The First 11 Characters…

Amanda Nolz

I ran across an interesting article on the importance of the first eleven characters in an online document. Now, I know most writers cringe at having to utilize “key words” or pay attention to the meaning of their first eleven characters of text, but studies show this makes a difference if readers decide to click on your link in a search engine or not.

Users typically see about 2 words for most list items; they’ll see a little more if the lead words are short, and only the first word if they’re long. Of course, people don’t see exactly 11 characters every time, but we picked this number to ensure uniformity across the sites we tested.

Users don’t need to predict a link’s destination with 100% accuracy based solely on its 11 leading characters. In real life, links aren’t truncated on the page. Even if users see only the first 2 words or so during their initial scan, they can immediately read more if their eyes stop on the link.

To be most effective, website hosts need to do the following:

-Allow users to confidently predict what they’ll get if they click.
-Be clearly differentiated from the other links.
-Not be misleading or promise too much.

To learn more about this study, link to Jakob Nielson’s Alertbox on “The First Two Words”.

Media

Geared with New Gadgets

Amanda Nolz

img_1871Thanks to some much appreciated financial support from graduation monies, I have purchased some new gadgets to help me get my start. I bought a new MacBook and a Zoom H4 Recorder. Now the trick is getting accustomed to these new gadgets, and fast! A busy writer doesn’t have much time for reading instruction manuals, right?

ZoomAnd, now I have some questions. If you are a Mac user, what do you like best about them? What are your favorite tools on a Mac? Next, which editing software do you prefer for podcasts? Which ones are most user friendly?

Thanks for all of your support and advice! It means a lot to me!

Technology

Grains Council Launches The Grain Board

Chuck Zimmerman

The Grain BoardAnother ag group has joined the agriblogging ranks.

The U.S. Grains Council welcomes you to “The Grain Board.” This blog was created to serve as a sounding board for the latest trade developments, U.S. agriculture, Council happenings and whatever else comes to mind. We encourage you to comment on the postings, ask questions and share with your friends. Posts on “The Grain Board” are produced by U.S. Grains Council staff. Feel free to contact the bloggers at thegrainboard@grains.org.

Ag Groups

Alltech Young Scientist Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Young Scientist AwardThe Alltech Young Scientist Award program keeps getting bigger with more entries and that means the competition level increases. This is the fourth year of the program and the awards were presented at the Symposium.

The overall winner in the undergraduate category is Fan Liu of Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China who submitted a paper on HSP70 as a new biomarker in the development and evaluation of anti-stress feed additives.

There were regional winners in both the undergraduate and graduate categories as well.

Alltech Young Scientist AwardThe overall winner in the graduate category is Tung M. Che, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA who submitted a paper examining the Effects of mannan oligosaccharide on immune function and disease resistance in pigs. Both these winners are pictured in between Dr. Mark Lyons and Inge Russell.

“This year’s Alltech Young Scientist Award program was a very close competition which attracted many high caliber young scientists” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “At a time when we need the brightest young minds in the world to engage in scientific study, I am delighted to present this prestigious award to such talented young students.”

Tung M. Che and Fan Liu will be awarded prizes of $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • In recognition of their vision, inspirational efforts and leadership that has helped shape today’s cattle feeding industry, Paul F. Engler and the late William D. “W.D.” Farr are honored as the inaugural inductees into the newly established Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame.
  • Kuhn North America, Inc., of Brodhead, Wis., introduces the new GF 7802 T, six-rotor, trailed rotary tedder with a working width of 25′ 7″.
  • AutoFarm announces embedded steering control (ESC) for Envizio Pro, allowing it to work with the AutoFarm OnTrac2 GPS Assisted Steering System to provide robust steering of a broad range of equipment including tractors, sprayers, spreaders and combines.
  • Emily Caldwell of Beaver Falls, Pa., will serve as the 2009 editorial intern this summer at Farm and Dairy, a weekly agricultural publication based in Salem, Ohio.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Biofuels Discussion at World Ag Congress

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag ForumBiofuels from the perspective of India and East Africa, as well as Europe and the United States, were part of the discussion at the World Ag Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.

    Henk Joos with London-based D1 Oils moderated the panel focusing on an integrated approach to biofuels. He stressed that the purpose of the panel was to find solutions. “We can decide to go again in an immense debate on food versus fuel,” he said. “I would like to take a different approach. I would like with my fellow panelists to identify responsible ways to make food and fuel at the same time.”

    The panelists included former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh, Lee Broughton with Enterprise, Bill Horan with 25x’25, and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa.

