Biodiesel Powered Sleds

Chuck Zimmerman

Chuck interviews Donnie BungartWhat do you think of when you hear that there’s a sled running on biodiesel? Probably not thinking tractor pull sled are you? Unless you’re a tractor pull fan. Well those big machines that the tractors and trucks pull are also diesel powered and in Jefferson City, MO there’s a company that manufactures them and runs them on biodiesel.

The company is Bungart Motor Sports and I learned about if from Donnie Bungart. Thanks to Tom Steever, Brownfield Network, for the picture.

Bungart Biodiesel SledDonnie says they do over 160 shows a year around the country. At the Midwest Extreme Truck and Tractor Pull in Jefferson City he says they had two sleds in operation. He says they run B20 in them and have been for over 3 years very successfully. Donnie says they’ve had a lot of luck locating the fuel when they need it, especially at major truck stops.

So if you’re not a tractor pulling enthusiast you might ask, “What’s a sled?” Donnie says it’s a weight transfer machine. It starts out not weighing much but as the tractor pulls it more and more weight is transferred which ultimately stops the tractor. At least we hope! Thanks again to the United Soybean Board for inviting me out to the tractor pull.

You can listen to my interview with Donnie below:

Ag Groups, Audio, Biodiesel, Soybean, USB

Pulling With Biodiesel

Chuck Zimmerman

Dennis Shramek and Young BloodThis soybean grower from Missouri doesn’t plant corn with the machine he’s standing next too. No way. But he does power it with a biodiesel blend and compete in tractor pulls across the United States. He’s Dennis Shramek and one of the competitors in this weekend’s NTPA Midwest Extreme Truck and Tractor Pull. Thank you to the United Soybean Board for inviting me out.

I met him early Friday evening long before his class was set to compete. Dennis grows soybeans and corn in central Missouri. He says they do a lot of no-till. Besides growing crops he’s got this AGCO DT225 which he competes with for points. He says they run over 3,000 horsepower! They blend their own biodiesel and jug it up and bring it along to the event. He gets better lubrication with biodiesel than pure low sulfur diesel. He says they’ve been competing with this tractor for about 6 years and they’ll compete at least 16 to 18 times a season.

Dennis is sure that the biodiesel industry will grow since it’s a clean fuel and helps the U.S. economy and helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

You can listen to my interview with Dennis below:

Ag Groups, Audio, Energy, Soybean, USB

New Products From John Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

John DeereJohn Deere has once again come out with a whole list of new product announcements. The big one is about their introduction of the 8R Series high-powered row crop tractors.

As producers take on more acres and grow their farm operations, they and their employees are spending more time in the tractor cabs working. New 8R Series Tractors help operators work more comfortably and productively. The lineup includes six wheeled models that range from 225 to 345 engine horsepower and three track models that range from 295 to 345 engine horsepower.

Other announcements include:

John Deere adds new economy-sized, versatile self-propelled sprayer model to lineup

John Deere introduces new Load CommandT System

John Deere introduces all-new PitStop Pro that lets customers quickly change anhydrous ammonia tanks

John Deere adds new 800-hp Self-propelled Forage Harvester model to 7050 Series lineup along with two new heads

John Deere unveils new 400 Series Self-propelled Windrowers for 2010

John Deere adds two new AutoTracT guidance products to portfolio

John Deere dealers now offer select products from Raven Industries

Agribusiness, John Deere, Tractor

Midwest Xtreme Truck and Tractor Pull

Chuck Zimmerman

Last night I spent a little while at the National Tractor Pull Association Midwest Xtreme Truck and Tractor Pull in Jefferson City, MO. There was a big crowd and I’ve never seen so many trucks and tractors, modified and ready to pull. My main reason to attend was because the National Biodisel Board and United Soybean Board were involved since several participants were running a blend of biodiesel in their tractors. I’ll have a couple interviews coming up soon with them.

In the meantime, I thought you’d enjoy a couple short video clips. These are some of the early competitors. The first one below was taken with my iPhone and I uploaded it there. The bottom one was taken with my Flip Mino HD and uploaded this morning. What do you think of the quality of each?

