Pfizer and Martin Williams Win CEBA

Chuck Zimmerman

Pfizer CEBA AwardPfizer Animal Health and agency, Martin Williams, did very well in ABM’s CEBA awards.

American Business Media recently awarded its 13th annual Creative Excellence in Business Advertising (CEBA) Awards. Pfizer Animal Health and agency Martin Williams took top honors for “Chicken Soup,” a print ad promoting the leading cattle anti-infective brand DRAXXIN® (tulathromycin) Injectable Solution.

DRAXXIN Winning AwardThe CEBA awards were founded in 1995 to recognize creativity and celebrate outstanding achievements in business-to-business advertising.

“We are excited to be recognized by this prestigious group of advertising experts,” said DRAXXIN Marketing Manager, Dave Korbelik. “This campaign has received great response from cattle producers and veterinarians. It’s a great way to remind the beef cattle industry what DRAXXIN is all about – it gets the job done right.”

The DRAXXIN ad won first place in the single ad, page or less, with annual media budget of less than $100,000 category. The ad appeared in the publications Drovers, BEEF and High Plains Journal.

Uncategorized

John Deere Lawn and Garden

Chuck Zimmerman

Greg WeeksIn the area of commercial and consumer equipment is a whole line of new John Deere equipment to tackle your lawn and garden. At our Drive Green media event Gregg Weekes gave us the lowdown on the new yard tractors.

For example he says the X360 line now has power steering and power lift. In the X700 Series you can now get 4 wheel drive and steering. That got a lot of attention when we went out in the field to ride and drive them.

If you’d like, you can listen to my interview with Gregg here: drive-green-08-lawn-garden.mp3

You can also download it with this link: Lawn and Garden (mp3)

John Deere Drive Green Photo Album

Audio, Equipment, John Deere, Video

Digitel Wireless in the Sunbelt

Chuck Zimmerman

Sunbelt Ag ExpoIt seems like having a web cloud over your farm show is the “in thing” now. This time it’s Sunbelt Ag Expo. That’s good to know because that’s where I’m heading tomorrow.

Sunbelt AG Expo 2008 exhibitors and visitors will be able to access the Internet, wirelessly, from anywhere on the show grounds for a 3rd consecutive year. After last year’s very popular and successful deployment of wireless Internet, Expo sponsors and Digitel will provide this service once again.

The 2008 Sunbelt AG Expo will host new and innovative wireless AG technologies powered by a recently deployed 180 mile wireless broadband ‘backbone’ that connects 5 rural counties in southwest Georgia. The rural broadband network is owned and operated by the South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority (SGRita) and was built with the help of Digitel and Digitel Wireless. (For more information, go to www.sgrita.org)

Farm Shows, Internet, Sunbelt Ag Expo

Instant Feedback

Cindy Zimmerman

AEM Forum Auto ResponseHow many times have you been at a meeting and had to fill out some survey at the end giving your evaluation of how the meeting went and each individual presentation?

That would be everyone. And then the people who did the meeting have to get all those pieces of paper back and add up all the responses and take up a bunch of time trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t.

Well, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers used a high tech method to get feedback immediately at last week’s AgExecutive forum with a cordless response system. Kind of like what they use on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” to pick the $10,000 winner at the end, you know?

Besides using it to get feedback on the meeting, they also had some fun with it asking questions on different topics and getting immediate responses by percentage. Pretty cool.


See photos from the AEM AgExecutive Forum here.

AEM, Technology

Commodity Panel at AEM Ag Exec Forum

Cindy Zimmerman

Three commodity organization representatives attempted to answer the question on everyone’s mind right now regarding commodity trends – where are we headed?

AEM Forum CommoditiesSteve Censky of the American Soybean Association, Fred Stemme with the National Corn Growers Association and Alan Tracy of US Wheat Associates all made presentations and took questions from the audience at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum last week in St. Louis.

