Optimizing Corn Yields Report from AGMasters

Cindy Zimmerman

Since the students did such a great job of blogging the AGMasters Conference, I am just going to re-post a few of their posts here, instead of doing it myself. See photos from the conference on the AGMasters Photo Album

This one was written by Megan Ott and Jared Roskamp:

Participants from this year’s AGMasters Conference had the privilege to gain insight on the efforts in genetics and agronomy efforts to increase corn yields. Greg Luce from Pioneer Hybrids provided coming news on improvements in corn production. With a growing population and growing demand of food production, farmers have to realize they need to produce more on what land we already have. This provides a great demand and challenge for producers in agriculture to increase our yields to feed the world.

Luce stated “One of the most important things we can do as producers is to have the right products on the right acres to optimize our yields.” In order to raise optimum yields, producers are at the advantage of having the improved genetic selection for seed corn. With new technology developed including stress tolerant corn, higher populations can be planted as a result of this new development.

With a competitive seed market as we have today, companies are developing diverse products in order to keep up with the growing demand in the agriculture industry. Such genetic diversity is there to select superior hybrids that exhibit drought tolerance, high nitrogen efficiency and even disease and insect resistance.

Listen to or download the interview with Greg Luce below:

Audio, Corn

Student Bloggers Covering AGMasters Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

AgmastersI am working with a number of talented young student bloggers covering the AGMasters Conference at the University of Illinois and they are doing an awesome job of audio interviews and posting on the conference blog.

The bloggers include Crop Science majors Ross Recker (pictured interviewing Emerson Nafzinger) and Jared Roskamp. They have both done great interviews, first time ever! Also working hard are Ag Comm majors Megan Ott and Alyssa Eade. And doing triple duty blogging, tweeting and working the conference is Crop Sci major Caitlin Allen.

Please check out the conference blog and see the great work these young people are doing. They could be working for you someday (or you for them!)

See photos from the conference here on the AGMasters Photo Album

Listen to Ross’ interview with Dr. Nafzinger about the potential for 300 bushel corn here:

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Meet The USGC Corn Mission Team

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn MissionHere is the 2009 U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team. Ready to rumble in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. This photo was taken today in Frankfurt airport.

We have arrived at our first Moroccan destination and are getting ready for a meal and initial briefing on our activities. I’ll know more in a little while and will be posting some more pics still this evening.

The team includes the following corn growers and USGC Representative. I started them out with a short interview to learn about their farms and expectations for this trip. You can listen to the interviews and download them from the links below.

Mr. William “Sparky” Crossman: Virginia Corn Board: Interview with Sparky: usgc-corn-sparky-1.mp3 download mp3

Mr. James “Jim” Stuever: Missouri Corn Merchandising Council: Interview with Jim: usgc-corn-jim-1.mp3 download mp3

Mr. Robert “Bob” Timmons: Kansas Corn Commission: Interview with Bob: usgc-corn-bob-1.mp3 download mp3

Darren Armstrong: Corn Growers of North Carolina: Interview with Darren: usgc-corn-darren-1.mp3 download mp3

Jerry Griffith: Kentucky Corn Promotion Council: Interview with Jerry: usgc-corn-jerry-1.mp3 download mp3

Mr. Joseph “Joe” Zenz: Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board: Interview with Joe: usgc-corn-joe-1.mp3 download mp3

Mr. Shannon Schaffer: USGC, Director of Membership: Interview with Shannon: usgc-corn-shannon-1.mp3 download mp3

I have started a photo album for the Morocco portion of our mission which you can find with this link: USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, USGC

AGMasters Conference Underway

Cindy Zimmerman

AgmastersThe inaugural AGMasters Conference is underway at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and there is a good crowd on hand, despite the fact that many farmers around the state are still out harvesting corn. This event is a new format for a conference that has a 60 year history at the university. Once upon a time, it was called “Spray School” – but it has evolved into so much more.

AgmastersI talked with one of the co-chairs, Mike Gray, an entomologist with the Department of Crop Sciences. Mike says the organizers of the conference decided to move to the beautiful new I Center this year and have it in December instead of January. “Who would have known with this late harvest that we would have some issues surface because of that,” he said.

They also decided to change the format to a general session the first day and a classroom setting with breakouts on the second day. Check out the AGMasters conference blog for full coverage.

Started a Flickr photo album here – and you can listen to or download my interview with Mike below.

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NAMA Webinar on Emerging Technologies

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA WebinarsIt’s time for the next NAMA Webinar. This one will focus on Emerging Technologies and take place this Thursday, December 3 at 1:00 p.m. (Central Time).

Mobile and emerging technologies are making it easier for direct marketers to connect with their customers. But this landscape can be intimidating and confusing if you don’t know how to navigate it.

