Team Ethanol Wins at Watkins Glen

Chuck Zimmerman

Ryan Hunter-Reay - Courtesy of Indy Racing LeagueAlthough I wasn’t there to cheer him on, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Team Ethanol scored their first IndyCar Series win Sunday at the Camping World Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, NY. Picture is courtesy of Indy Car Series.

Appropriately on Independence Day weekend, it was an all-American win for the Rahal Letterman team, which is sponsored by the ethanol industry – including ICM, POET and Fagen.

“It’s a dream come true,” Hunter-Reay said after the race. “American kid winning with ethanol on the side of the car. It’s an American team – Bobby Rahal gave me the job and now we’re in Victory Circle.”

Hunter-Reay is the third driver for Team Ethanol, which was initiated by Paul Dana in 2005. Dana was killed in a pre-race wreck at the start of the 2006 season in Homestead. Jeff Simmons took over for him the rest of that season and most of 2007 before he was replaced mid-season by Hunter-Reay who went on to become Rookie of the Year.

This is the second year the IndyCar Series has been fueled with 100 percent ethanol, so the victory is especially sweet for corn growers and the ethanol industry.

Ethanol

AgNite at RNC

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag NiteIt looks like republicans will be getting a dose of agriculture this fall when they get together for their convention.

The Minnesota Agri-Growth Council is hosting AgNite, a celebration of America’s food and agriculture industry, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008, during the second night of the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.

The evening event will showcase the food, agriculture and energy industries in a unique and exciting club atmosphere, featuring high-tech, interactive displays, cutting-edge visual effects, top-notch food and beverage selections and headline entertainment at the end of the evening.

“AgNite will be a grand celebration representing the scale and diversity of today’s food and agriculture industry,” says Daryn McBeth, president, Minnesota Agri-Growth Council. “The historic significance of The Depot, located in the heart of Minneapolis’ original milling district, will provide an inspiring setting for what will be the food and agriculture event when 50,000 visitors are in town for the GOP National Convention.”

Ag Groups

Boelte Boys Ready For Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

Agricultural Media SummitIn just a few short weeks it’s going to be time for the Ag Media Summit once again. Are you ready for the games to begin? The boys for Boelte-Hall are and they’ve arranged for some airport transportation once again.

We will again be at the airport providing transportation to Saddlebrook Resort. Our complimentary service will be available all day Friday and Saturday and until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

To ensure we are there to meet your plane, please let us know your arrival day, time, airline and flight number. If you have friends or co-workers attending AMS that we have not contacted, please share our offer with them . . . and their schedule with us.

Hoping to see you in Tampa . . . and be sure to join us at the InfoExpo Booth #500-502 for a game of darts and a chance to win prizes.

Don, Terry and Garrett
Boelte-Hall, Inc.
913-766-7726

Ag Media Summit

Go Celebrate

Chuck Zimmerman

FireworksSince my email box has been a little less full than normal I know that means that most of you are on break now. Well, it’s time to take a break here at ZimmComm World Headquarters too.

Of course that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come back during the weekend. You never know what you’ll find.

But if you choose to go “off the grid” I don’t blame you and Cindy and I and all the ZimmComm team wish you all a very happy 4th of July celebration.

Uncategorized

Rural Broadband Grows 23 Percent

Chuck Zimmerman

PEW InternetHigh speed internet access is growing in America and according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project the overall growth was 17 percent in the last year. It was 12 percent the year before. It also looks like rural America is getting wired (and AgWired!). Here’s some interesting tidbits:

Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a May 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 79% have a high-speed connection while 15% use dialup.

Older Americans: Those age 50 and over experienced a 26% growth rate in home broadband adoption from 2007 to 2008. Half of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 have broadband at home. Some 19% of those 65 and older had home broadband access as of April 2008.

Rural Americans: 38% of those living in rural American now have broadband at home, compared with 31% who said this in 2007, or a growth rate of 23% from 2007 to 2008.

