NAFB Making Waves and Lifting Tides

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB ConventionJust when we got done with the Ag Media Summit, it’s time to get registered for the NAFB convention. This year it’s all about “Making Waves and Lifting Tides.” Isn’t it hard to do that in Kansas City? How about somewhere on the Gulf coast?

Join your NAFB broadcast and agri-marketing friends in Kansas City come November 12-14 for the premier agri-media event of the year. It’s a long wait, but always worth it!

Again headlined by our high-energy interview forum Trade Talk, NAFB promises a terrific experience of education, networking, and flat-out fun. In barely six hours, Trade Talk generates $423,903 in commercial radio airtime value for participating organizations!

NAFB’s annual gathering will feature the much-anticipated results of the 2008 National Producer Media-Use Wave Study. This ambitious and comprehensive research will illuminate what 2,400 large crop and livestock producers say about the agri-media they favor and consume. The 2008 Wave Study comes 10 years after the first wave study was commissioned by NAFB, in 1998-99.

Register here.

Media, NAFB

Honduras: The Dry Land Panama Canal?

Laura McNamara

Honduras lies just about 1,000 miles southwest of Miami. A great location for commerce with the U.S. if you ask Antonio Young. Antonio is the Executive Vice President of FIDE, Honduras’ Foundation for Investment and Export Development. He says Honduras’ strategic location provides an invaluable access to Latin American markets. And, with the continued development of Honduras’ north-south highway, called the Logistic Corridor, Antonio says Honduras could be the dry land version of the Panama Canal.

And, there are a lot of reasons why it should be, if you ask him. Antonio says the more than 70,000 square miles of tropical terrain and climate can support year-round cultivation and growth of an array of crops and produce. He says the country is a gem for agribusiness development because the government allows 100 percent foreign ownership, there are no import and export duties, there are no taxes on profit or profit repatriation and businesses can go online in as little as 21 days.

San Pedro Sula, Antonio says, is the hub of the country’s agribusiness. The city of nearly 1 million people is the country’s second largest, second to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

With a total population nearing 8 million, Antonio adds that Honduras has a highly available workforce with many families seeking second and even third sources of income.

Antonio says Honduras is already the second largest exporter of Tilapia to the U.S. He says freshly caught fish can leave Honduras’ Puerto Cortes seaport and arrive in the U.S. in as little as 6 hours. The seaport of Puerto Cortes is unmatched in Latin America for Antonio. He says the port is a model for security in the Americas because of its Container Safety Initiative or CSI. The initiative, he explains, safeguards against terrorism. Plus, he says Puerto Cortes is the most efficient deep sea seaport in Central America.

I spoke with Antonio briefly about why he thinks Honduras represents great opportunity in U.S. agribusiness investment. You can listen to my interview here: antonio-young-honduras08.mp3

Agribusiness, Audio, Farming, International

Record Breaking Field Day

Cindy Zimmerman

Kip and Michelle CullersA record breaking field day on a record breaking farm kicked off Monday night in Purdy, Missouri at the home of Kip and Michelle Cullers.

Kip is the man who put this tiny town in southwest Missouri on the map by being the world champion soybean yield grower two years in a row, not to mention numerous National Corn Yield Contest wins. This week he is giving over 2,000 growers a first hand look at how yields that were previously thought impossible are within reach for them.

Headline flower arrangementBASF’s Headline fungicide is an important part of Kip’s management strategy for his crops and his wife Michelle had the clever idea of using some of their leftover containers as table centerpieces for the kickoff BBQ at their lovely home Monday evening. Pretty nifty, if you ask me.

The record breaking field day is co-sponsored by Pioneer and BASF, two companies that have been instrumental in helping Kip achieve his phenomenal yields. His world record soybean yield last year was 154.7 bushels per acre. Even more impressive was his average yield across the whole farm – at 74 bushels per acre it was almost double the Missouri state average. But, he is hoping to break both those records this year!

The Kip Culler’s Record Breaking Field Day photo album is up and ready for viewing here.

BASF, Corn, Pioneer, Soybean

Agri-Tour in Honduras

Laura McNamara

Business leaders in Honduras are boasting that their country is a country ripe for foreign investment, especially American investment. Honduras’ Foundation for Investment and Export Development is hosting an “agri-tour” of sorts, showcasing what the tropical, Central American country has to offer to U.S. agricultural investors. I’m fortunate enough to be ZimmComm’s representative on the trip. I’ll be getting a first-hand look at Honduras’ only brewery, a cocoa processing plant, a crocodile farm, a Tilapia fish farm and much more.

Honduras’ agricultural appeal was apparent even before we landed. During our descent into the country’s industrial capital, San Pedro Sula, I spied acres of cultivated farmland. I could positively identify the sugarcane from my aerial view. I’m looking forward to learning about all the other crops I caught a glimpse of from the air. So, look for more posts from Central America these next few days.

Agribusiness, Farming, International

Analyzing AMS

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-181 - Ag Media SummitI don’t know about all of you who attended last week’s Ag Media Summit but I’m still recovering. I’ve got one little project left to complete and then I’m almost caught up. Of course Cindy’s on the road today to Purdy, MO for a Kip Cullers field day and I’ll be heading north tomorrow for a Monsanto Technology Showcase event and Laura is on her way to learn about agriculture in Honduras!

In this week’s program I sat down with Cindy to get her impressions of her first Ag Media Summit. One of the main things that struck her was the engagement of college students. There were over 80 students attending since the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow also hold their annual meeting at AMS. Cindy and think that really helps energize us “old timers.” It also gives us a chance to interact with the people we’ll hire in the future too.

