Media Room Welcoming Committee

Chuck Zimmerman

Yard O Beef LadiesHere’s the Yard-O-Beef welcoming committee in the Cattle Industry Convention news room. It’s always nice to see the staff here and between chocolate and beef we’re well fed.

The Convention will pick up the pace tomorrow. Meetings are already taking place though. I’m the Beef Board Blogger once again and have been in the Operating Committee meeting for a while. Photos are already being uploaded and you can find them here: Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album.

So, sit back, relax and let Cindy and myself bring you all the exciting action from two of the major livestock industry conventions this week.

Cattle Industry Conference

All Star Theme for Novus

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09“All Star” is the theme for Novus International at the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta this week. There’s a couple of good reasons for that.

First and most important is the Novus all-star lineup of poultry products including Advent, DHA Gold, Mintrex and Alimet.

International Poultry Expo 09The other reason is that the 2009 Baseball All Star game will be held in St. Louis – which is also the home of Novus International. To drive home that theme, Novus will have a special guest at their expo trade show booth this week – Hall of Famer Lou Brock.

I talked with Novus poultry marketing specialist Michael Whitmer about the importance of the poultry business for Novus and what they have in the line-up for poultry producers this year. Listen to that interview here: ipe-09-whitmer.mp3

You can also download the interview with this link (mp3).

IPE/IFE Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Audio, Feed, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Nutritional Antioxidants for Lunch from Novus

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09Lunch was on Novus International today at the International Poultry/Feed Expos in Atlanta for the Southern Poultry Scientific Society (SPSS) meeting here. The SPSS meeting is part of the International Poultry Scientific Forum being held in conjunction with all the other poultry and feed events. It’s really kind of amazing how many events are going on here around the expos and how many people are already here from all over the world.

International Poultry Expo 09In a relaxed atmosphere, Dr. Tara York with Novus presented some information on the “Synergistic Effects of Nutritional Antioxidants” to about 200 attendees, focusing on vitamin E, selenium, and ethoxyquin (as well as a bunch of other big words that I can’t pronounce or spell!!) Novus is pretty much the world leader when it comes to antioxidants for poultry, with over five decades of basic and applied research, development and manufacturing expertise being utilized to develop, manufacture and support multiple lines of nutritional and health products for the poultry industry.

I recorded Dr. York’s short and informative presentation that Novus will be using in podcast form. I also interviewed Dr. York about antioxidants, poultry and Novus – you can listen to that interview here: ipe-09-york-interview.mp3

You can also download the interview with this link (mp3).

IPE/IFE Photo Album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Feed, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Welcome to the IPE/IFE

Cindy Zimmerman

International Poultry Expo 09Welcome to AgWired’s coverage of the International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo, sponsored by Novus International. It’s just an international event here in Hot-Lanta!

A number of pre-expo events are taking place here today – like summits, seminars and technical sessions – but the real show gets underway tomorrow here at the Georgia World Congress center. The expo is a joint effort of the US Poultry & Egg Association and the American Feed Industry Association.

The Flickr photo album is started and can be found here. It will be updated continuously throughout the expo this week, so keep checking back for new photos.

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:
Novus

Feed, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Feeding RSS In St. Louis

Chuck Zimmerman

Bob CallananThis afternoon I got to visit with Bob Callanan and Cassandra Schlef, American Soybean Association. We talked about RSS feeds which I believe you’ll soon see ASA making greater use of to distribute information. In our session we started out looking at how RSS works from the user perspective and then moved to the publishing side. I really believe this is a great way to learn about this critical mechanism that powers a lot of today’s new media tools and channels.

I caught Bob on my iPhone before we got started and used Twitter/Twitterfeed/Twitpic as part of the presentation. You can find a bigger Bob on Twitpic. The roads were pretty nasty in St. Louis by the time I got out of town since I had one more stop to visit with the Country Living Association and all my Drake & Company friends, including Mr. Drake himself. He’s now a Twitterbug himself so visit him and follow him. The new Country Living Association website is now up and running so check it out. I’ll have more on it later.