Steve noted the importance of biotechnology in the soybean industry and the increase in global demand for soybeans. “Global demand since 1990 for soybeans has been rising at 2x that of corn and almost 4x that of wheat or rice,” Steve said. “That is because people around the world have been improving their diets, which means more oil in the diet and more meat, which is good for the soybean industry.”

Fred started off his presentation with a flawless report on closing futures prices – sounded as good or better than any farm broadcaster I know – making bad news sound good! His presentation focused on the increase in corn yields since 1944, which can allow them to meet the feed, food and fuel needs of the world. “Who would have imagined 60 years ago that today we could produce on the same number of acres, 85 million acres, nearly four fold the size of crop,” Fred noted. “We went from about 3 billion bushels to 13 billion bushels last year.”

There was a bit of good-natured competition between the three. Alan pointed out that wheat may be losing acres to corn and beans, but he likes to remind his two colleagues that “mine is the only product that is mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer.” He noted the increase in wheat production in the Black Sea area, such as Ukraine, and he showed a graph comparing the similarities in weather between that region and the Midwest, suggesting that we “teach the Russians to grow corn and soybeans.”

Lots of good stuff in their presentations, which you can listen to here:
aem-forum-08-commodity-panel.mp3

I also interviewed Fred and Alan – listen to them here:

Fred Stemme aem-forum-08-stemme.MP3
Alan Tracy aem-forum-08-tracy.mp3


View and download photos from the AEM AgExecutive Forum here.

AEM, Audio, Corn, Soybean, Wheat

John Deere Gators Create Thunder

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere Gator XUVUtility tractors weren’t the only vehicles we got to ride and drive at the John Deere Drive Green product launch. We also saw the new Gators.

This one you see is a customized unit that’s got a monster sound system built in. It came out blasting a little “Thunderstruck” from ACDC (the ringer on my phone!).

It’s a good example of what you can do with one of these if you want to.

I took a ride with John Gilbeck in a Gator XUV. We went around the obstacle course with me holding the camera.

I let him explain all the new features of these great utility vehicles.

If you’d like, you can listen to my interview with John here: drive-green-08-gator-ride.mp3

You can also download it with this link: Gator Ride (mp3)

John Deere Drive Green Photo Album

Audio, Equipment, John Deere, Video

Self Image in Water

Chuck Zimmerman

Me BeachI really appreciate John Deere holding their Drive Green media event in Sarasota, FL. After all, it is my home town.

So, after the event was over I stayed an extra couple days to see some high school friends and family.

And no stay in Sarasota would be complete without a trip to Siesta Key Beach. The water was absolutely perfect (clear green and 78 degrees).

I’ll be on the road most of the coming weeks so this was a chance to kind of re-charge the agriblogging batteries a little bit.

Next week I’ll be at Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA before heading to Kansas to do some new media training at the Communications Officers of the State Departments of Agriculture (COSDA) annual meeting.

Uncategorized

Ag Equipment Execs on AG CONNECT

Cindy Zimmerman

A panel of six representatives from major farm equipment manufacturers took seats on a panel at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum in St. Louis Thursday to discuss “The Next Generation of Ag Show” – AG CONNECT expo, scheduled for January 12-15, 2010 in Orlando.

AEM ForumThe executives, from left to right, were Doug DeVries, Deere and Company; Doug Griffin, AGCO; John Koetz, Case IH; Rusty Fowler, Krone NA; Gary MacDonald, MacDon Industries; and Dick Brown, Krause Corp. They are all very excited and supportive of the new show which promises to be a “worldwide and world-class experience; bringing the world of agriculture together in one gathering place for the benefit of exhibitors, producers, government, media, and all key industry leaders.”

We heard some of Doug DeVries comments about AG CONNECT in an earlier post, but I also had the opportunity to visit one on one with three of the other execs on the panel who have all been involved in developing the event as part of the show committee.