Since Cindy and I have been to NAFB conventions since the early 1980’s it was natural to draw some comparisons. One of the things that also strikes me as a big difference in the two is the amount of professional development. AMS is all about that and we both think that farm broadcasters would benefit from and be interested in the types of sessions offered at AMS. There were a couple of farm broadcasters attending by the way.

I want to say a special thank you to BASF and Successful Farming for sponsoring our coverage of this year’s Ag Media Summit. I’d say it was one of the best I’ve been to but then I’ve been saying that every year.

The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. Since we’re talking about media you get to listen to “The Theme of Audiomedia, Inc.” from meganesan. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 181 (19 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview With Cindy Zimmerman about AMS - ZimmCast 181

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Ag Media Summit, Audio

Online Faster and Older

Chuck Zimmerman

Welcome to a new week in the new media world. Let’s start it off with a couple of tidbits that should interest any agrimarketer. First of all, let’s look at broadband penetration. A report from Gartner shows that consumers with broadband is going to continue to grow and some are saying that will create a larger audience than traditional broadcast outlets.

Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18 percent of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection will reach 25 percent.

The report says that 5 countries already exceed 60% penetration and by 2012, 17 countries will. The report says that broadband penetration in the United States is 54% as of 2007 and is projected to increase to 77% by 2012.

Since we’re projecting out, let’s also consider the age demographics of who is online. I keep hearing people who should know better tell me that all this “internet stuff” is just young people. Of course those of us 50+ know better. The facts speak for themselves and we’re looking at a Boomer generation that’s moving into senior status and as a report on eMarketer puts it, “They’ll be bringing their technology with them.”

Baby boomers may bristle at being called “seniors,” but the generation is huge in numbers and promises to be a rich audience for all sorts of online services—with evolving needs.

For online retailers, one way to please older consumers without boring younger ones is to create a niche site.

Increased broadband use and older people online. Now what should you be thinking of when you’re plotting communications strategies?

Internet

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The MarketPoint resource, an online service from Pioneer Hi-Bred, that conveniently links grain sellers with buyers, is expanding into Iowa and all of Nebraska after completing a successful trial program in central Nebraska. It offers end users the opportunity to source better quality grain. The MarketPoint service is available here.
  • Agrisoma Biosciences Inc. and Dow AgroSciences LLC announced an extension of their collaboration agreement to research, develop and commercialize animal health products using Agrisoma’s patented Engineered Trait Loci technology for gene delivery and expression. Under the terms of the agreement, Agrisoma and Dow AgroSciences will focus on certain aspects of the technology to build upon the significant progress made to date.
  • Vermeer Corporation has been inducted into the National Environmental Performance Track program by the EPA. Performance Track is a voluntary partnership program that recognizes private and public facilities that demonstrate strong environmental performance beyond current requirements.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Mapping with GK Technology

    Laura McNamara

    If you want application maps for your fields, then you might want to consider GK Technology for Agriculture. Kelly Sharpe is an agronomist for GK and he says his company offers a full service GIS package to growers. What does that mean exactly? Kelly says GK is able to take yield data and convert them into application maps that can then be used to write prescriptions for pretty much any controller out in the market. The best part, Kelly says, is GK works extremely well with satellite images – something he says most of GK’s competitors, well, can’t.

    “We’re able to take data from just about any source available,” Kelly said.

    Kelly says GK’s GIS package allows farmers to practice site-specific agriculture. The company’s services are a key element, he says, in precision farming. Kelly adds that GK understands it’s “all about the money” for farmers. He says that’s why GK is committed to keeping precision farming as low cost for the farmer as possible.

    I spoke with Kelly about what GK Technology can do for growers. You can listen to my interview here:
    kelly-sharpe-preag-08.mp3

    Agribusiness, Audio, Farming, Technology

    AgWired Wordle Cloud

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AgWired WordleWhat do bored bloggers do? Find silly little websites like Wordle and create graphics like this that have just about no real purpose or value.

    I saw a post about it when I was reading my feeds and thought I’d give it a try. Basically Wordle creates a word cloud and allows you to do some basic editing.

    It did keep me occupied for a few minutes.

    The images you create with Wordle are yours to use in any way you choose. You may print T-Shirts, business cards, brochures, what have you. On the other hand, when you place an image in the gallery, anyone else can use it too! So if you want to keep it to yourself, print it out without saving it.

    But it’s more fun to share.

    Uncategorized

    Getting to Know an AGCO with Precision

    Laura McNamara

    If you ask Joe Tebis, AGCO is the company to go to if you’re looking for products that offer leading variable rate applications. Now, Joe is the product manager for precision ag products for AGCO, so he might be a little biased. He says he’s particularly proud of AGCO’s Terragator and RoGator product lines.

    These products are just some of the leading equipment that Joe says work seamlessly with precision agriculture. He adds that AGCO is committed to continually offering more products that evolve with precision technology, integrating the newest applications available on the market. Joe says that’s important because precision technology offers farmers more value. He says equipment that’s equipped with precision applications, such as auto steering, can save growers on fuel and fertilizer costs. The AGCO expert adds that his companies products are designed to fit the unique needs of farmers and can adjust to various farming strategies.

    “We create the tools to allow them to implement their expertise,” Joe said.

    I spoke with Joe about AGCO and the company’s role in precision farming. You can listen to my interview with Joe here: joe-tebis-preag-08.mp3

    Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Farming, Technology