NAMA Boot Camp Presentations Available

Chuck Zimmerman

Those fine folks at Truffle Media Networks have worked with NAMA to make some of the Boot Camp sessions available for you to listen to and/or download.

Podcast sessions include:

Producer Panel
Food & Fuel
Text Book Marketing and Real World Examples
Creative In Agriculture
Client/Agency Panel

To download and listen to the podcasts, please visit http://www.trufflemedia.com/home/content/2008-nama-boot-camp-selected-presentations.

Thank you and we hope to see you at the Trends In Agriculture program, November 11-12, in Kansas City!

Audio, NAMA

So Long From Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Progress ShowSo long from the Farm Progress Show. Laura and I have a lot more to offer in the coming days.

We’re packing up and getting ready to hit the agriblogging highway. Actually, we’re running behind and we might actually be in the media tent when Secretary Schafer arrives. If so, we’ll do a short interview for posting later.

So, thank you to BASF and New Holland for once again sponsoring our coverage of the Farm Progress Show.

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Host Farm Family

Chuck Zimmerman

Dick IsaacsonRepresenting one of the host families here at the Farm Progress Show is Dick Isaacson, pictured here at the exhibitor’s welcome reception.

The Farm Progress Show’s new, permanent biennial site wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of local landowners. Host families include Eric and Carol Ziel, along with Eric’s parents, Bob and Mary; Dick and Judy Isaacson and his mother, June; and Alan and Jennifer Schoff.

“We are really lucky to be working with these fine farm families,” notes Jungmann.

Dick says his family farm comes up to the east side of the exhibit area. He says they tried to grow some corn there but the weather was just too wet this year. I asked him what he thought about having the show at his farm. “It’s really been exciting and it’s been a great attraction in central Iowa.” He says it’s a chance to see a lot of technology in a small place.

Since we’ve had some rain yesterday and again overnight I thought the water drainage was pretty good. Dick says the whole exhibit area was graded to allow drainage to a catch basin. Seems to be working to me. As far as what this means to him and his family he says, “It’s meant a lot. You’re elated then you kind of go through the reality check that everybody is going to be coming by your place.” That’s given his family an excuse to go ahead and “catch up on 20 years of cleaning.”

You can listen to my interview with Dick here: fp-08-isaacson.mp3

You can also download the audio file with this link.

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, Farming, New Holland

Secretary Schafer Visits Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Secretary of Agriculture Ed SchaferOur Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, showed up here at the Farm Progress Show and started out at the ADM tent with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong.

After a brief opening statement he opened things up for some Q&A.

You can hear Orion ask the first question here: fp-08-schafer-orion.mp3

You can also download the audio file with this link.

Max got to go second with the following question:

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Video

Live From Day 3 of Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

AgWired Live TV is now done for the day. We’ve been live from the media tent throughout a lot of the Farm Progress Show so I hope you’ve been able to see an application of what we can do with it. I hope it gives you some ideas.

Laura and I are getting ready to pack up and head home but our coverage will continue over the next several days as we work up more interviews and pictures.


ZimmBite – Farm Progress Show Goodbye on 12seconds.tv

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Muddy Start to Day 3 of Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Muddy EntranceWelcome to day 3 of the Farm Progress Show.

We had a lot of rain overnight so it’s pretty muddy out here but the sun is out and I’m sure it will dry up and be a beautiful day in Boone, IA.

Laura and I are working up some content from yesterday and have a to-do list to get started on. You can be sure that we’ll have posts for you over the coming days. It’s not all going to get posted today.

It’s our understanding that U.S. Sec. of Ag, Schafer, is supposed to do a press conference at 4pm but I don’t think there will be any press here. Maybe Ken Root, WHO? Who knows?

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association recently presented a check in the amount of $250,000 to the United Egg Producers. The funds will help educate California consumers about modern egg production systems prior to a November ballot initiative that bans most modern layer housing and egg production systems in the state. The California initiative, officially known as the Treatment of Farm Animals Act, would effectively ban both commercial cage and cage-free production.
  • An estimated 100,000 acres of cotton were treated with Blizzard harvest aid in 2007. Yet again this year, cotton producers have a highly cost-effective defoliation option for use on their crops. Marketed by Chemtura Corporation, cotton producers can expect white-out conditions, heavy leaf fall and open bolls consistently following an application of Blizzard harvest aid.
  • Quarry Integrated Communications announces the addition of four communications professionals to its U.S.-based team: Brad Bremer, Kristi Drum, Neila Hodgins and Heather Murphy. Quarry’s clients span the animal health, crop protection, financial services, life sciences and technology sectors and include BASF, FedEx, Nortel, Novartis, and Research in Motion.
  • Mycogen Seeds has added four new sunflower hybrids to its portfolio for 2009, including one with Clearfield resistance. The new Mycogen brand hybrids are proven to perform, providing more oil and higher premiums.
    Zimfo Bytes

    The Art and Science of Soil Conservation

    Laura McNamara

    Michael Doane, Monsanto's Sustainability Team LeadThe air we breath is often taken for granted. And, Peggy James, Natural Resources Conservation Service liaison to The Nature Conservancy says, so too are non-profits.

    “Non-profits are like air,” Peggy said. “They’re all around us but we hardly notice it. They are an integral part of a healthy, artistic, viably economic, productive society working towards sustainability.”

    Sustainability, Peggy says, is crucial to healthy living and, well, feeding and eating, worldwide. She echoed the sentiments of Hugh Hammond Bennett, the man the TNC considers “the original crusader for farmland conservation:”

    “For everything we do – all we share, even whatever we amount to as a great people – begins and rests on a sustained productivity of our agricultural lands.”

    Peggy adds, that non-profits, are the key to preserving that standard of sustainability. She says the 1.4 million non-profit organizations in the U.S. are growing at a faster rate than the American economy.

    “That shows you the vital niche and need that these organizations fill,” Peggy said.Read More

    Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Environment, Farm Shows, Farming, International

    Farm Progress Show “Guess Whose Boots”

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Guess Whose BootsThis is a Farm Progress Show edition of “Guess Whose Boots.”

    It works like this. Guess by making a comment and the first person who gets it right will get an AgWired t-shirt.

    So, guess away.

    Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

    BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland