Farms.com Gets Some Barcharting

Chuck Zimmerman

FARMS.com MediaI don’t know if you’ve seen the Farms.com Media Girl. She just sits at the top of the AgPromote.com homepage, smiling at you when she’s not telling you about what Farms.com offers. She’s got a nice voice. I think I listened to the whole spiel at least 4 times this morning. You’ll be able to find Farms.com in booth #112 at the NAMA Connection Point.

Farms.com announced today that it’s working with Barchart which will provide custom website content including commodity quotes, advanced charts and other market information and tools.

The new Farms.com website features powerful personalization technology that will allow producers to customize their homepage with the timely content such as agri news, expert comments, jobs on AgCareers.com and new product information. Additionally, through its partnership with Barchart, users of the Farms.com website will have access to extensive commodity market data and information presented in an easy-to-use format.

“Barchart is proud to partner with the leading site for global agricultural information,” said Eero Pikat, President of Barchart. “Additionally, with our launch of our new AgriCharts division having partners like Farms.com strengthens our B2B agricultural market data solutions,” said Pikat.

“We are very impressed with the service and information that Barchart is able to provide us for our new Farms.com portal” said Joe Dales, Vice President of Farms.com Ltd. “Our thousands of farmer users have already told us they like the extensive agri commodity charting and features.”

Markets, Media

Omega-3 Now Comes in Chocolate…

Laura McNamara

…chocolate milk that is. Omega Farms is adding chocolate milk to its line of dairy products that are fortified with Omega-3 fatty acids.

Chocolate milk isn’t just for kids anymore. Athletes are drinking it too. Omega Farms Low-Fat Chocolate Milk provides kids the added benefits of Omega-3s needed for brain development and athletes the perfect combination of carbohydrates and protein needed for sports recovery. Both love the traditional and great taste of chocolate milk.

Not only is Omega Farms Low-Fat Chocolate Milk brimming with all the calcium, vitamin D, protein, and other vitamins and minerals of milk, but each serving also provides all-natural Omega-3s, the fatty acids vital to good health and well-being. Omega Farms milk products are a delicious and easy way to get the same DHA and EPA Omega-3s found in fish oil — without any fishy taste or odor that many kids dislike.

Studies suggest that chocolate milk is the perfect balance of carbohydrates and protein to help refuel tired muscles after a rigorous workout. A study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism builds on findings that intense endurance exercise reduces the muscles’ supply of stored glucose, or glycogen, a key source of fuel for exercise. To maximize glycogen replacement, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Dietetic Association recommend taking in a serving of carbohydrates within 30 minutes after a long and vigorous workout.

An Indiana University study entitled “The Efficacy of Chocolate Milk as a Recovery Aid” also tested chocolate milk versus sports drinks and found chocolate milk has the magic 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio and was as good as or better than the sports drink for performance, heart rate, perceived exertion, and lactate levels.

Food

John Deere Model Wins ‘Utility Vehicle of the Year’

Laura McNamara

Side Action Magazine has named John Deere’s Gator XUV 850D Model Declared its 2008 ‘Utilty Vehicle of the Year.’ The model won the Side X Side Shoot-Out – a two-day, comprehensive test in Barstow, CA.

John Deere earned the top award in the utility vehicle category going up against ten models from eight other manufacturers. Scoring of the machines was determined by how each model handled different utility tasks such as towing a 1,025 lb loaded trailer, pulling a rake attachment and driving with cargo box at half and full capacities. The XUV 850D was also rated on other attributes and received maximum ratings (5 stars) on turning, room (2 people), ease of getting in and fabrication quality.

Equipment, Farming, John Deere

Liz and Carrol Say It Is AFACT

Chuck Zimmerman

AFACTIt is a fact according to AFACT, American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology. And that’s their web domain too. Liz Doornink and Carrol Campbell want to talk to you at this week’s NAMA Convention. They’re exhibiting at the Connection Point – Booth 318.

American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) was organized by farmers frustrated by the loss of safe and valuable management tools with no scientific justification and no economic compensation.

As the organization’s name implies, AFACT is dedicated to conserving existing safe management practices and supporting the advancement of new technologies with collaborative ties to all commodity segments and allied industries.

AFACT’s Mission

* Safeguard the image of modern agriculture products in the market place
* Provide consumers safe, valuable and wholesome products
* Advocate for producers’ freedom to choose production technologies and practices for the benefit of all
* Support the development of agricultural technological advances required to feed a growing global population
* Educate all in the food chain that “sustainable” agriculture utilizes technologies to produce safe, nutritious and affordable foods with minimal environmental impact and maximum consumer value

Ag Groups

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • John Deere announces an agreement with IRON Solutions to align and integrate product offerings to assist John Deere agricultural equipment dealers in evaluating and pricing used equipment. This collaboration will facilitate and streamline the machine listing process and enhance the accuracy of equipment valuations. The UsedXpress and www.machinefinder.com remarketing systems will be able to integrate broad equipment market intelligence data available in the IRON Solutions Official Guides.
  • Bayer CropScience LP and Monsanto Company entered into an exclusive agreement on a new cutting-edge fungicide seed treatment for corn. The treatment, which is expected to be commercialized in conjunction with the planned launch of Monsanto’s SmartStax™ seed offering in 2010, will provide corn farmers with a significant improvement in early-season protection against seedling diseases and insects.
  • Crossbow Technology, Inc., announced it has begun customer shipments of eKo Pro Series. eKo Pro Series represents the next generation in crop monitoring and precision agriculture techniques, employing a self-powered, self configuring mesh network of wireless sensors that provide vital live data about crop health, vigor and growth progress via a simple internet browser.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Podcast Audience Grows Significantly

