In this week’s program you get to meet Brooke Hoelscher and Megan Ott. They’re the Monsanto Future Ag Journalist Fellowship students who were set up to cover the Commodity Classic on blogs created by Monsanto – Brooke’s Commodity Insider and Megan’s Classic Chronicle.
We had a nice chat in the media room at Commodity Classic. Brooke is a junior ag communications and journalis major at Texas A&M University and Megan is a Sophomore at the University of Illinois and also majoring in ag communications. They were taking photos, recording audio interviews and shooting video clips during their stay which are posted on their blog. I think that, like me, they’ve still got stories to post too. They’re really grateful for the opportunity they have to attend Classic and see and learn what’s going on in the industry. I’m sure this will help them in their careers.
Both of them are quite familiar with Facebook. I thought it was funny when Megan said she was a little scared when her Mom got on Facebook. Both agree that the internet is where communication is today. They had never heard of Twitter before coming to Classic but found out right away how many people in ag communications were tweeting away.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song called, “Answers From Me” by Classic Tragic Hero. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 210 (19 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Brooke Hoelscher and Megan Ott - ZimmCast 210
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For animal and meat science students from across the country, the opportunity was available to take part in these legendary training sessions at the American Meat Science Association Student Leadership Conference held on Feb. 23-25, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nev. Five South Dakota State University participants competed in a meat product development contest during the event with chocolate, peanut butter, cinnamon bacon rolls. I know…intense. I had the opportunity to try these bacon rolls, and I can assure you that they were delicious (calorie count aside). Pictured here is SDSU team member, Jarrod Bumsted, with his bacon rolls. 
Everyone at Commodity Classic this year seemed to be impressed that attendance was as good or better than ever, despite the economy.
Rick says he was pleased to see the producer organizations for four different commodities coming together for the first time under one banner. “We’re too small in agriculture to be fighting among our selves,” Rick said. “Things like Commodity Classic bring us together and help us realize how much we have in common.”
and 
The IFAJ/AMS planning committee got together since so many of us ag media types were in town for Commodity Classic. Yesterday the group went to Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards before heading to the upcoming conference hotel, the 
Agritechnica representatives Annette Reichhold (left) and Dr. Malene Conlong were talking with farmers at the Commodity Classic this week about planning a visit to Hanover, Germany for the event November 10-14.
As things slowed down today I got to sit down and visit with Hugh about his new position. It made for a good Commodity Classic week ZimmCast. Hugh is a very good friend and I’m glad for this opportunity he has. He’s be working on obtaining, managing and working with farmer driven organizations, not for profit groups, agricultural associations as well as governmental organizations. This fits right in with the kind of work that he’s been doing which includes working with the United Soybean Board and other checkoff groups. 
BASF hosted a panel at the conference to examine how today’s technology can help manage disease in wheat and cereals to meet the growing global demand for grain. The panel featured analyst Arlan Suderman of 
After Suderman’s comments, BASF technical experts on plant disease, Drs. Gary Fellows and Gary Schmitz, talked about how BASF products can help increase global production of wheat and other cereal grains by controlling the most aggressive diseases that affect those crops.
Trish Lynn (r) and the 
You could go to school and learn about precision land management in the New Holland booth at this year’s Commodity Classic. Mike Harvey was teaching when I stopped by. He says the mobile teaching trailer provides a place for growers to see their monitors and even operate a simulator.