Worksaver, Inc. will be exhibiting their new Worksaver Snow Blades at the National Farm Machinery Show at the Kentucky Exposition Center, Booth No. 3013 from Feb. 11-14, 2009.
The new snow blades for skid steers (SBS Series) and tractor loaders (SBFL Series) remove snow from driveways, parking lots or other large areas. The snow blades are able to angle left or right for easier use and feature a 90” width and 3/8” x 6” cutting edge of 1044 steel.
We’re coming off the slowest two weeks in ag news of the year (do you agree?). I’ve just got a feeling that things will pick up a lot starting next week. In the meantime you might want to spend a few minutes finding out who’s talking about you or your products online. You know I strongly advocate “joining the conversation.” Check out WhosTalkin.com and see why you might want to join in. They’re going to talk about you even if you don’t!
WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most. Whether it be your favorite sport, favorite food, celebrity, or your company’s brand name; Whostalkin.com can help you join in on the conversations that you care about most.
Our goal is to deliver the most relevant and current conversations happening in the world of social media.
I don’t think we’re going to have as pretty a sunset tonight as last night. This was the view just before Cindy and I went to enjoy a New Year’s Eve dinner.
I hope everyone’s having a wonderful New Year’s Day. I know posting has been a little light but it’s a quiet time in ag right now. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be picking up though.
I’ll be doing a little R&R in south Florida for a few days starting tomorrow but I’ll be online at times.
This is your Happy New Year ZimmCast. In it you’ll hear my thoughts on this year’s growth in online communications, especially in agriculture. Agriblogging and Farm Podcasting have exploded and we’re thankful to not only be a part of the conversation but help others along the way.
Last week was a milestone for me with ZimmCast 200. Over the course of the year I’ve spoken with an outstanding lineup of industry leaders. This year’s programs contain interviews with Craig Huffhines, Glen Klippenstein, Robert Williams, Dave Downing, John Walter, Ushhi Raser, Mimi Ricketts, Shauna Hermel, Dan Smaldone, Bob Callanan, Gene Hemphill, Cory Cart, Greg Webb, Rosemary Schimek, Lindsay Hill, Joel Jaeger, Gretchen Hoffman, Sarah Olson, Ray Gilmer, Michael Peterson, Nathan Fields, Jeremy Lutgen, Scott Fleetwood, Steve Halbrook, Steve Taylor, Mark Hardy, Kenna Rathai, Randy Griggs, Wesley Powell, Rob Cook, Tom Dorr, Erin Holt, Mark Jewell, Darwin Melnyk, Daryn McBeth, Chuck Gamble, Gary Schultz, Greg Ehm, Stephanie Gamble, P. Allen Smith, Dennis Docherty, Ev Griner, Rebecca Brightwell, Mark Kornblau, Dan Duffy, Eric Hodson, Amber Shirley, Craig Lindholm, Adrian Blake, Andrew Moore and Ron Lang. How’s that for an interview list? And that’s just for this weekly program. I don’t have the time to list all the people who have been interviewed here on AgWired during the year.
The growth in agriblogging and farm podcasting has had a very positive impact on us. Just within the ZimmComm world we’re managing 24 blogs, 5 of them our own. We’re managing content on a regular basis on 6 of our client’s sites. We’ve also designed and built 6 new blog sites this year. We’re also producing and managing 8 podcasts, 4 of which are our own. Of course if you define podcast as an audio file you can click on to listen to and/or download to your computer then there are hundreds just on AgWired not counting all the other blogs and postings we’ve done this year. We once again spent well over 200 days on the road bringing you news and information about what’s new in world of agribusiness and pre-bookings for 2009 are strong. I’m sure Cindy or I will see you somewhere soon. Until then we wish you a very happy new year.
The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This one is called “Blog Like Its The End Of The World” from Tom Smith. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 201 (18 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:No Interview - ZimmCast 201
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
I didn’t always know that I wanted to pursue a career in agriculture. I grew up on a cattle ranch in Eastern South Dakota, and because I lived in a “big” city, I was constantly teased for being a cowgirl. I hated being thought of as a hick, and when I started high school, I vowed to change my reputation and NEVER tell anyone that I had cattle at my house. Besides, I figured it wasn’t really a big deal anyway. It’s not like I would EVER get a job in the agriculture industry anyway.
Well, a lot has changed since those high school days. As a senior agricultural journalism student at South Dakota State University, I look forward to graduation and officially beginning my career in an incredible industry that feeds and clothes the world! However, with the suffering economy, the job hunt is a struggle for many college students.