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ArbitronFor those of you who are continuing to ponder the wonder of new media and are maybe waiting out this “fad” then you might want to take notice of a recent Arbitron-Edison Media Research study titled, “The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Platforms.” You will find that there continues to be huge growth in the number of people with iPods and who are listening to podcasts. That growth percentage is 40 percent. Here’s some nuggets from the study:

    • iPod/Portable MP3 player ownership continues dramatic growth. Nearly four in ten
      (37 percent) own an iPod or other brand of portable MP3 player; up from 30 percent in
      2007 and more than two and a half times the number in 2005 (14 percent). Nearly three-
      quarters (73 percent) of those age 12-17 own a digital audio player.
    • Audio podcasting usage continues to increase along side the proliferation of
      iPod/MP3 player ownership. Eighteen percent have ever listened to an audio podcast;
      up from 13 percent in 2007. Nine percent have listened to an audio podcast in the past
      month (an estimated 23 million).

    The study also found out how important mobile phones are to people today:

    More than one in five (21 percent) consumers said radio has a big impact on their lives; ranking second only to mobile phones (33 percent) as the audio platform/device that has the biggest impact on people’s lives.

    Podcasts

    Blogging Alltech’s Symposium

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The Alltech Symposium BlogLast year I got to attend part of the Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium. This year it’s going to be the whole enchilada as I will be the Symposium blogger for their new Symposium blog. Right now you can find just one post with the following interview with Dr. Pearse Lyons. He’s got a fascinating concept of “marketing by education” with this event being the hallmark of it. This will be the 24th annual Symposium

    Listen to Dr. Lyons talk about the Symposium: alltech-symposium-08-lyons-preview.mp3

    You’ll also be finding great content from the Symposium right here on AgWired. It all kicks off starting next Sunday.

    Alltech, Audio

    Commodity Update Is Key To NAMA

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Commodity UpdateHere’s another in the “What Companies Are Doing At NAMA” series. Our good friends at Commodity Update are sponsoring the hotel room keys. This is the image you’ll see on your keys when you check in at the Hyatt this week.

    They’re also announcing that they’re now being represented by Bock and Associates.

    Commodity Update today announced they have entered into an exclusive representation agreement with Minneapolis-based Bock & Associates. The firm will represent Commodity Update and its services to leading Agricultural companies and advertising agencies throughout the U.S. marketplace.

    “When we started our business, the sales of our services were primarily direct to producers,” says Joel Jaeger, President and founder of Commodity Update. “As our business has evolved, we have increasingly been approached by companies who seek to provide our services to their customers as part of their overall marketing efforts. It’s a great fit for us to expand our high end sales function by partnering with Bock & Associates.”

    “We are excited to be working with Joel and everyone at Commodity Update,” says Bock and Associates principal Tom Bock. “This service is a powerful mobile marketing tool for Ag companies and has great value for the producer.” Bock & Associates can be contacted at (800) 284-6020.

    Uncategorized

    Virtual Agronomy Down Under

    Chuck Zimmerman

    BCGI think virtual agronomy is a great idea and term for using the internet for a virtual field day. That’s what the BCG (Birchip Cropping Group and Wimmera Farming Systems) is doing in Australia.

    Virtual Agronomy allows the BCG to provide a more detailed, current and interactive service to its members without replacing any existing extension tools. It is user-friendly for members and allows for slow dial-up connections. Administration users (ie. BCG staff) can easily and rapidly enter trial details from any computer with internet access. This is a cost-effective way of instantly providing BCG members with information.

    Virtual Agronomy has allowed BCG members to:

    * follow the progress of current trials from sowing through to harvest,
    * learn more about “Hot Topics” as they arise during the season (eg. disease outbreak) with text, images, and video or audio recordings from invited experts
    * search through a database of historical BCG trial results from 1993 to the present
    * contribute to different discussion forums or post a question to BCG staff or technical consultants,
    * receive the full application on CD-Rom at the end of alternate years.

    Read a summary here. Thanks to Jim Evans at the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center for the information.

    International, Internet

    Farms.com Professional Services NAMA Bound

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Farms.comHere’s another post in my series on what companies are doing at next week’s NAMA Convention. This time it’s Farms.com Professional Services.

    Farms.com Professional Services will be at booth #112 during the NAMA Conference and we hope to see you there.

    What?s in Your Web Strategy?

    In 2007, of US farms with 250,000+ in sales, 80% had computer access and 75% had Internet access ? does your online marketing plan take this new reality into account?

    If you need online solutions, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss your challenges with you to help you to find the solutions you need.

    If you already have an online marketing strategy, but are having difficulty implementing the tactics, we can help.

    Or, if you don?t have an online strategy, we can get you started.

    Our team has the web expertise in agriculture and food you need to get the answers!

    So stop by and see them and make sure to say hello at the ZimmComm Booth while you’re there!

    NAMA