How A Farmer Uses Media

Chuck Zimmerman

Hal SwaneyAt this year’s NAMA Boot Camp, attendees got to hear from a panel of producers. One of them was Hal Swaney, Platte City, MO. Hal has a very diversified family farm with corn, soybeans, cattle and burley tobacco.

I asked him what his primary sources of information are for making buying decisions. He says that he’s very “local” minded. He buys all of his products locally and consistently from the same individuals and dealers. He says almost 100% is from personal contact. He’s a big supporter of the University Extension system and does admit to going out of state to the University of Kentucky for tobacco information.

When it comes to media here’s what he says. “I don’t use the internet whatsoever.” He says he reads the local morning paper but not for ag information. He gets plenty of farm magazines but says he reads them on an “as needed” basis and he doesn’t read all of them. He rarely ever looks at direct mail pieces.

When I asked him about his mobile phone he says that he gets an in-frequent market update.

You can listen to my interview with Hal here: nama-boot-camp-08-swaney.mp3

Check out the NAMA Boot Camp Photo Album.

Farming, Media, NAMA

Media Preview Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Progress Show Ribbon CuttingI could not attend yesterday’s media luncheon at the Farm Progress Show so I had to solicit a couple of pictures. Thanks to professional photographer and all around media tent good guy, Gene Hemphill, New Holland, for sending these along.

In this first one you can see Don Tourte, Farm Progress Companies, cutting the ribbon. He’s joined by a number of local leaders.

Farm Progress Show Media PreviewThose leaders and a number of visiting media then got a tour of the show by tram. I think Gene was at the front of this group to get this shot.

I’ll be heading to Boone, IA, along with Laura McNamara, on Monday. We’re hoping to get set up in the media room in the afternoon. Right now I’m planning on having AgWired Live TV going for as much of the show as I can. I’m going to try to webcast the press conferences from the media tent. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for good high speed internet.

AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

BASF, Farm Progress Show, Media, New Holland

Kristy Mussman is Princess Kay of the Milky Way

Chuck Zimmerman

Kristy MussmanHere’s the new Princess Kay of the Milky Way. She’s Kristy Mussman, a 19-year-old college student from Claremont, MN. Her crowning took place at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Wednesday.

As Princess Kay, Mussman, who represents Steele County, will serve as the official goodwill ambassador for Minnesota’s nearly 5,000 dairy farmers.

Kristy is the daughter of Mike and Julie Mussman of Claremont, and is a student at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul majoring in applied economics with an emphasis in marketing and a minor in mass communications.

One of Mussman’s first duties as Princess Kay will be to sit in a rotating cooler for nearly eight hours on the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair to have her likeness sculpted in a 90-pound block of butter. Each of the 11 other finalists will have her likeness carved in butter during the fair, as well. This year marks the debut of a bigger and better butter-sculpting booth. The new booth is more energy efficient than its predecessor, and will allow a greater number of visitors to get a good view of the sculpting.

Throughout her yearlong reign as Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Mussman will make public appearances to educate consumers about dairy farmers’ commitment to providing wholesome milk and dairy product and caring for their animals and the land.

Ag Groups, Dairy

Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour Concludes

Chuck Zimmerman

Pro Farmer Midwest Crop TourThe Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour is concluding today. One of the sponsors is Pioneer Hi-Bred. Pioneer agronomist, Will Smart, has been on the Eastern leg of the tour and filed this report on Tuesday near Bloomington, IL.

Corn observations include:

* Early to late planted corn which started in mid-April and finished in mid-June.
* Kernel abortion is evident in early crop due to high populations and due to later-than-normal pollination.
* The late crop is characterized by higher common rust pressure and some brittle snap.
* The early crop is mostly between dough to dent and the late crop is in blister stage.

We’ll monitor stalk quality as this crop experiences late-season stress from dry weather and nitrogen deficiency.

Soybeans are late pod to early fill. Some minor diseases were observed such as sudden death syndrome. Weather conditions could favor SDS advancement.

You can listen to his report using this link (mp3).

Midwest Crop Tour’s primary goal is to provide the industry with accurate late-season information about likely corn and soybean yields during the upcoming harvest season at the state and regional level.

Results from the Tour obviously have a big impact on Pro Farmer’s annual crop production estimate released at week’s end. But observations gathered during Tour can be just as important as the data itself – especially in a year like 2008 when the crop’s development is anything but normal.

