Festival Race a Winning Promotion For New Holland

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-222 - New Holland & Country MusicIn this week’s program we’re going to hear all about how well the New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race, hosted by Michael Peterson, is working for the company. I sat down with Gene Hemphill, New Holland Public Affairs, and we talked about this project that we’ve been involved with for 4 years now. Gene says he and Michael took the idea to the CMA about a year before the first tractor race and were welcomed to become CMA Music Festival participants. The event has grown to the point that, outside of the evening concerts, it’s now one of the top attended events during the festival.

Gene HemphillYou’ll hear Gene say that this project has accomplished a lot of things for New Holland as it has developed. Besides just the race event and all the celebrities New Holland is also able to support the FFA, work with Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board and Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones and interact with people who fit the ideal demographics for the company and its products.

Cindy was with us so she got a photo of Gene talking to the ZimmComm Golden Microphone.

This week’s program ends with some Michael Peterson music. It’s a song titled, “Down On The Farm” and even if you’ve heard it before, it’s worth hearing again. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Audio, New Holland, ZimmCast

CMA Music Festival Parade

Chuck Zimmerman

Carly at CMAMichael Peterson recruited Carly to ride on in the parade with him here at the CMA Music Festival.

So she hopped on and joined the FFA members who rode in the sunshine as we kicked off another country music extravaganza.

While Carly was riding, Cindy was multitasking in the back.

Here in the picture you can see her shooting with my Flip Mino HD while shooting some still photos.

Cindy at CMAIn case you’re wondering if that really works, there are pictures in the photo album from Cindy when I took this photo of her.

Then you can watch a clip of the video she was shooting below. In it Michael hops off the trailer for a quick live interview.

We’ll be on location here all week so you can expect to see and hear more interviews when and where we find them. We’re taking it slow this morning though since a major storm just moved through and it was not a good time to be outside. Hopefully it all clears up soon.

2009 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

New Holland, Video

Boehringer Ingelheim Focused on PRRS

Cindy Zimmerman

BI logoPorcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a major focus for Boehringer Ingelheim, which sponsored a press conference at the recent World Pork Expo to talk about some of the latest in PRRS-control strategies.

Reid PhillipsDr. Reid Phillips, with BI’s Swine Enteric Technical Services, says they strive to encourage collaborative research in the field and continue to evaluate their modified live vaccine (MLV) and the role it plays in PRRS control. “We know that the vaccine has been effective in a prophylactic model 3-4 weeks ahead of exposure for mitigation of infection,” Reid told me. “We are also looking at using the vaccine in a therapeutic model, reducing the amount of virus transmitted within positive populations.” He says the early evidence of that looks very good, which would mean lowering the risk of the virus moving within regions.

Reid says BI is a family-owned company that is committed to overall animal health and they have been focused on PRRS research since 1994. “We want to do whatever it takes and we believe we are making progress,” he said.

Listen to or download my interview with Reid here:

Animal Health, Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine, World Pork Expo

FFA at CMA

Chuck Zimmerman

FFA at CMANew Holland and Michael Peterson showed their support for the FFA here at the CMA Music Festival once again. The officers of the Westmoreland FFA chapter rode with Michael in the kickoff parade. Before we got started I interviewed them. They’re north of Nashville about 45 minutes.

They were pretty excited to ride along with Michael behind a new New Holland tractor. They describe the FFA as a basic youth organization for agricultural education. They’re happy to have the chance to promote their program and show their support for agriculture. They’ll be working in the New Holland booth in the Chevy Sports Zone during the rest of the Festival.

You can listen to my interview with Westmoreland FFA here: cma-09-ffa.mp3

Or you can watch the video of it here:

2009 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, New Holland, Video

Michael Peterson Parades at CMA Music Festival

Chuck Zimmerman

Michael PetersonThe CMA Music Festival is underway in Nashville, TN. My good friend Michael Peterson was a crowd pleaser in the opening parade this afternoon. He and I found a cool place for an interview after the parade.

Michael and I agree that it seems like there are even more people here than last year. It was a big crowd lining Broadway for the parade in the heat and humidity. He’s looking forward to another great New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race on Sunday.

You can listen to my interview with Michael here: cma-09-michael-parade.mp3

Or watch the interview here:

I’ve got over a hundred photos being uploaded to Flickr right now and I’ll be posting a link to it soon in an online photo album. Check them out: 2009 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

Audio, New Holland

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • McGill University and Becker Underwood have signed a commercial licensing agreement granting Becker Underwood exclusive rights to patented nitrogen-fixing technology developed by a team of McGill researchers.
  • A new report by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) shows direct-to-consumer farm marketing in the United States is growing faster than total agricultural sales—the two categories increased 104.7 percent and 47.6 percent, respectively, from 1997 to 2007.
  • Designed to help growers in California find crop solutions specifically approved by the state regulatory agencies, farmers can now learn more about the Stoller technology and products available in their area.
  • Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin Youth Leadership Derby will be held at the Milton High School – Milton, Wisc., Nov. 7-8, 2009.
Zimfo Bytes

Tractor Racing in Nashville at Fan Fair

Chuck Zimmerman

2009 CMA Music FestAgWired goes country this week at the 2009 Country Music Association’s annual summer Music Fest, commonly known as Fan Fair. Once again we’re sponsored by New Holland to cover their activities which culminate on Sunday with the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. You’ll be able to watch live video of the race, announced by AgriTalk’s Mike Adams, here via AgWired Live TV starting at 10:30am this Sunday.