This session will introduce you to mobile marketing and its ecosystem of players. Learn how to launch a mobile marketing campaign from experts who have done it successfully – and see what other emerging technologies are on the horizon.

Angela Ridpath and Pamela Sandler have helped national brands like Payless ShoeSource, Burger King and Beauty Brands adapt and excel in this era of change. And they can help you, too!

To register for this webinar, please visit http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=7.

NAMA

Kelsey Pope Joins Nebraska Corn Board

Chuck Zimmerman

Kelsey PopeThe Nebraska Corn Board welcomes Kelsey Pope as their Ag Promotion Coordinator.

In this role, Pope will work on behalf of Nebraska corn producers to expand marketing opportunities, partner with livestock industry groups to develop joint strategies and assist in coordinating animal agriculture welfare programs through education, information and research.

She will also coordinate corn promotion activities at the State Fair, Husker Harvest Days and other events across the state. Additionally, Pope will utilize social media and other communication tools to promote positive messages about agriculture.

Pope recently received her master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University, where she also received her bachelor’s degree in Ag Economics. She is a Limon, Colo., native, having grown up on a cow-calf operation.

Ag Groups, Corn

AGMasters Conference Coverage

Cindy Zimmerman

AgmastersAs Chuck heads out of the country, I am heading out to Champaign, Illinois today to cover the inaugural AGMasters Conference at the University of Illinois. I will be providing coverage here on Agwired and other ZimmComm sites, as well as on the AGMasters Conference blog – with the help of several ag comm and crop science students from the university whose profiles you can read on the blog now.

According to the organizers, “this year’s conference represents a significant transition from a rich history of conferences conducted over a 60 year-span to a new era. Those conferences included the Custom Spray Operators’ Training School, Illinois Agricultural Pesticides Conference, and the Crop Protection Technology Conference. Each of these conferences continues to leave us a lasting legacy of the commitment of the University of Illinois to our agricultural stakeholders and clientele.”

The two-day program is jam-packed with an array of presenters and session covering a variety topics important to agriculture, from the global perspective, to increasing yields, biotechnology, fertilizers and glyphosate resistance.

On-site registration for the event is still possible, and I would definitely encourage you to attend if you can. This conference promises to be a great one. But, if you can’t be there in person, we will be providing wall-to-wall coverage with photos, audio and more. Stay tuned!

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Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Dow AgroSciences Canada announced it is acquiring the assets of Hyland Seeds, a division of Thompsons Limited of Blenheim, Ontario.
  • The AutoFarm ParaDyme System, launched Nov. 3, 2009, is being called the most innovative and advanced precision farming system ever.
  • Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey announced that Steven and Jan Carlson of Stratford are the winners of the December “Gary Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award.” Northey will present the award to the Carlson family on Friday, Dec 4th. WHO Radio’s Big Show will broadcast live from the awards presentation.
  • Mike Kostrzewa has joined The Context Network and will serve the firm’s clients as a senior associate.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Speaking For Agriculture

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 241Speaking For Agriculture was the title of a joint panel discussion at the NAMA Trends In Agriculture Conference and NAFB Convention.

    nafb-nama-lindsayThe moderator was Lindsay Hill, ABN Radio. The session focused on how consumers perceive farmers and agriculture and what can be done and is being done to communicate a positive message about agriculture in a society that is increasingly removed from the farm, even in light of more people moving to the country for a rural lifestyle. In this week’s program you can hear an interview Cindy did with Lindsay about the session and what the panelists had to say.

    Thanks to AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast.

    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, ZimmCast

    Blog – Twitter – Not Versus But And

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It’s just natural for people to look for the next big thing and in media it’s no different. I’ve been asked a number of times by clients and friends “Is blogging still relevant?” or “With Twitter, do I still need my blog?” My answer is that a good blog is as much or more relevant than ever. Here’s one reason IMHO. Ideally, you are trying to create a community of followers/friends/customers/members. For the AgWired community I believe that revolves around the blog AgWired.com. This is my online publishing platform. I can’t say this much in 140 characters. I think Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and all the others enhance the center of the community – AgWired.com. They’re like spokes on the wheel. They help me promote the blog and have side conversations with specific community members who favor one mechanism over another.

    Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress, our blog platform, agrees and says, “new forms of social media, including micro-blogging, are complementary to blogging”

    One of the many uses of Twitter is to link to and promote your blog posts. (And other people’s blog posts.) As we grow, so do they, and vice versa. I blog when I have something longer to say, like this. I tweet when it’s the lowest friction way to talk to my friends, or get distribution for something longer I did somewhere else.

    It’s not really a “versus,” it’s an “and.”

    Via Podcasting News

    Would you agree or disagree? Feel free to post how you think your blog fits into today’s communications plans.

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