This is a World Dairy Expo edition of “Guess Whose Boot.” Not boots, but boot.
It works like this. Guess by making a comment and the first person who gets it right will get an AgWired t-shirt.
So, guess away. It’s an easy one.
Get Your Badger Grilled Cheese
The University of Wisconsin Madison Badger Club is a grilled cheese sandwich making machine at World Dairy Expo. I would like to try one again this year but the line is too long and never seems to go down.
With 139 members, Badger Dairy Club (BDC) creates opportunities for the membership to engage in activities and experiences within the college, community and the ever progressing dairy industry.
Purpose of the Badger Dairy Club
1. To provide opportunities for fellowship, friendship, service and to grow socially
2. To provide an opportunity to enhance the educational experience
3. To promote dairy cattle, products and the dairy industry
4. To learn of occupation opportunities
5. To make available the opportunity to make professional connections
Marketing and Media at World Dairy Expo
The first two people I got to know at World Dairy Expo were John Rozum (sales) and Lisa Behnke (media). In fact, World Dairy Diary grew out of an idea that John had several years ago now.
I spoke to them this morning and the main message is “larger,” meaning more people and more exhibitors. Some of the numbers they mention include 717 exhibitors this year and 216 media representatives. Wow. Opening day attendance was up according to Lisa.
You can listen to my interview with John and Lisa as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-31.mp3
GEA Farm Technology Brand Launched
I am now comfortably located in cool and brisk Madison, WI at World Dairy Expo. The media room is active and a number of us attended a breakfast time press conference given by WestfaliaSurge, now part of GEA Farm Technologies.
The CEO and President of GEA Farm Technologies is Vern Foster. He gave us a comprehensive presentation this morning (media and dealers) to explain the reasons behind the change and what that means for the company and its customers.
He says, “It’s to pull all of the organizations that are part of GEA Farm Technologies, Houle, Norbco, WestfaliaSurge, pull it under a common brand so it makes sense for the marketplace, makes sense for our investors, makes sense for our customers and our dealer distribution.” The GEA stands for Global Engineering Alliance, a 5.3 billion Euro company that operates in 50 countries. Vern says, “It helps us really re-focus under one umbrella as we continue to grow and create additional organizations and innovate into the field of agriculture.”
Since Houle, Norbco and WestfaliaSurge have separate sales forces he says they’ve been in discussion together to “offer a more total solutions package to a producer.”
He says you’ll start seeing the new GEA Farm Technologies brand at trade show and in their advertising. In fact, his business cards already show the new logo!
You can listen to Vern’s full presentation here: wdx-08-foster-presentation.mp3
You can also download the full presentation using this link (mp3 file).
You can also listen to an interview I did with Vern afterward as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-30.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
Zimfo Bytes
- Novus International is proud to announce the appointment of Nik Sutter as Product Specialist, North America. Sutter’s primary responsibilities will include the implementation of marketing and technical strategy for Novus-North America and identifying business growth opportunities for organic trace minerals.
- Syngenta Crop Protection announced the federal registration of Voliam Xpress insecticide by the U.S. EPA. Voliam Xpress is approved for use on head and leaf lettuce, fruiting vegetables, head and stem brassicas and cucurbit vegetables.
- In an effort to help farmers maximize yield potential, the new Asgrow Brand AccuSure Seed Count System from Monsanto eliminates the variability of seed size. Each bag of Asgrow Brand Roundup Ready 2 Yield seed, regardless of variety, will provide the same number soybean seed. Asgrow Brand will introduce the AccuSure Seed Count System for the brand’s Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seed in both paper and mini-bulk bags for the 2009 planting season.
- Trimble announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TopoSys GmbH of Germany. TopoSys is a leading provider of aerial data collection systems comprised of LiDAR and metric cameras.
Soldier Farmers
Here’s something you won’t see on the evening tv news. Soldier farmers helping rebuild the ag economy in Afghanistan. We’ve already seen this type of work being done in Iraq thanks to Paul McKellips. It looks like soldiers from several states are doing something similar to this in Afghanistan.
Despite recent progress, Afghanistan remains a poor country. Its agriculture industry, which employs 80 percent of all working Afghanis, hasn’t changed much in centuries. It is a nation that can’t feed itself without foreign aid.
To help change this, a pilot program called the Agribusiness Development Team (ADT) has been created. The effort is being led by Missouri National Guard members, many of whom are graduates of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.