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Biodiesel, Novus International

    New CEO Introduced for World Agricultural Forum

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Kathy MoldthanDr. Leonard J. Guarraia, Chairman and CEO of the World Agricultural Forum, announced today at the 2009 World Ag Congress that his title will soon only be chairman of the organization and that Kathy Moldthan is taking over the job of CEO. Kathy has been with WAF for ten years, just before the first World Ag Congress in 1999. Prior to that, she worked in the sustainability division of Monsanto.

    Kathy says her goal going forward with WAF is to take the organization from only having congresses in St. Louis to expanding into other areas of the world. “To better bring the solutions and innovative ideas that are working in one area and see if we can replicate them in other areas,” she said.

    They were expecting 200 participants for this year’s congress and Kathy says there are over 260 registered from more than 20 different countries. “The theme this year is food security and looking at the technological issues related to food security,” she said. “The participants feel the panelists have been outstanding and the discussions have been robust, and some pretty innovative ideas and concepts coming out of those.” She is also pleased with the participation in this year’s Congress by a variety of stakeholder companies – from food manufacturers like Hershey and General Mills to agribusiness companies like Novus, Monsanto and AGROTAIN.

    You can listen to my interview with Kathy here: waf-09-kathy.MP3

    Download the audio file here: Kathy Moldthan interview

    Click here to see all stories from the World Ag Congress.

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Audio, Novus International

    Agrotain Focuses on Sustainability at Ag Congress

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Mike StegemanIt should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.

    Another company making a difference in that arena is St. Louis-based AGROTAIN International and I talked with president Mike Stegmann today about some of the ways they are helping. “Sustainability means different things to different people but at AGROTAIN International we’re talking a look at fertilizer specifically,” Mike said. “We truly believe there’s ways to use fertilizer, be more efficient, get more, cost less and still do the right thing for the environment.” AGROTAIN is the world’s largest producer of StabilizedNitrogen™ fertilizers.

    Along those lines, AGROTAIN has been participating in a study with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service on the impact of nitrogen fertilizer on climate change. “We wanted to understand what the climate change benefit is of using a product like AGROTAIN to using conventional fertilizer or no fertilizer at all,” Mike says.

    In fact, the study has found there is a dramatic reduction in nitrous oxide emissions when nitrogen fertilizer is applied with AGROTAIN. More on that will be revealed tomorrow here at the Congress by Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory.

    You can listen to my interview with Mike here: waf-09-agrotain.mp3

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Fertilizer, Novus International

    Novus International Helps Feed the World

    Cindy Zimmerman

    World Ag Forum Day Giovanni GasperoniNovus International is playing a major role in this year’s World Ag Congress because they are a company that is playing a major role in global food and agricultural production.

    “Our mission as a company is to support sustainable, industrial animal agriculture,” says executive vice president of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni. He notes that there is a great deal of discussion about “organic” farming under the concept of sustainability. “Organic is not for the mass. You’re not feeding 6.2 billion people by going organic. We need to make sure that the people who want to spend the money for organic are not imposing the rule for the rest of the world.”

    John Davis interviewed Gio here at the World Ag Congress yesterday about Novus’ role in sustainability and making food more accessible and affordable for the world. “It’s not by promoting free range chicken or organic chicken,” Gio says. He also talks about some of Novus’ products, Alimet and Santoquin, two livestock feed additives that he says have helped to “change the world” for livestock producers and meat eaters. Santoquin is actually 50 years old and has the distinction of being the first feed additive approved by FDA.

    You can listen to John’s interview with Gio here: waf-09-gasperoni.mp3

    Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

    AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
    Novus.

    Agribusiness, Food, Novus International

    Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education Fund

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Alltech Muhammad AliThe Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Humanitarian Fund has been officially announced here at the Alltech Symposium. His name is one of the most recognizable in the world and the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world was on hand with his wife Lonnie. They’re seen here with Dr. Pearse Lyons after the announcement moments ago.

    Alltech president and founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons presented Muhammad and Lonnie Ali a check for $50,000 to establish the Alltech – Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The focal point of the fund is education. Alltech and the Muhammad Ali Center will stress programs that positively impact others around the world, promote excellence and achieving one’s potential. The fund will have humanitarian and artistic components as well.

    “For 29 years Alltech has believed that it is our responsibility to not only provide science-based solutions to agribusiness, but to give back to the communities in which we operate,” said Alltech president and CEO, Dr. Pearse Lyons. “The establishment of this fund and this collaboration will undoubtedly help us raise global awareness of the problems that we hope to address; particularly those that are educational or humanitarian in nature.”

    On the stage this morning we heard remarks from Lonnie Ali and then Dr. Lyons. I have them recorded for you here.

    You can listen to their remarks here: alltech-symposium-ali.mp3

    You can also download the remarks here: Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Fund Remarks (mp3)

    Alltech Symposium Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio