Soldier Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s something you won’t see on the evening tv news. Soldier farmers helping rebuild the ag economy in Afghanistan. We’ve already seen this type of work being done in Iraq thanks to Paul McKellips. It looks like soldiers from several states are doing something similar to this in Afghanistan.

Despite recent progress, Afghanistan remains a poor country. Its agriculture industry, which employs 80 percent of all working Afghanis, hasn’t changed much in centuries. It is a nation that can’t feed itself without foreign aid.

To help change this, a pilot program called the Agribusiness Development Team (ADT) has been created. The effort is being led by Missouri National Guard members, many of whom are graduates of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

The ADT effort is jointly coordinated by the U.S. Army, the Army National Guard, the Missouri National Guard, the University of Missouri, Lincoln University, the College of the Ozarks and the Missouri Farm Bureau. Soldiers in the field work directly with farmers while agriculture experts back in Missouri provide technical and research support.

“The Agribusiness Development Team is a novel partnership between the Missouri National Guard, retired military, farmers and universities to facilitate and educate Afghanis in the rebuilding of their agriculture economy,” said Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard. “Missouri is the leader for this concept, which, if successful, will serve as a model for partnerships in other states.”

Here’s links to some more on this:

* National Guard to Help Afghan Agriculture
* Few good farmers’ heading to Afghanistan (PDF | 176 KB | See p. 8.)
* Soldiers Working with Afghan Farmers to Grow Wheat

Via the NAL Blog.

Farming, International

Manitoba Ban on Swine Expansion Expected to Discourage Environmentally Friendly Farming

Harry Siemens

There will be more empty barns in ManitobaHarry Siemens  – The Manitoba Chamber of Commerce warns the province’s proposed ban on swine industry development in eastern Manitoba will discourage the adoption of new technologies designed to make hog farming more environmentally friendly.

Bill 17, the Manitoba Environment Amendment Act, which bans swine barn construction or expansion in most of eastern Manitoba, passed the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday, September 24 by a margin of 36 for and 19 against.

Read More

Uncategorized

Lori Hallowell is Bader Rutter Vice President

Chuck Zimmerman

Lori HallowellCongratulations to Lori Hallowell.

Lori Hallowell has been promoted to vice president at Bader Rutter in the agency’s account management and public relations groups.

Hallowell joined the agency in 1994 as an account executive. Her energy and passion for the business have been key in the growth of Merial, the agency’s animal health client.

A native of Palmyra, Neb., Hallowell graduated in 1991 from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism. She serves on the board of directors of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s Midlands Chapter and works in the agency’s Lincoln, Neb., office.

Agencies

MCOOL will take some time to sort out

Harry Siemens

 

Harry Siemens / Farmscape  – North American pork producers, processors, and retailers continue to prepare for the introduction of the mandatory country of origin labeling which took affect officially on September 30, 2008.

Saskatchewan Pork Development Board policy analyst Mark Ferguson believes U.S. processors and retailers will determine the impact of the new labelling requirements on Canadian pork producers. “Although the rule is apparently a little more flexible than the previous one, it’s very similar to what the USDA introduced several years ago,” said Ferguson. “Everything filters down from the retail level.”Read More

International

FINDERBINDER Agricultural Media Directory Ready

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag Finder BinderIt looks like the Finderbinder for ag media is about ready.

As of today, public relations executives and media buyers serving the agricultural media directory have a new tool for current, detailed information on local news media.

The FINDERBINDER® Agricultural Media Directory catalogs more than 1,500 agricultural newspapers, magazines, online publications, broadcast outlets in the United States.

“The FINDERBINDER® will be the most current, accurate and detailed reference of its kind,” said Cory Cart owner of Got Your Attention LLC, the public relations firm responsible for creating the directory.

FINDERBINDER® directories come in a compact 5.5 by 8.5-inch custom-designed 3-ring vinyl binder. This agricultural directory will feature a page dedicated to each major publication and radio and television station in United States. A Canadian edition is scheduled to be released in 2009.

“Today, nearly half of the world’s population is employed by agriculture, and the American farm population is now less than 2 percent of our national population. With so few left on the farm, it is more important than ever for the voice of agriculture to be heard,” said Cart, “my goal in publishing this directory is to help make the communications process more efficient.”

Each FINDERBINDER® Agricultural Media Directory will come with six updating newsletters. Frequently provided with these newsletters are new pages for the directory. These pro vide readers with information on new media or media which have had major changes. Each year the number of changes in the me dia will make past issues obsolete.

The listings include names of editors, advertising managers, media owners, addresses and phone numbers, circulation figures and open rates for print media, public service announcement data for radio and television stations, radio and television talk show and interview format programs, and much more.

“With the right information, people can avoid embarrassing misdirected phone calls to the media,” said Sandi Lomonaco, Director of Media Relations for Got Your Attention LLC. “Now they will know exactly who they should contact before picking up the phone or mailing a news release. Veteran public relations professionals know news releases not addressed to a specific editor often end up unopened in the trash and will enjoy knowing when a reporter leaves or is reassigned to a new beat.”

Publications, radio and television stations must direct a majority of their efforts toward an agricultural or rural audience to be included. Publications must produce two or more issues a year and newsletter format publications will not be included.

Media

NAFB Foundation Tractors Available

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB MasseyIf you’d like to help out the NAFB Foundation then place your order for a tractor.