Internet

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Alpharma Inc. announced a significant initiative expected to stimulate business opportunities for livestock producers suffering from recent flooding in the central U.S. agricultural heartland. Alpharma will donate a portion of all U.S. livestock product sales recorded in July to help fund flood relief efforts throughout the Mississippi River valley. The flood relief program will apply to Alpharma’s extensive line of livestock medicated feed additives.
  • DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred announced that it has identified and incorporated new proprietary molecular markers into its soybean research program. The new markers significantly enhance the company’s ability to bring to market soybeans resistant to three common destructive soybean pests – Asian Soybean Rust, soybean aphids and frogeye leaf spot.
  • Syngenta and DuPont announced an agreement to share the costs to prepare the regulatory studies for DuPont™ Cyazypyr™, a new broad spectrum insecticide for the control of lepidoptera and sucking pests.
  • CHS Inc. announced it has formed a joint venture with Triangle Ag LLC, Ulen, Minn. Under the agreement, CHS and Triangle Ag will combine agronomy services throughout central and east central North Dakota, including construction of a 25,000-ton crop nutrients plant with the ability to receive 110-rail car shipments near Hannaford, N.D. A crop protection product and seed distribution center will also be part of the joint venture.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Tweeting With Twitterfone

    Chuck Zimmerman

    TwitterfoneI’m not sure yet how well this will work but the first time I tried it things went okay. I can now update my Twitter account by using Twitterfone. It lets me call a number and leave a voice message that’s converted to text and submitted to my account.

    TwitterFone is free service that lets you update your Twitter feed using your voice from any mobile or cell phone. You call it, speak your tweet, and hang up. A short while later, your tweet will be posted on Twitter. Magic!

    TwitterFone is great for when you’re on the go – in the car, on a train, or running between meetings – and don’t have WiFi or time to log on to the internet.

    I got my invitation code this morning and got started.

    Uncategorized

    New NCGA Director of Communications

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Nancy KoesterI’m sure I’m waiting in line to meet the new Director of Communications for the National Corn Growers Association. She’s Nancy L. Bunker Koester and she started on Monday.

    In this position, Nancy will lead NCGA’s communications team and direct public relations and media relations for the organization.

    Nancy is an Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) with more than 20 years of experience in organizational and marketing communications, public relations, research, event planning, and education. For the past 11 years, she served as owner and principal of Bunker Koester & Associates, an organizational and marketing communications and market research company.

    Prior to starting her own firm, Nancy held positions at Monsanto, Brown Shoe Company, Emerson Electric, Jefferson Smurfit and United Technologies Communications. She also taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at Webster University and St. Louis Community College.

    Ag Groups, NCGA

    Zimfo Bytes

    Melissa Sandfort

      Zimfo Bytes

    • Massey Ferguson® 6400 and 7400 Series high horsepower tractors with new generation Tier III engines burn cleaner and smarter for greater fuel efficiency. Both the Dyna-VT™ CVT transmission on the 7400 Series, ranging from 100-155 PTO HP, and Dyna-6™ transmission, from 100 to 180 PTO HP, on the 6400 Series deliver power and torque more efficiently and effectively in the field and in transit.
    • Katherine DiMatteo, who served as executive director of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) from 1990 to 2006, was named President of the World Board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements at their General Assembly held in Vignola, Italy.
    • RFD-TV, LLC announced a multi-year affiliation and distribution agreement with Verizon that set forth the terms and conditions for carriage of RFD-TV on Verizon’s FiOS TV service nationwide. Beginning this summer, RFD-TV will be rolling out carriage and will become available to customers in all FiOS TV service areas over the following months.
    • The message Chuck Leavell, Rolling Stones keyboardist, shared during his keynote address at the Ag in the Classroom conference in Costa Mesa, Calif., was “today’s children are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and schools can play a big role in fixing this.” Leavell addressed the teachers present not as a musician but as a Georgia tree farmer and the author of the 2007 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year The Tree Farmer.
      Zimfo Bytes

      Interested in Podcasting

      Chuck Zimmerman

      If you’re a regular reader of AgWired then you know we’re new media evangelists (blogs, podcasts, and all sorts of online social networking). So when I see a pretty mainstream media outlet do a story on this I like to pass it along. This time it’s about podcasting and it’s in Investors.com.

      Podcast audiences have branched out far beyond just geeks. And advertisers are starting to like them, too.

      After having placed ads with Web sites and search engines, more advertisers are starting to spread their ad dollars to audio and video podcasts in an attempt to reach certain consumers.

      Podango Productions President is quoted in the article as saying:

      “With podcasting, the audiences tend to be very specific, very targeted,” he said. “That takes care of your challenge as a brand marketer.”

      That’s what podcasting is about in a nutshell. I’d call agriculture a pretty niche topic in terms of the media world today.

      Via Podcasting News.

      Podcasts