New ACT President

Chuck Zimmerman July 29, 2008

The Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow held it’s annual meeting this morning. You can see a few photos from the meeting in our photo album.

Afterward, the now past national President, Matt Splitter and new President, Katy Teixeira, visited Agwired in the BASF Media Room. Katy says that they’re going to work on their website this year.

I’m hoping that if they come to my advanced blogging session this afternoon, they’ll get motivated to develop some new media tools for ACT online.

You can listen to my interview with Matt and Katy here: ams-08-act.mp3

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Just before the Ag Media Summit started, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health invited a group of journalists to attend a session on their new Onset 5 IN product. At the event I spoke with Dr. Scott Nordstrom, Intervet, about the first intranasally administered, five-way modified-live virus (MLV) vaccine for healthy cattle 3 to 8 days and older. He says that this product challenges traditional thinking that young calves can’t respond to treatment because they have an immature immune system.

Onset 5 IN is designed to stimulate at the site of infection an immune response to  Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD) Type 1 and Type 2, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR), Parainfluenza3 (PI3) and Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV) – the costliest diseases impacting beef and dairy herds.

“Onset 5 IN is changing the way the beef and dairy industries think about the immune development of calves and, subsequently, the ability to help beef and dairy calves get off to a strong immunological life,” says Dr. Scott Nordstrom, Manager of Veterinary Technical Services for Intervet.

He says, “The bovine fetus has a much more mature immune system than originally believed.1 In fact, the immune system of the fetus is functional at approximately 170 days of gestation. We’ve also learned that development of the immune system is independent of antibody production, meaning the immune system can respond to an appropriately-delivered vaccine without antibody interference. This knowledge underpins the developmental science of Onset 5 IN and is why the intranasal route of administration of Onset 5 IN is so important.”

You can listen to my interview with Scott here: ams-08-nordstrom.mp3
Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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New AAEA Leaders

Chuck Zimmerman July 29, 2008

At today’s annual meeting of the American Agricultural Editors Association, new officers and board members were elected.

The new President is Holly Martin, High Plains Journal, pictured in the center of the group here. Holly says that the big push this year for AAEA will be the combined AMS and IFAJ Congress next year in Ft. Worth. She says they’ll be working on organization and developing additional support for the event which will be a great opportunity to showcase American agriculture to the world. AAEA appears to be in great shape and has 400 members.

I spoke to Holly after the meeting and you can listen to our conversation here: ams-08-martin.mp3

You’ll find photos from the AAEA annual meeting in the photo album.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Trimble Continues to Innovate

Cindy Zimmerman July 29, 2008

Trimble just announced last week that revenue for its second quarter of 2008 was up approximately 15 percent compared to last year. For the Field Solutions segment of the company, the increase was 68 percent, driven primarily by strong demand for agricultural products.

I had a chance to sit down with Rob Lindores, Director of Marketing for Trimble Agricultural, about what the company is doing in the area of precision farming and how they are helping farmers be more productive and efficient.

Listen to my interview with Rob here.
ams-08-trimble.mp3

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Amy (Betsy Freese) Winehouse Stops At AMS

Chuck Zimmerman July 29, 2008

We’ve been visited by several celebrities here at AMS.

This morning I met Amy Winehouse, (Betsy Freese, Living The Country Life) who sat in on the AAEA annual meeting.

I think that Betsy made some kind of challenge about AAEA membership and lost.

You can find some additional photos of Amy/Betsy in the photo album.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Major New Ag Trade Show Announced

Cindy Zimmerman July 28, 2008

The big announcement at the Ag Media Summit today was a new major agricultural trade show to take place in 2010.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) announced AG CONNECT Expo, “a new international agriculture event that will showcase the latest industry innovations, products and technology and offer access to leading industry experts worldwide.” The inaugural Expo is slated for January 12-15, 2010 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

“Agriculture today is global and dynamic,” said AEM President Dennis Slater. “Industry professionals want access to the best information and the best people possible, without boundaries. That’s why the member companies of AEM felt the perfect time to initiate AG CONNECT Expo is now.”

Charlie O’Brien, AEM Vice President Agricultural Services, explained that the data supports this effort. “Research reveals that producers and other industry professionals really want more substantive discussions with industry leaders and to learn more about how agriculture around the world will affect their businesses,” O’Brien said.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Dennis here: ams-aem-slater.mp3

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Charlie here: ams-aem-obrien.mp3

An audio news release with sound bites is posted on AgNewsWire.AgWired.com.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Barbra Makes a Return Appearance

Chuck Zimmerman July 28, 2008

Barbra Streisand, also known as Jodie Wehrspann, Farm Industry News, made a guest appearance at our opening reception party. Doesn’t she look gorgeous in her red and pearls?

Since it is our 10th industry of the Ag Media Summit she had a special performance of “The Way We Were.” The reality is that none of us are just exactly the way we were although we keep trying to be.

I happened to have my recorder so you can listen to most of her song here: ams-08-jodi.mp3

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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My Team

Chuck Zimmerman July 28, 2008

After a long morning on the links, this team was ready for some air conditioning. These were my teammates today in the golf tournament. Mike Wilson, Den Gardner and Lyle Orwig.

I think we birdied this hole seeing as how it was sponsored by Charleston Orwig.

We did get second place and were pretty happy with how things went. Three of us were playing with rented clubs even. Actually, I thought about buying my rented driver since I was hitting it better than my own!

The photo album has just been updated and Cindy and I will be at InfoExpo for several hours. We’ll have a lot more to come later.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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Golf Tournament Winners

Chuck Zimmerman July 28, 2008

We had beautiful weather to play golf in today. We got some light drizzle once that just cooled us off, otherwise it was picture perfect Florida summer weather.

Here’s your winners of the tournament. The team of Atzenweiler, Mader, Moore and Steinbeck. They’re showing off their winning clubs. Second place went to my team, which included Gardner, Orwig and Wilson. Third place consisted of Behr, Bettner, Custer and Freebair. The highest scoring team was Grey, Henderson, Henderson and Lightfoot.

We had a lot of other winners, including closest to the pin #17, Tim Steinbeck, closest to the pin #2, Darrell Bruggink, longest drive #3, Molly Mader, longest drive #11, Tim O’Connell and straight drive #14, Andy Atzenweiler.

Thanks to the sponsors for making the tournament so much fun.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

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