Joe Ertl has personally autographed each of the Massey Ferguson 1150 numbered 1/16 scale toy tractors for the NAFB. To make it a unique toy for the organization, Joe designed a replica of a tractor radio mounted to the fender.

There are only 200 of these tractors being produced and sold to benefit the NAFB Foundation. Numbers 6-200 will be available to the public for sale. Numbers 1-5 will be auctioned live during the Foundation Auction and Reception at the NAFB Convention on November 13, 2008.

Orders for 6-200 are being taken currently, but the tractors won’t be shipped until early December 2008.

Price is $80 plus shipping and handling. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover accepted.

NAFB

Nuestro Rancho is Our Ranch Beef

Chuck Zimmerman

Nuestro RanchoGive me a steak from “our ranch.”

The American Hereford Association (AHA) and Certified Hereford Beef (CHB) LLC staffs have created a new Hereford-based beef brand specifically targeting Hispanic shoppers.

In 31 Hispanic grocery stores throughout the Los Angeles area, shoppers now have the opportunity to buy Hereford beef labeled Nuestro Rancho, from a service case cut just the way they like it. Through research CHB LLC staff members learned that Hispanics purchase three to four times as much beef as other consumers, and most of the beef they purchase is underutilized cuts from the chuck and round. They seized the opportunity to sell Hereford beef to these consumers, and after careful consideration and planning, launched the new brand.

The name of the brand, “Nuestro Rancho” means “our ranch” in Spanish. “We really wanted a name that would quantify in the minds of Hispanic people in America what the brand was about and would portray the overall feeling of the brand,” says Shonda Anderson, CHB LLC account manager.

The Nuestro Rancho logo can be found on the meats’ packaging as well as on other promotional materials in the stores where the brand is sold. Also with the logo, is the brand’s tagline: “American Hereford Beef.”

The CHB LLC staff chose Harvest Meat Co. Inc. to distribute the product. Harvest Meat has large distribution operations in nine U.S. markets, so the next decision was which grocery store group would offer the Nuestro Rancho brand meats.

Ag Groups, Beef

Mother Nature Gets a Network

Chuck Zimmerman

Mother Nature NetworkIt looks like Mother Nature needed a network and found two guys to start one for her. Chuck Leavell pointed me to this story which pretty much explains what they have in mind.

Joel Babbit, 54, a longtime Atlanta ad executive, and Chuck Leavell, 56, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones, are creating a new online company — the Mother Nature Network.

They envision it as an environmental news and information service geared toward the average Joe. The Web site, which will launch in October, also could redefine both men’s legacies.

Babbit and Leavell said that it was clear to them the idea’s time had come when in record time — 24 hours to be exact — they raised millions of dollars in startup capital from four prominent Atlanta businessmen: Tom Bell, chairman and CEO of Cousins Properties; Pete Correll, former chairman and CEO of Georgia-Pacific and current chairman of Atlanta Equity; Gerry Benjamin, co-managing partner of Atlanta Equity; and Doug Hertz, president and CEO of United Distributors. With Babbit and Leavell also personally invested in the new company, the six will be the Mother Nature Network’s board of directors.

You can sign up to receive news alerts on the Mother Nature Network website.

Media

September ZimmNews

Chuck Zimmerman

September ZimmNewsThe latest edition of ZimmNews has now been delivered to in-boxes everywhere.

In case you didn’t get it or just want to look at it online then you can find it here: September ZimmNews

Some highlights include:

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading.

ZimmNews

Picture Gadgets

Chuck Zimmerman

Picture ViewersHello photo enthusiasts.

If you like pictures and especially if you like taking them then you’re probably wondering what to do with all of them in this digital world. So I thought I’d give you a few ideas. Of course you can print them but if you travel around a lot then what? Well, you can keep them on your computer’s hard drive and display them on the monitor. That works. You can get a nice digital picture frame for a shelf.

But what if you’re like me and have 133 GB of photos (over 40,000 and counting)? Kind of fills up your hard drive. So, I’ve been looking into options and decided I wanted some kind of gadget to carry them around with so I can show them to people wherever I am. With all the event photography we do here at ZimmComm, this is really helpful.

I took a picture of 3 different viewer options we have. The top one is my iPod Touch (16GB), the middle one is Cindy’s HP df300a3 digital picture frame (sd card) and the bottom one is my new Archos 5 (250GB) Internet Media Tablet.

I opted to carry my whole photo library around with me. It serves as an extra backup since I’ve got the full files on the device and I can view any photo, anytime. Additionally, this gadget connects to wifi so I can go online with a full brower and it plays video and audio. I’m mainly looking at it as a glorified picture viewer with a lot of other capabilities. With a 250 GB hard drive in it, I won’t be filling up the memory any time soon! It is larger and heavier than the others but still fits in my pocket.

Cindy’s picture frame has a very tiny internal memory but will accept an sd card filled with photos. It’s the smallest and lightest of all of these and very easy to use.

My iPod Touch is also a functional media “tablet” but with 16 GB of memory I can’t fit all my photos on it, even if I scale them down. At least I haven’t tried to. If they would all fit, it would be nice but then I wouldn’t have the originals with me, which is a bonus of the Archos 5.

What are your favorite ways to deal with digital photos?

Equipment