Soybean, Tractor, USB

McCormick Company Celebrates 20 Years

Chuck Zimmerman

McCormick Celebrates 20 YearsMcCormick Company is celebrating 20 years in business and held a great event yesterday to not only enjoy this milestone but assist a good cause at the same time. Thanks to Janell Aust for the information and photo.

McCormick Company teamed up with clients, suppliers, local businesses and employees on Thursday, August 27, to celebrate 20 years of McCormick operating in Kansas City. In conjunction with the celebration, McCormick hosted a food drive with the goal of 20,000 cans for the local Harvesters food bank. That goal was met and exceeded with 27,045 cans for Harvesters.

McCormick Food Drive“There’s really no better way to celebrate being a part of the Kansas City community,” said Mark Perrin, President of McCormick Company. “We get to help families in Kansas City by teaming up with local businesses and companies to reach our goal. We’re very pleased with the successful outcome.”

In addition to the charity food drive, guests enjoyed live music by Retro Inferno, food from Gates Bar-B-Q and beverages provided by local companies. Riverside RED X helped coordinate food donations made prior to the event and assisted McCormick in delivering food supplies.

In the photo Debbie Haws with McCormick Company, adds another box to the stacks of more than 27,000 cans of food collected during the company’s celebration of 20 years in Kansas City.

Agencies

New Holland Seeing Pink in Australia

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland Pink BoomerNew Holland is brave enough to wear pink. New Holland compact tractors in Australia that is.

New Holland, the global agricultural and construction equipment maker, commissioned Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) to paint five of its new compact tractors pink as part of the equipment maker’s drive to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Australia.

The WWL team dissembled, painted and reassembled the tractors at its specialist technical services facility in Port Kembla, the closest specialist industrial port to Sydney, Australia.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation will receive a $1000 (AUSD) donation from New Holland for each tractor sold.

Breast cancer is the most invasive cancer diagnosed in Australian women and it is the leading cause of cancer related deaths in women.

The New Holland Pink Tractor Campaign will see the tractors on display at agricultural shows across Australia in the forthcoming months.

WWL handles a significant amount of important high and heavy RoRo equipment for customisation through its vehicle processing centres in Brisbane, Port Kembla, Melbourne and Fremantle with automotive processing capacity at select locations.

‘Think Pink’ is a joint initiative between New Holland Agriculture and National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) which aims to increase awareness of breast cancer in rural Australia and raise funds towards research and support services provided by the Foundation.

Agribusiness, International, New Holland

Discussing Value of Social Media

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 230 - Discussing Social Media Including Text MessagingSince we made the change in our AgWired Mobile service this week by working with Joel Jaeger at Commodity Update I thought I’d get him on the phone to find out how things are going in the text messaging world and discuss these new media communications platforms we’ve been developing.

There is a growing amount of data from public sources like USDA-NASS to private (Nicholson Kovac, Successful Farming) that shows how fast the adoption of web based social and new media and mobile phone technology is among farmers. This means that companies and their ad agencies are scrambling to take advantage of the low cost investment in mechanisms that let them communicate directly with their customers and members. I’m betting that agribusiness still shows a lower rate of social media adoption than the general public but that gap is narrowing in my opinion. According to a post on Mashable, 2/3 of marketers now use social media in some capacity. The few who still aren’t don’t cite that they see a lack of value in social media but rather that they don’t know where to begin or how to measure effectiveness. This according to a story on eMarketer. Ahh, that measurable effectiveness thing. I just wonder how marketers measure the effectiveness of any campaign, including ones that use traditional media options. Do you know? I don’t believe that “impressions” necessarily means anything. I’d rather know how much product I sold as a result of my marketing investment. How are you measuring that? Are you measuring that?

