Pumping Hands And Gas

Chuck Zimmerman

Ryan Hunter-ReayConsumers in Ankeny, IA were treated to a little relief at the gas pump today when the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council teamed up with Kum & Go for a pre-race ethanol promotion.

Regular (E10) was selling for $2.50/gallon and E85 was $1.85. I filled up my flex fuel van before I left.

Four of the IndyCar drivers were on hand to help out including Team Ethanol driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay, pictured here, along with Ed Carpenter who is shaking hands with a lady who asked for their autographs.

I’ll have interviews and more pictures to come. We just got finished with the promotion and are taking a break to get something to eat.

Post Update: Here’s a link to the photo album I’ve started: Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album

Ethanol

Real Girls Eat Meat

Chuck Zimmerman

Jessica SimpsonSince Cindy alerted me to this I’ve got to post it. I would have anyway since this is too good to pass on.

Deceiver.com has a great post with this photo of Jessica Simpson and her “Real Girls Eat Meat” t-shirt. I can’t say I’ve been a fan of hers but I think she’s just made a bunch of new ones. (Picture from Bauer-Griffin)

Of course the folks at PETA (that should stand for People Eating Tasty Animals) are not happy. You really need to read the comments on the Deceiver.com post.

So, here’s a couple places I found where you can buy shirts, here and here.

Food

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association has launched a new Web site with a new user-friendly look. The site provides online visitors with dramatic improvements in navigation, uniformity, appearance, and accessibility.
  • Rhea + Kaiser Marketing Communications has named agribusiness journalist Drew Harris as senior account executive, public relations, working on the Bayer CropScience portfolio of Southern row crops products. Prior to joining Rhea + Kaiser, Harris was managing editor of Cotton International and Cotton Grower magazines, based in Cordova, Tenn.
  • Novus International, Inc., announces the appointment of Travis Boatwright as South Central Poultry Sales Manager covering OK, TX, AR, LA, AZ, and KS. Boatwright joins Novus from Lohmann Animal Health where he served as the Corporate Accounts Manager and was awarded Salesman of the Year three times.
  • Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn. announces that Gary Steinhauer has been selected to receive the 2008 WDPA Presidents Award. Steinhauer spent 24 years working for Madison Dairy as vice president in Madison, Wisc. Steinhauer will be honored at a special awards dinner on Sunday, July 13 at the 2008 Dairy Symposium.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Travel and BBQ Go Together

    Laura McNamara

    The online travel agency CheapTickets.com is bringing consumers the best in barbecue and travel this summer. The agency has teamed up with Rick Browne, host of PBS’ Barbecue America, to launch bbq.cheaptickets.com.

    The new site, which features a blog written by Browne exclusively for CheapTickets, reveals undiscovered BBQ destinations around the U.S. In his blog, Browne highlights lesser known, but equally delicious, hidden BBQ gems in Portland, ME, Las Vegas and San Francisco, just to name a few.

    And just in time for Fourth of July travel, the site offers budget-friendly vacation packages and sales that will ease the pinch of the pocketbook. Through the BBQ site, customers have access to CheapTickets’ Summer Sale which offers $50-off qualifying flight + hotel packages of three or more nights using the promotional code SUNSALE50(1).

    Now, if we could just get the airlines to serve BBQ during the flight…

    Food

    Dog Wild for Hot Dogs

    Laura McNamara

    Okay. So who knew just how crazy Americans are for hot dogs? I didn’t. Apparently, Hatfield Quality Meats does. The family-owned meat company says on July 4th alone, Americans will chow down on 150 million hot dogs. That’s enough hot dogs, the company says, to stretch from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles… five times over. That’s just one day. Hatfield says that by the end of the summer, Americans will have eaten an estimated 7 billion hot dogs.

    Hatfield Quality Meats will turn out more than 50 million hot dogs, or ‘franks,’ this summer alone. In addition to its traditional meat and beef franks, the company recently introduced new Authentic Deli-style Beef Franks, along with pre-marinated entrees such as Lemon Garlic Pork Loin Filets, Sweet Brown Sugar Ham Steaks and Southwestern-style Smoked Sausage — all for the grill.

    What few people realize is that hot dogs — of all varieties — are considered sausages.

    Click here for more hot dog triva.Read More

    Food

    Corn Field Driftwood

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Corn Field FloodingThis is not something you want to see in your corn field. River driftwood.

    Actually that’s not the only thing wrong with this picture near Eddyville, IA. The water in the background is supposed to be the rest of the field, not the Des Moines River. It was an eye opener of a drive up to Newton, IA today. The worst flooding and fields I saw were in Iowa. Even fields with some very good looking corn had huge areas of dead or very yellow plants where it looked like water had pooled up for a while.

    At least the sun was shining most of the way up. However, I did drive through a line of showers right after getting into Iowa earlier this afternoon.

    Farming

    Recording Natural Sound of Flooding

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Tricia Braid TerryThe brave farm broadcaster gets her feet wet collecting pictures and natural sound. What is the sound of flooding anyway?

    Tricia “Brave” Terry, RFD Radio Network, literally took to her heels to check on the Mississippi River situation, “splashing my way down US Rte 54 between the river and the levee on the Illinois side. This was Monday at noontime. This area is the Sny Levee Reach. The levy here has four compartments and protects 125,000 acres, one of the largest districts in the country.”

    You can click on the picture for a larger version.

    Media

    Rock and Roll Meets Tractor and Country

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Chuck Leavell and Michael PetersonWe certainly had a little bit of rock and roll getting together with country at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. One of the contestants who held the lead for a while was Rolling Stones keyboardist, Chuck Leavell (left), seen here with Michael Peterson.

    Chuck is a central Georgia tree farmer where he and his wife have 2,500 acres. He’s the proud owner of a New Holland 2410. I asked him why he participated and one of the things he likes is supporting FFA, which he feels strongly about. As far as a celebrity tractor race goes, he thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. When he’s not on the road rocking and rolling with the Stones, he says you’ll find him on his New Holland out in the woods.

    He’s also a big believer in biofuels like biodiesel and has a special interest in cellulosic ethanol production. That makes sense for a tree farmer.

    Listen to my interview with Chuck: cma-08-chuck-leavell.mp3

    Watch Chuck ride:


    2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the CMA Country Music Festival is sponsored by:
    New Holland

    Audio, New Holland, Video

    EPIC Member Website Re-designed

    Chuck Zimmerman

    EPIC Member WebsiteWhile I’m on the subject of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, I realized that I’ve neglected to mention their newly designed member website.

    I think it’s a great example of how a “blog” can be your primary website. EPIC staff, (occasionally, Cindy and myself), easily and frequently update the website with fresh information that their members want and need to know. Members can subscribe to it and there are plenty of pages of information that are also updated easily and frequently. It’s another ZimmComm New Media blog project that we’re pretty proud of. Elizabeth Hilpipre, EPIC staff, is becoming a master blogger and loves her new iMac btw.

    Ag Groups, Ethanol

    Speeding To Iowa Corn Indy 250

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Iowa Corn Indy 250It looks like the flooding in Iowa has not affected things at the Iowa Speedway where I’m headed this afternoon for pre-race activities for this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250.

    Iowa’s flooding disaster is not directly affecting scheduled events for the IndyCar Series weekend, June 20-22, at Iowa Speedway. The facility has immediate access to I-80 and is located on elevated ground near an adjacent airport. Racing fans who plan to attend the Iowa Corn Indy 250, especially those out-of-state, are encouraged to proceed with plans to attend the event.

    Over the next several days I’ll have some stories here, but mostly on our Domestic Fuel site. Our coverage of the activities is once again sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

    Ethanol