It looks like the competition for the race is already heating up as evidenced by this excerpt from the latest National Biodiesel Board news release:

National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe returns for his third appearance in the New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race, now in its fourth year as a popular feature of the Country Music Association’s (CMA) 2009 Music Festival, June 10-14, 2009 in Nashville, TN. The race involves “celebrities” from many professions driving a New Holland compact tractor through an obstacle course of road cones, each trying to complete the course in the least amount of seconds.

Jobe, who placed 3rd in the 2008 race, has his eyes set on moving higher in the ratings. One of his main challengers from 2008 is his friend and biodiesel supporter Chuck Leavell, environmentalist, conservationist, author, and 27-year keyboardist for the Rolling Stones. Leavell placed 5th in 2008, but only seconds on the clock separated the two friends. His eyes are also set on placing higher. Adding to the action is country music artist Michael Peterson, also a strong biodiesel supporter, who is hosting the competition for New Holland.

“New Holland is once again taking an industry-leading role in its support of biodiesel,” said Jobe. “They have already led the industry in supporting 100% biodiesel in all of the engines they manufacture, but they are not resting on those achievements. They continue to promote the biodiesel for its benefits to the nation’s energy supply, food supply, and agricultural sector.”

Cindy, Carly and I will all be on location starting this evening so you can count on lots of photos, interviews and videos this week from the home of country music.

Biodiesel, New Holland

Novus International Partners With Chr. Hansen

Cindy Zimmerman

novusNOVUS International signed an agreement last week at World Pork Expo with Chr. Hansen to provide the direct fed microbial BioPlus 2B® for swine producers in the United States.

chr hansenBioPlus 2B® contains two strains of Bacillus (Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis). These Bacillus strains can improve the intestinal microbial balance of swine. Safety studies have proven that BioPlus 2B® strains are totally safe to animals and humans. The data was compiled into more than 5,000 pages to get final approval in the European Union for all swine categories. It makes BioPlus 2B® the most extensively documented microbial for swine.

Dan Meagher“This partnership compliments our GEMS nutrition program and gut health management portfolio,” stated Dan Meagher, Vice President, Americas. “NOVUS International is focused on providing producers, nutritionists and veterinarians with ways to optimize pig health and performance.”

BioPlus 2B® is an effective means of helping balance bacterial populations in the intestinal tract to improve performance regardless of life stage. BioPlus 2B® is an effective DFM that increases live weight gain and improves feed conversion efficiency when used in nursery and grow-finish applications. BioPlus 2B® also helps improve overall intestinal health, improved average daily gain (ADG) and decreased mortality.

“The cooperation with NOVUS International immediately broadens our access to the swine market in the United States. We expect strong growth in sales with this cooperation”, explains Dr. Bill Braman, VP Marketing and Sales Animal Health & Nutrition, Chr. Hansen NA.

I interviewed Dan Meagher (pronounced like mayor) at WPX last week and he talked about the deal with Chr. Hansen.

Listen to my interview with Dan here: wpx09-novus-dan.mp3

You can also download Dan’s interview here: Dan Meagher (mp3)

Audio, Novus International, Pork, Swine, World Pork Expo

Farm Bureau Social Media Perspective

Chuck Zimmerman

American Farm Bureau Council of PresidentsThe American Farm Bureau Federation is having its annual Council of Presidents meeting in Boston, MA and I’m on location to do a presentation about social media this afternoon. During the lunch break I spoke with AFBF President, Bob Stallman, to get his perspective on the use of social media for an organization like his.

Bob says, “We’ve always been involved in the public domain. We’ve always tried to make our case to citizens and the public. Communications mechanisms have changed. It’s become very evident that this new concept and implementation of social media is going to influence people and that’s our goal, to influence people so we have to be involved. Now it does involve changing a lot of old mindset but it’s clear that we have to be engaged.” In my interview with Bob I also got an update on their current priorities which include regulation and in particular those surrounding the climate.

You can listen to my interview with Bob here: afbf-stallman-6-8-09.mp3

Earlier today I solicited some comments from the Twitterverse with the request, “If anybody has anything they’d like #AFBF Council of Presidents to know today please use the hashtag in your tweet. Thanks.” Thank you to everyone who has already posted a comment. You can find them by searching the #AFBF hashtag. Here are a few of them:

skinnyhorse: @AgriBlogger I found it helpful to follow people like lobbyists at the State Cap. for breaking news on legislation, amendments etc. #AFBF

RayLinDairy: .@AgriBlogger #AFBF Time to join SM was yesterday don’t waste anymore time thinking about it.

AFBFMace: @AgriBlogger #AFBF Farm Bureau and ag are well represented in SM and we are growing the army every day. Sevrl state FBs are taking the lead

mpaynknoper: My comments for #AFBF are on FB – it’s critical more in #ag engage. Some producers prefer SM to give #farm facts vs. speaking to groups.

whitwallace: @AgriBlogger SM is influencing perceptions as we speak. When we aren’t part of the convo, our story is told for us, minus the facts. #AFBF

This request and response from a widespread audience is a perfect example of the power of a social media channel like Twitter. Literally within moments of my posting that request, responses were coming in and as I post this I’m seeing more pop up so please feel free to see how today’s Twitter “chat” turns out.

Ag Groups, Audio

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

Zimfo Bytes