Ag Groups

Ditchin’ South Dakota

Amanda Nolz

Classes are in full swing, homework is piling up, I’m in my senior semester at SDSU, the snow is getting deep and I’m ditching school to head to sunny Arizona for the Cattle Industry’s Annual Trade Show and Convention. I’ll be catching up with Chuck in Phoenix as we gather with ranchers, industry professionals and friends for some good conversations and fellowship.

cisc-06-37This will be my third time attending this convention, and without a doubt, it is one of my favorites. It’s pretty amazing that Chuck has captured my travels several times over the last three years. I enjoyed a little blast from the past by listening to this interview, “Passionate About Beef,” and reading this blog post, “Beef Ambassador Blogs.” It’s a little embarrasing to share these blasts from the past, but everyone needs a good chuckle now and again. This time, it’s just on my behalf!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to taking part in Cattlemen’s College, the Cattle-Fax Outlook Seminar, beef industry issues forums, Cattlemen’s Beef Board Update sessions, a media reception and NCBA’s Young Producers Council meetings. Yes, it is going to be a busy week, but I’m excited for it. It’s time to get back on the road again!

Beef

Secretary Vilsack First Teleconference

Chuck Zimmerman

VilsackOur new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, just held his first teleconference and I’ve got it recorded for you. He makes a short opening statement then takes Q&A from select media who could ask questions (I was not one of them). I was interested in things like biofuels and rural development of broadband internet access. Both are mentioned several times.

He pointed repeatedly to the 2008 Farm Bill as the first place to look for administration support of agriculture and whatever new stimulus plan actually happens second. Of course everyone wants to know who’s going to get what money and from where. I’m just wondering where they’re going to get all the money to pay for it.

You can listen to Sec. Vilsack’s press conference here: vilsack-first-conference.mp3

You can also download it here: Secretary Vilsack Press Conference (mp3)

Post Update: I know you’ll be hearing all the pundits (I hate that word) pick this session apart so it’ll be interesting to see all the spin. Please feel free to download and use this audio in your podcasts or broadcasts if you would like. I’ve already been asked. You are always welcome to download and use audio from AgWired. A little credit is always nice too.

I will pick out one sound bite for you which you can find about 18 minutes in to the session. This is one where Sec. Vilsack talks about the importance of good high speed internet access in our rural communities. I think you’ll get a sense of how this will continue to be a priority in DC.

You can listen to that soundbite here: vilsack-broadband.mp3

Audio, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Progressive Agriculture Foundation (PAF) recently achieved the pinnacles of charity-related standards set by both the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the IRS. The Foundation has been awarded the BBB Wise Giving Alliance National Charity Seal demonstrating its commitment to accountability and ethical practices.
  • The 2009 Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board director elections are quickly approaching. Producers who would like to get involved should click here to see if their district is up for election and to learn more about director roles and the election process.
  • Cibus LLC, has named LaDon Johnson as its chief financial officer and also as president of the newly-launched Cibus International, headquartered in the Netherlands.
  • BASF and Monsanto Company announced a new joint-licensing agreement to accelerate the development of the next-generation of dicamba-based weed control chemistry products.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Video Marketing

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Does your company need justification for creating video for online use? Here’s some interesting information on today’s eMarketer.com.

    Every retailer knows the importance of moving product, but online the idea may be taking on a whole new meaning. According to comScore, the number of online shoppers who watched retail videos grew 40% in a single year.

    It is not surprising that Internet Retailer found that adding video topped online retailers’ to-do lists.

    “Once retailers build up the video content on their sites, they will focus on turning their video assets into customer acquisition tools by pushing video to other sites, such as affiliates, social networks and video-sharing destinations,” says Mr. Grau. “Retailers will also place community elements around their videos to make it easy for consumers to upload them to social networks, blogs, bookmarking services or e-mails.”

    Jeffrey Grau, is eMarketer senior analyst.

    So what are your plans for video this year? You’ll notice that Jeff mentions affiliates, social networks and video-sharing destinations. Can you say YouTube? Why not start there and then post to your website? Just an idea.

    Internet

    Monster Machine For The New Media Warrior

    Chuck Zimmerman

    17 Inch Macbook ProIf you’re in the market for a new notebook computer and if you can afford it then Apple has the answer coming out soon. You can pre-order them now.

    This is the 17″ Macbook Pro. It’s basically made for the road warrior, agriblogging, farm podcasting, new media mogul of today. There are a growing number of us and I applaud Apple for developing a computer just for us.

    So, why this computer?

    1. It’s a Mac. That’s probably enough reason but that means things like no anti-virus software to hassle with endlessly for one thing.
    2. How about up to 8 hours of battery life? Now that’s cool.
    3. Faster graphics card. In fact, you get two and can choose which one you want to use.
    4. Up to 8 GB of RAM!

    There’s more but those are some highlights. Mine will be ordered with full max specs. How about yours?

    Equipment