John Deere kicked off their Drive Green product launch today in Sarasota, FL. Here’s the happy crew of media who attended to see the latest in this “Year of the Utility Tractor” lineup.
We’re getting ready to go to dinner but you can count on seeing and hearing a lot more from the field. I’ve got lots of good interviews and of course a photo album: John Deere Driving Green Photo Album
We’re getting ready to “Drive Green” here in Sarasota, FL. Dozens of media representatives are gathered here to ride and drive some new John Deere tractors. The company announced their new line of utility tractors in the 5 and 6 Series. I’ll have pictures and video after we go out there later today.
This morning at the registration table I spoke with Barry Nelson, Public Relations Manager, about what’s new from John Deere. He said, “We introduced a new series of utility tractor. In fact, this is so significant for us this year, we’re calling it the “Year of the Utility Tractor.” The new tractors will display the new John Deere numbering system and come in sizes from 40 to 140HP. Barry says they bring their dealers here every year for training and thought that with all the equipment on hand, it provided a good opportunity for the media to get on them as well.
Barry says this event kicks off their “Drive Green” project which includes having these tractors driven by truck to various locations around the southeast and set up for their customers to test drive.
You can listen to my interview with Barry here: drive-green-08-nelson-1.mp3
You can also download the interview with this link: Barry Nelson Interview (mp3)
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer will be keynoting the AgExecutive Forum this Thursday in St. Louis, sponsored by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Douglas DeVries of Deere & Company is the forum host.
Schafer will be addressing concerns related to the future of agriculture in our global economy and how agribusiness and renewable energies may impact agribusiness. Other highlights of the forum include Going Global in the Ag Industry: Trade Barriers, Obstacles and Partnerships, presented by economist and futurist Dr. Jay Lehr, science director with The Heartland Institute; an AEM Public Policy Update from Nick Yaksich, Vice President, Global Public Policy of AEM; Renewable Energy: What are the Real Costs and Benefits? by Terry Francl of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and much more.
A major feature of the event will be a look ahead to “The Next Generation of Ag Show” – AG CONNECT 2010. AEM members from Krause Corporation, Deere & Company, Krone NA, AGCO, Case IH and MacDon Industries will all be discussing what is ahead for this major new show scheduled for January 12-15, 2010, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
A panel discussion on commodity trends will feature Fred Stemme, vice president of marketing, National Corn Growers Association, Steve Censky, chief executive officer, American Soybean Association, and Alan Tracy, president, U.S. Wheat Associates.
AgWired will be covering the forum from start to finish this week, so stay tuned for live updates – including streaming video of the Secretary’s address at 8:15 am central time on Thursday, assuming the internet allows. Both audio interviews and photos will be available for media to download here on the site.
I know that some of you agribloggers are using WordPress, our software of choice. If you’d like to see how to use it then you might want to head on over to YouTube to see some tutorials (or you can have the ZimmComm consultants training session).
A new version of the best blogging software is due out next month and thanks to Podcasting News giving me a heads up you can watch the developer of the software, Matt Mullenweg, show off what we can look forward to.
Pascal Raoul, a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine with over 20 years experience of the animal health sector, is taking up his post today as General Manager for Lallemand Animal Nutrition. Before joining Lallemand, Pascal Raoul spent twenty years with Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company, holding various responsibilities both in Europe and in the USA.
Raoul graduated from the Veterinary School in Paris in 1984, and completed these studies with an MBA both in France and in Spain. He started his career as a trade advisor to the Agriculture Attaché of the French Embassy in Spain. After this, he joined Elanco in France, starting as a sales representative, and from there occupying different positions in Europe, including Country Director. He then moved to the company HQ in Indianapolis, Ind., where he spent three years as Global New Product Planning Manager, developing a strategic pipeline for large and companion animal veterinary products, before returning to Europe as EU Director R&D and Regulatory Affairs. In his last assignment with Lilly, Pascal Raoul was in charge of Transformation projects for the Human Pharma activities of Lilly France.
Here’s some more information courtesy of Dan Danford, AdFarm, from the Canadian Farm Writer’s Federation conference.