John Koetz of Case IH says, “What’s different here is that it’s designed around what the producers have been asking for. They are looking for more than just seeing the machines, they are looking for what are going to be the solutions, they want to interact with each other and industry experts, both here in the United States and internationally.”

Listen to John’s interview here:
aem-forum-08-koetz.MP3

Gary MacDonald of MacDon, which is a family-owned manufacturer of harvest machinery based in Winnipeg, thinks AG CONNECT will be the biggest thing to hit the industry in many years because of its global nature. “Going back 20-25 years, our market was 80 percent Canadian and 20 percent US, today the breakdown is 35 percent Canada, 35 percent US and heading toward 30 percent outside North America. So the export market has grown tremendously.”

Listen to Gary’s interview here:
aem-forum-08-macdon.MP3

Dick Brown of Krause says the show is a vision that started about 15 years ago. “We realized that equipment is just one part of a farming system and we needed to bring all of the elements of the farming system together to have a world class event.” He says the show is patterned to some extent on Germany’s AgriTechnica, but even more diverse in terms of what it offers for producers.

Listen to Dick’s interview here:
aem-forum-08-brown.MP3

You can also download the interviews for broadcast use with these links:
John Koetz
Gary MacDonald
Dick Brown


View and download photos from the AEM AgExecutive Forum here.

AEM, Audio, Equipment

What Would You Say to McCain?

Cindy Zimmerman

AEM Ed SchaferRepublican presidential candidate Senator John McCain is causing quite a bit of concern among members of the agriculture and ethanol industries with his comments about farm programs and ethanol incentives. Last week in Missouri, McCain said, “My administration will reduce the price of food by eliminating the subsidies for ethanol and agricultural goods. These subsidies inflate the price of food, not only for Americans but for people in poverty across the world, and I propose to abolish them.”

During a question and answer period yesterday at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum, I had the opportunity to ask Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer what he would say to Senator McCain about farm policy if he had the opportunity.

“What I would say to Senator McCain is this: ‘You’re flat out wrong about your agriculture policy,'” Schafer said bluntly, while noting that he needs to be careful what he says in the political arena. “I would say that both candidates leave a lot on the table to be desired for agricultural policy. I’d love to have the opportunity to get in there and say ‘this is the importance of agriculture in this economy’ and I don’t think either one of them are seeing it.”

Schafer hopes that Senator McCain gets some advisers who can help him see that “agriculture is the foundation of the economy and the strength of this country.”

Listen to Schafer’s comments here:
schafer-mccain.mp3

You can also download his comments with this link: Ed Schafer on McCain ag policy (mp3)


Download photos of Schafer and others from the AEM AgExecutive Forum here.

AEM, Audio, politics

New 6D Series Utility Tractors From John Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere 6D Series Utility TractorThe other major line of utility tractor just launched by John Deere is the 6D Series. I spoke with Brett about this new tractor while we were out in the field at the media event in Sarasota, FL.

– In today’s competitive work, farm, and ranch environment, many customers are looking for an economical utility tractor with more horsepower and better performance to handle common chores and still provide a comfortable working environment for the operator. Building on the popular 6003 Series Tractors, the new 6D Series provides even more features and value for the dollar

“The top three models are powered by a 4.5L PowerTech™ E diesel engine with a high-pressure common rail (HPCR) injection system,” says Alejandro Galindo, product manager, John Deere Waterloo Tractor Works. “These efficient engines are designed to provide power when needed to handle even the toughest jobs.”

The 6100D features a field-proven, fuel-efficient 100-hp PowerTech™ engine with rotary fuel injection pump. It’s designed to deliver excellent power and lugging ability in a variety of work situations.

If you’d like, you can listen to my interview with Brett here: drive-green-08-6d.mp3

You can also download it with this link: 6D Series Tractor Interview (mp3)

John Deere Drive Green Photo Album

Audio, Equipment, John Deere, Tractor, Video