input toward the questionnaire from leading industry marketers and agencies. With most industry research closely held or proprietary, NAFB again will make public the outcomes of this new survey.

    Results are to be introduced during the November Annual Convention, Nov. 11-13 in Kansas City.

    Internet, NAFB

    Farm Podcaster Tool From Apple

    Chuck Zimmerman

    iPod Nano VideoThe iPod Nano just became a farm podcaster tool. Now you can not only record audio with a built in microphone but video as well. It also has a built in speaker so you can listen to your recording right away.

    If you still listen to terrestrial radio the new Nano now does FM.

    Say you need to take a quick break from listening to your favorite radio station. iPod nano lets you pause it with a click. Another click and you’re listening to your station again. You can even rewind as far back as 15 minutes, then fast-forward to catch up to the live broadcast.

    Equipment

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • DuPont has received full Canadian regulatory approval of its proprietary herbicide tolerance trait, Optimum GAT, in corn and soybeans for cultivation, feed, and food.
    • Monsanto Company announced a non-exclusive research and commercial license agreement with France-based Cellectis S.A. for broad use of its meganuclease technology in plants.
    • Larry A. Quinn, assistant director of the USDA Office of Communications, will retire Sept. 30 after more than 35 years at USDA and 42 years in federal service including time at Texas A&M extension.
    • Agricultural retailers and distributors can sharpen their management, leadership and decision-making skills at the 2010 Agricultural Retailers Association Management Academy, set for Feb. 2-4 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
      Zimfo Bytes

      Crops Keep Growing

      Cindy Zimmerman

      Edging closer to the number one record crop, USDA boosted the corn production forecast by two percent in the report out this morning – to an even 13 billion bushels. Still expected to be just the second largest on record, it is a mere 100 million bushels short of the 2007 record crop.

      NASSUSDA is now saying yields are expected to average 161.9 bushels per acre, up 2.4 bushels from August and 8.0 bushels above last year. Yield forecasts increased from last month across the western Corn Belt and the northern half of the Great Plains as mild temperatures and adequate soil moisture supplies provided favorable growing conditions. Yield prospects were unchanged in the eastern Corn Belt where dry conditions during August depleted soil moisture supplies.

      USDA also increased the soybean forecast in the new report, a record high 3.25 billion bushels, up 1 percent from the August forecast and up 10 percent from last year. Yields are expected to average 42.3 bushels per acre, with record high yields forecast for Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

      Even though both crops remain far behind normal in development, the forecast is calling for generally warm, mostly dry weather stretching into next week or so, which is great news for producers.

      Corn, Soybean

      Get it Right – Call it H1N1

      Cindy Zimmerman

      U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday urged reporters to “get it right” and call it H1N1.

      “The job of the media is to get it right and not necessarily to get it convenient,” said Vilsack. “Some media outlets have been responsive and sensitive to this, but there’s really not been a concerted effort by the media to do a good job, a correct job of making sure this is characterized properly.”

      H1N1 FacebookVilsack made his case on behalf of struggling pork producers who have been adversely affected by the connection to the virus. “I want folks who are in this business of conveying messages“to understand that behind that message there is a family today … wondering how they’re going to be able to pay the bills when they continually sell pork for less than what it costs to produce, and they continue to get hammered for something that they have absolutely nothing to do with.”

      Illinois Farm Bureau is taking the case to Facebook by urging us to participate in online H1N1 online activism today. Join the protest here.

      Stop the hogwash! Call it H1N1, not “swine flu.” You cannot get H1N1 from eating pork, and the misnomer is hurting pork producers financially.

      Join me in the fight against bad farm facts. Copy this entire message into your profile status and leave it there all day. Then click “like” on the Illinois Farm Bureau Fan Page status to show that you participated. Thank you for supporting U.S. agriculture.

      Media, Pork, Social Networking