These are some pictures from Friday’s farm tour at the Canadian Farm Writer’s Federation Conference. Our first stop was Fanny Bay Oysters. They grow, process, market and distribute their own farmed shellfish. It was very interesting to learn how they actually seed the bay with the microscopic eggs and later string the baby oysters on ropes for easier processing of adults. It was much more like “farming” than I would have expected. After an overview of the operation, they offered the group some very fresh product. I’ve also included a shot of the bay behind the facility where you can see mounds of oyster shells being aged as part of the production process.
Our next two stops on the CFWF tour were Grassi Point Farm Market and Beaufort Winery.
Grassi Point Farm Market was started in 1889 here on Vancouver Island. It’s an excellent example of how market gardening, agri-tourism, fish and wildlife can co-exist. A fourth generation operation, Grassi Point Farm raises beef, taps big maples, operates a roadside farm market and features a fish channel trail and camping.
Beaufort Winery is owned by Susan and Jeff Vandermolen, who purchased the land in July 2006 and produced their first wines in 2007, winning three medals at the Northwest Wine Summit. Since opening to the public, they have had more than 2,600 visitors to the winery’s tasting room. The farm is 85 acres, eight of which are currently in grapes (watched over by their Easter Island head custom carved from one of their trees). Currently 20 acres are in hay and on acre in Christmas trees. They also have several acres in blackberries which are used in their award-winning dessert wine. As you can see from the pictures, it was raining heavily during our visit. Luckily, the tasting room was dry and cozy.
You can see more of his photos in this online album and yes, I want to go next year! Thanks Dan.
This week I’ll be driving Green while Cindy will be in St. Louis with the executives attending the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AgExecutive Forum. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more from her about that.
Meanwhile I’ll be in Sarasota learning about the latest that John Deere has to offer in the way of small tractors, compact tractors, utility vehicles and more. We’re going to be “in the field” with these machines and if they’re letting the media on, I hope it’s a big one!
It’ll probably be late Wednesday before I get much to post. Tomorrow’s a travel day so things might be a little light until I get there.
I’m still in World Dairy Expo mode and thought you might be interested in this program.
Grant Kohler is a dairy farmer from Utah where he milks 300 cows with a family operation. He was attending World Dairy Expo to talk about the Childhood Nutrition Fitness Initiative that’s a joint project of the National Dairy Council and the National Football League.
He says, “It brings a package not just to the cafeteria of the school but a package that can engage the principals and teachers.” The NFL teams are on board to provide their players as spokespersons when and where needed. He says the program includes a full nutritional plan that of course includes dairy. He’s proud to say that over 40,000 schools have already signed on. Here’s some excerpts from a recent release on the project.
To poise the multi-year program for success, the NDC will spend $100 million over five years to support this initiative, including school grants. The NDC will spend an additional $150 million on other efforts aimed at improving child health and wellness.
“We are taking a leadership role to help kids win the battle for good health,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Our players know the importance of staying healthy, and it’s important that we help young fans understand the value of exercise.”
You can listen to my interview with Grant as part of our Milking Parlor Podcast: milking-parlor-39.mp3
To subscribe to the Milking Parlor podcast, here are some instructions.
This week’s ZimmCast is being sponsored by DTN and The Progressive Farmer. “DTN and The Progressive Farmer deliver the right content to the right audience across multiple media platforms—it all adds up to you moving the needle with producers now.”
Last week’s World Dairy Expo provided another opportunity to see a lot of my friends in the agricultural marketing world. One of those is Stephanie Gable, Novus International, pictured here (left) in her booth at World Dairy Expo. Stephanie is now the Marketing Manager for Ruminents which is a global position and one that will have her visiting a number of countries. She’s still planning to stay active in NAMA too. In fact, she attended the local Badger Chapter reception because the networking opportunities the organization provides are a big help as she moves into a new area of agribusiness.
I also spoke with Lindsay Hill, ABN Radio, about their website makeover. One of the things that I noticed right away was the emphasis on the ABN Radio brand vs. the BARN. First of all, Lindsay says visitors to the website will find a lot more content. She says they did a lot of back end work that has made it easier to post embedded audio and video. When it comes to the brand, they decided to utilize ABN Radio for their radio network because of its 36 year history. They’re using the BARN brand for their non-radio products like video. I found it interesting that the most visited pages on their website continue to be their personal blogs!
The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This one is called “When The Dairy Caught on Fire” from MARC GUNN. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 190 (17 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interviews with Stephanie Gable and Lindsay Hill - ZimmCast 190
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