The ADT effort is jointly coordinated by the U.S. Army, the Army National Guard, the Missouri National Guard, the University of Missouri, Lincoln University, the College of the Ozarks and the Missouri Farm Bureau. Soldiers in the field work directly with farmers while agriculture experts back in Missouri provide technical and research support.
“The Agribusiness Development Team is a novel partnership between the Missouri National Guard, retired military, farmers and universities to facilitate and educate Afghanis in the rebuilding of their agriculture economy,” said Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard. “Missouri is the leader for this concept, which, if successful, will serve as a model for partnerships in other states.”
Here’s links to some more on this:
* National Guard to Help Afghan Agriculture
* Few good farmers’ heading to Afghanistan (PDF | 176 KB | See p. 8.)
* Soldiers Working with Afghan Farmers to Grow Wheat
Via the NAL Blog.
Manitoba Ban on Swine Expansion Expected to Discourage Environmentally Friendly Farming
Harry Siemens – The Manitoba Chamber of Commerce warns the province’s proposed ban on swine industry development in eastern Manitoba will discourage the adoption of new technologies designed to make hog farming more environmentally friendly.
Bill 17, the Manitoba Environment Amendment Act, which bans swine barn construction or expansion in most of eastern Manitoba, passed the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday, September 24 by a margin of 36 for and 19 against.
Lori Hallowell is Bader Rutter Vice President
Congratulations to Lori Hallowell.
Lori Hallowell has been promoted to vice president at Bader Rutter in the agency’s account management and public relations groups.
Hallowell joined the agency in 1994 as an account executive. Her energy and passion for the business have been key in the growth of Merial, the agency’s animal health client.
A native of Palmyra, Neb., Hallowell graduated in 1991 from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism. She serves on the board of directors of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s Midlands Chapter and works in the agency’s Lincoln, Neb., office.
MCOOL will take some time to sort out
Harry Siemens / Farmscape – North American pork producers, processors, and retailers continue to prepare for the introduction of the mandatory country of origin labeling which took affect officially on September 30, 2008.
Saskatchewan Pork Development Board policy analyst Mark Ferguson believes U.S. processors and retailers will determine the impact of the new labelling requirements on Canadian pork producers. “Although the rule is apparently a little more flexible than the previous one, it’s very similar to what the USDA introduced several years ago,” said Ferguson. “Everything filters down from the retail level.”Read More
FINDERBINDER Agricultural Media Directory Ready
It looks like the Finderbinder for ag media is about ready.
As of today, public relations executives and media buyers serving the agricultural media directory have a new tool for current, detailed information on local news media.
The FINDERBINDER® Agricultural Media Directory catalogs more than 1,500 agricultural newspapers, magazines, online publications, broadcast outlets in the United States.
“The FINDERBINDER® will be the most current, accurate and detailed reference of its kind,” said Cory Cart owner of Got Your Attention LLC, the public relations firm responsible for creating the directory.
FINDERBINDER® directories come in a compact 5.5 by 8.5-inch custom-designed 3-ring vinyl binder. This agricultural directory will feature a page dedicated to each major publication and radio and television station in United States. A Canadian edition is scheduled to be released in 2009.
“Today, nearly half of the world’s population is employed by agriculture, and the American farm population is now less than 2 percent of our national population. With so few left on the farm, it is more important than ever for the voice of agriculture to be heard,” said Cart, “my goal in publishing this directory is to help make the communications process more efficient.”
Each FINDERBINDER® Agricultural Media Directory will come with six updating newsletters. Frequently provided with these newsletters are new pages for the directory. These pro vide readers with information on new media or media which have had major changes. Each year the number of changes in the me dia will make past issues obsolete.
The listings include names of editors, advertising managers, media owners, addresses and phone numbers, circulation figures and open rates for print media, public service announcement data for radio and television stations, radio and television talk show and interview format programs, and much more.
“With the right information, people can avoid embarrassing misdirected phone calls to the media,” said Sandi Lomonaco, Director of Media Relations for Got Your Attention LLC. “Now they will know exactly who they should contact before picking up the phone or mailing a news release. Veteran public relations professionals know news releases not addressed to a specific editor often end up unopened in the trash and will enjoy knowing when a reporter leaves or is reassigned to a new beat.”
Publications, radio and television stations must direct a majority of their efforts toward an agricultural or rural audience to be included. Publications must produce two or more issues a year and newsletter format publications will not be included.