Agribusiness, Audio, Media, Pioneer

Food Journalists Preparing to Meet in Houston

Chuck Zimmerman

Association of Food JournalistsThe Association of Food Journalists is getting ready to hold its annual meeting in Houston on October 15-18. They’ll be overlapping a day with the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. Anyone know how many journalist associations there are?

The Association of Food Journalists, Inc., is a networking system especially created for journalists who devote most of their working time to planning and writing food copy for news media worldwide.

AFJ’s primary goal is to encourage communication among food journalists. In addition, AFJ tries to increase members’ knowledge of food and to sharpen their writing, design and broadcast skills. The group also strives to foster professional standards among its members and other members of the media.

They’ve got a blog with the most overused name in the world, “Association of Food Journalists’ Food For Thought.” The blog hasn’t been getting fed much lately though since the most recent post is dated, May 14.

Media

Gold Medal Corn Flakes

Chuck Zimmerman

I first saw this on Fox News while working out this afternoon. Apparently 8 Gold Olympics Medals winner Michael Phelps is forgoing the Wheaties box cover for Corn Flakes. Now that’s interesting. He’s also going to be on the cover of Frosted Corn Flakes and that, according to Fox, has “outraged” some nutritionists. If so, there’s not much on the web about it and probably for good reason. My take is that some nutritionists are trying to capitalize on Phelps’ current fame to hype their own agenda. Give me a break.

Anyway, the folks at Kellogg’s are pretty happy:

He’s already taken his place in history alongside the legends, but now Michael Phelps can add one more milestone to the list. After earning eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympic Games, Michael Phelps has earned a place of honor on the front of specially-marked Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes® and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes® cereal boxes.

The gold medal winning Olympic champion from Baltimore, Maryland will be featured on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal packages that are expected to hit grocery store shelves across the U.S. in mid-September. The boxes will feature images of Phelps during what were some of the most memorable moments of this summer’s Olympic Games.

“As an Official Sponsor of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team and a proud sponsor of Phelps, it is only fitting that Kellogg Company feature this world-class athlete on its iconic boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereals,” said Marta Cyhan, Vice President, Global Promotions, Kellogg Company. “Michael embodies the values behind our Frosted Flakes Earn Your Stripes™ program. He knows that winning is not just about the glory that comes with gold medals, but about good sportsmanship, working hard and being your best.”

Food

Elaine Shein New Associate Managing Editor for DTN

Chuck Zimmerman

Elaine SheinCongratulations to Elaine Shein for her new position with DTN.

Shein will be responsible for editing DTN feature articles and series as well as providing oversight on special projects. Shein will bring additional depth and leadership to DTN’s leading news and market coverage.

Prior to joining DTN, Shein spent two decades covering agriculture in the United States and Canada. Most recently, she served as the executive editor for the Capital Press Agriculture Weekly in Salem, Ore. She also served as the editor and deputy publisher of The Western Producer. She has covered stories in Europe, South America and Australia, in addition to her work in North America.

In 2008, she served on the board of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon and as president of the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation.

Media

Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar Slideshow

Chuck Zimmerman

I’ve been learning new things about Flickr today. For example, they now supply an embed code for a slideshow of a set. Let’s take this one from the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar. Now this is cool!

Boehringer Ingelheim

Barry Engle has Local New Holland Roots

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland Barry Engle SearchI just thought I’d share an example of the AgWired search engine magnificence. I did a post late yesterday about Barry Engle being named as the new head of New Holland Ag. A few minutes ago I did a Google key word search for Barry Engle, New Holland and that post is second below a Bloomberg link. My Twitter post is 3rd!

Yes, we can help SEO you. Why/How? Because we link back to you. So anyone finding my posts about you then provide direct links back to you. That’s a big part of what this whole web thing is all about.

BTW. While searching I found out that Barry Engle is a Lancaster, PA native. Now isn’t that interesting. The home of New Holland (same county). Local boy makes good, returns home! I found that on his Ford company bio page.

Before becoming involved in the auto industry, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania native held finance and marketing positions in the consumer packaged goods business having worked for General Mills and later Nabisco brands.

Agribusiness, New Holland

Blogging Via Flickr

Chuck Zimmerman




Blogging Via Flickr

Originally uploaded by AgWired

This is my first post from my Blackberry (iPhone coming in a couple months) via Flickr.

This is ZimmComm master control.

It’s opening up a whole new world of possibilities.

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