So, listen to my conversation with Joel as we kind of ramble along about these subjects and bring up some anecdotes from our own experiences.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Audio, Social Networking, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The 5th annual Missouri Friends of Injured Marines Golf Outing will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2009, at the Country Club at the Legends in Eureka, Mo.
  • New Holland’s new H5920 deluxe carted wheel rake builds windrows perfectly matched for crop and field conditions.
  • Swanson Russell has won the assignment to work with AGCO on marketing communications for the Challenger brand of agricultural equipment.
  • Asoyia recently added Ann Utter to their staff as assistant grower program manager. Utter will be responsible for monitoring and managing the production of identity preserved Asoyia ULTRA low linolenic soybeans to ensure quality standards are met.
  • Farm Progress Companies has retooled and launched FarmFutures.com to provide users with a more feature-packed and flexible Internet portal.
Zimfo Bytes

AgChat at Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

AgChatIf you’re going to the Farm Progress Show and you have never participated in AgChat, the weekly Twitter conversation/community for agriculture, then you’re going to have several chances to learn more about it. AgChat will be on display along with all the latest products and services. AgChat is for farmers, in fact for anyone involved in providing food, fuel, feed and fiber as well as consumers. The audience is growing and it’s providing some good interaction with people who want and need to understand agriculture today.

“AgChat gives farmers a stronger voice and leverages the power of the agricultural community,” notes Michele Payn-Knoper, Certified Speaking Professional and founder of #AgChat. “We see upwards of 1,000 “tweets” during our two hour discussion every Tuesday night, cementing this tool as an important venue for sharing views and ideas on current food and farm topics, from antibiotic use to mainstream media misinformation about agriculture.”

On Tuesday, September 1, Farm Progress attendees can learn more about this social media tool at two #AgChat events:

• Tweetup: A networking and #AgChat demonstration for those in agriculture who are a part of Twitter, or want to see it in action. From 3-5 p.m., in the Country Financial tent, booth 749 on 7th Street, join Payn-Knoper and others in the #AgChat community, who will answer any questions you have. Refreshments will be served.

• #AgChat live: Join other farmers and agribusiness to participate in this fast-paced streaming “convo” on Twitter. Tweet and talk with several of the chat regulars, or just watch the community in action. Payn-Knoper will be moderating live from Farm Progress, 7-9 p.m., in the Decatur Conference Center & Hotel Illini Room. Bioenergy is the topic for the Sept. 1 chat. Other #AgChat participants will be joining in the streaming conversation from locations around the world.

“Our goal is to pull back the curtain for the next wave of adopters of these tools, and to reveal both the simplicity and power of social media in communicating about agriculture. We want farmers to experience that special act of reaching out across the virtual fence to communicate not only with other farmers, but with moms, journalists and others who are interested in gaining a broader perspective on food and agriculture. It also gives us an opportunity to ‘listen louder’ to thought leaders and consumers about their food interests.”

Farm Progress Show

PIC Helps Hog Producers Improve Performance

Cindy Zimmerman

There are still hog producers in business in Iowa and they are more dedicated than ever to producing a quality product for consumers at the best price possible.

PIC John JeckelThat was my take away from a meeting I attended this week in Washington, IA to gather some audio, photos and video for our friends at PIC International to use for some on-line marketing. PIC stands for Pig Improvement Company and account manager John Jeckel says the company was started 40 years ago by a half dozen pork producers in England to improve the genetics of their animals. “PIC’s competitive advantage in the market place is feed efficiency and growth rate,” John says.

PIC Cliff JonesBut genetics can only do so much and the rest is up to the producer. Cliff Jones with PIC’s tech services says they work with producers to help them achieve the maximum genetic potential from their animals with the proper care and he gave the producers in Washington an abbreviated version of PIC’s Farm Managers Boot Camp that they sponsor. “The key focus point is just to pay attention to the pigs,” Cliff says.

What was really interesting to me was the fact that these producers are really dedicated to taking the best possible care of their animals. “Take care of the pigs just like you would take care of your family,” Cliff said. “Take care of the animals and feed the world, that’s what our focus should be.”

Listen to an interview with John and Cliff here:

Audio, Pork, Swine