That’s why I was so excited that a new resource just for agricultural professionals was created, AgJobNetwork! This is how the AJN Works – if you have a job opening at your organization, feel free to post it here. See something you’re interested in, or that a friend would like? Apply – or Forward. Yep. Its that simple! 
My friend at AJN, Mark Jewell, informed me of some cool things going on in 2009. Beginning February 1, AJN will be starting the 28 Days of Job Casting. This will include 1 pod cast every day during the month of February. Mark will interview 1 job seeker every day – and post their interview on the job blog. Updates will be sent out to whom ever wants to listen…especially recruiters! Best part is that it is totally free!
So stay tuned for updates at AJN. Whether you’re a job seeker or you’re looking for someone great to hire at your place of business, AJN is truly THE up and coming resource for agricultural professionals. Thanks for the heads up, Mark!
Are you as tired of the “Top Ten . . . ” lists popping up everywhere as I am? Yeah. I thought so.
But a conversation last night over the future of ag communications prompted me to put together a list of AgWired posts during 2008 that all relate to where things are going in communications today and that goes for agricultural communications. If you still think farmers are somehow different than “normal” people then you haven’t spent any time with a bunch of farmers. I know I have this year. Some of them are ahead of me when it comes to online communications! So here’s a list of some topics/posts that might be worth a review if you’re trying to come to grips with the change that is happening (whether you like it or not).
1. A YouTube Justification: Now you can even load high definition video and it’s still free. Why wouldn’t you go where your customers and members are?
2. iPhone: It’s not just a phone, it’s a “platform.” And the others are playing catch up. Just this morning we discussed blogging an event with just this one device. I’m tempted to try it. It’s a step toward complete mobile communications freedom.
3. Social Networking: We’ve always done it. We’re just doing it online now.
4. Twitter: With Twitter and all its related applications this has become a monster of an information delivery system.
5. Internet Continues To Grow As News Source: Only television ranks higher now.
6. More Media Fragmentation and Diminished Importance of Reach: If you’re still using old school measurement standards then you may be wasting a lot of money.
7. Some Social Media Wisdom: It’s not about lots of eyeballs it’s about the right set of eyeballs.
8. Survey of Rural Lifestylers: Or Ruralpolitans or whatever you want to call them. They’re online and searching for information.
9. New Media On The Minds of Marketing Officers: And it should not only be on your mind but you should be a part of the conversation.
10. Online Faster and Older: The myth that it’s all about young people is just that, a myth.
11. Texting For Farm Information: They’re doing it in places like the Phillipines!
12. The Growing Business of Blogs: That growth is driven by the niche orientation of blog content. The very thing that some think is a weakness (not).
13. Blogging/Podcasting Exploding: And this study finds that people think more positively about a company that blogs.
14. AgWired Mobile and AgWired Live TV: Texting is becoming more important as a way to distribute information and we can “broadcast” live from just about anywhere.
15. Podcast Audience Grows Significantly: Like as in 40% growth.
16. Go With NewsGator and Keep Up: This is about getting your rss feeds on your phone. We’re carrying our news and information around with us now. As an update to it you can now get them on your iPhone with the NetNewsWire app.
For quite some time, the technology gurus have been excitedly promoting Twitter and it’s benefits. Sure, the concept is simple…
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Yet, I remain skeptical about incorporating it into my life. When I first heard about Twitter, I couldn’t imagine the practical uses of Twitter from the standpoint of a cattle producer. As a busy college kid, I didn’t foresee myself keeping up with another online account to go along with Facebook, MySpace, my blog Chewing The Cud, my blog/newsletter BEEF Daily and my FOUR email accounts. And, as an ag journalist, I wasn’t quite sure how it could be incorporated into professional reporting. I mean, do people REALLY want to know what I’m doing all the time?
Now, I’m an avid reader of blogs, and one of my favorites is Confessions of The Pioneer Woman. She was a city girl that grew up on a golf course in Los Angeles, and she fell in love with a Oklahoma cattle rancher, had four children, and cooks calf nuts for supper. She details her country life on her blog with recipes, photography tips, ranch stories, and home improvement posts. She works in videos, voting and reader interaction into her blog. She has thousands of readers from all over the world. In brief, she is a great blogger and user of new media. It was with Ree, the pioneer woman, that I finally discovered just how effective Twitter could be.
She posts her Twitter messages on her website, and I realized how interesting they were. Some talked about what she was having for supper, others described the chores she was doing on the ranch…nothing was relevant to anything important, but I still cared what she had to say.
So I jumped on the bandwagon, and I created an account. I think it’s time you joined the frenzy, too! Start your account and discover the possibilities. It could be your most successful marketing move!
