RFA Ethanol Podcast

NAFB Hoping For Rural Renaissance

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB ConventionWhile you’re making your future plans don’t forget about the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. This year the theme is “A Rural Renaissance.” It looks like NAFB is placing all their future hope in the rural connection. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Recently the NAFB board approved a 5-year strategic plan that has the following “pillars.”

  • generate additional revenue, business, and employment opportunities in the agricultural and rural lifestyle broadcasting industry
  • create a member value proposition that results in member increase of 50 percent by 2012 in all member categories
  • drive the organization’s brand recognition, resulting in increased membership, revenues and member benefits
  • capitalize on professional improvement to differentiate, advance, and add value to agricultural and rural lifestyle broadcasting
  • partner and collaborate with allied industry and organizations to promote business opportunities and enhance the ability for NAFB to represent and promote the agricultural and rural lifestyle broadcasting industry

    • If you haven’t been to a NAFB convention then you might be interested to see a video from last year’s event.

    Registration is now available online.

    NAFB, Video

    Akismet Catches Comment Spam

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Akismet Spam ChartComment spam wasn’t something I knew much about until about a year ago when AgWired started to get hit hard. That’s when we made a decision to install Akismet on all our sites and all of our client’s sites as well. In fact, Akismet is a standard feature of any site we build today.

    So far Akismet on AgWired has captured almost 215,000 comment spams. That is a few to say the least. As you can see from their chart most of the comments submitted are spam. They call legitimate comments “ham.”

    As a total of all the sites Akismet is being used on they’ve captured 2,412,431,831 spam comments. In that same time frame they allowed 178,927,948 total hams. This was as of early July btw.

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    Looking Forward To The NAMA Agribusiness Forum

    Chuck Zimmerman

    2007 Agribusiness ForumIt’s not too early to start looking forward to the NAMA Agribusiness Forum.

    This year the them is “Who’s Pulling Our Chain?” “The 2007 Agribusiness Forum will seek to demonstrate some of the elements that affect the way we do business. For example, things that happen on the other side of the world impact how we do business every day, including politics, economics and communications. These things pull our chain. Consumers expect a safe food supply and those expectations pull our chain, or impact the way we do business. Technology also has an impact on perceptions and opportunities for us as marketers. In addition, consumer trust, who they trust and why, right or wrong also pulls at our chain or the way we market and do business.”

    It looks like Jeff Pence has his work cut out for him. “This year’s forum will be moderated by Jeff Pence, president of Farm Journal Digital Media, which includes the company’s internet, television and newsletter businesses. In his role as forum moderator, Pence will summarize each session and help attendees relate the information to their businesses.”

    If you’re interested in becoming a Forum sponsor then fill out this online form.

    NAMA

    Green Week in Cincinnati

    Chuck Zimmerman

    John Deer Product LaunchIt’s going to be a green week in Cincinnati, OH as John Deere puts its new products on display. I don’t have much information because as you can imagine there’s a tight lid on the announcements until they happen.

    However, you’ll be able to see them all here on AgWired starting mid week.

    AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

    Agribusiness, John Deere

    Mexico Missouri Air Show

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Mexico Air ShowWhile I was out doing some field photography today I just happened to be passing Mexico, MO at a convenient time.

    This was a long zoom away but I think the contrast is pretty cool.

    I’m not sure what plane this is or who is flying it but this is the low spot in his dive just before going vertical for a complete loop.

    It was his last one for the show. I watched several and was getting very impatient with a truck in front of me on the highway that was doing about 20 miles an hour under the speed limit. When you see a photo opportunity you want to take advantage of it!

    Mexico Air ShowThis was one of the planes performing in the Mexico Missouri Air Show put on by the Elks Club.

    It’s the second annual and I guess they do it to show their appreciation for the military.

    It looked like a lot of people were there and since it was only about 93 degrees out we had a relatively cool day for it.

    The show is sponsored by the Zenith Aircraft Company.

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    Dry Corn In Missouri

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Dry CornI don’t grow corn but I’m just guessing that this isn’t what you want to see in mid August. This is a field in north central Missouri.

    We’ve been getting some spotty rain here in Missouri and the temperatures are cooling off a little finally. However, it may be too little too late for some fields like this one. Maybe there will be some yield here but as I learned from Dr. Fred Below this week, Nature is the number one factor affecting yield. There’s not much you can do about that.

    I was out taking pictures today and just thought you might be interested. I also saw a lot of wind damage, especially in fields like this one. At least I assume it was wind since all the corn in spots was literally flattened and broken off. However what I saw today was nothing like the damage in corn fields I saw coming down I-29 from Omaha yesterday near Rock Port, MO. Now that was not a pretty sight since the corn there was very green and healthy looking except for the fact that it was flat.

    Corn

    Syngenta Learning Centers Wrapup

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Syngenta Learning CentersIf you haven’t ever attended a Syngenta Learning Centers field day then I hope my coverage this week helps you make up for that fact. In fact, I hope it encourages you to attend one in the future.

    I’ve received a number of comments on the coverage and appreciate all of them. For example, it was noted that since I was posting over several days that the coverage was kind of broken up, meaning that Laura and I had posts on other topics in between posts from the event. It’s true that I normally try to put all my event posts in order while I’m there or within a day but that wasn’t possible this week. This is why I use categories on all my posts. If you use the Syngenta Category Link (http://agwired.com/category/syngenta/) then you’ll see the unbroken coverage of the event of which there are 23 stories including this one. The posts include 14 interviews and audio from one presentation, 3 video clips and some of the 228 pictures I shot. You’ll find 114 of them in the online photo album. The online photos and video clips are tagged and easy to find by searching just like the posts themselves.

    All of the interviews are posted so that you can play them immediately to listen to and also as MP3 file links so you can download them. That’s because farm broadcasters and web editors are welcome to download and use the audio in their programs and I want to make it easy for them to obtain the audio.

    Thanks to Jim Elliott and all the Syngenta team who were on hand at the event and also to Gardner Hatch and Catherine Wang and all the folks at Gibbs & Soell for bringing me in to do this. Let’s do it again next year!

    Syngenta Learning Centers Photo Album

    Syngenta

    Learning About Agrisure

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AgriSure CornOne of the people I met before leaving the Syngenta Learning Centers field day in Milford, IA was Tracy Mader, District Sales Manager for Syngenta Crop Protection. Tracy provided an update on Syngenta’s Agrisure corn traits.

    He first of all explains that AgriSure is a family of traits for corn. Besides some of the current products under the Agrisure brand he mentions some new ones like Agrisure RW for corn rootworm control.

    You can listen to my interview with Tracy here: learning-centers-mader.mp3

    Or you can download the interview using this link: Listen to MP3 Tracy Mader Interview (3 min MP3)

    Syngenta Learning Centers Photo Album

    Audio, Corn, Syngenta

    Yield Barrier Breaker

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Virgil SparksWhen it comes to breaking the yield barrier Virgil Sparks, Soybean Product Development, Syngenta Seeds is the man. His talk at the Syngenta Learning Centers event in Iowa this week was titled, “Breaking the Yield Barrier With Genetics and Technology.”

    He says that one of the main things he wants people to know is that Syngenta is very serious about accomplishing what his talk’s title says. He says they’ve seen some step changes in the products they have by bringing together the gene pools of the Golden Harvest, Garst and Northrup King brands. Looking down the road he says that there may be less number of products but higher quality products.

    You can listen to my interview with Virgil here: learning-centers-sparks.mp3

    Or you can download the interview using this link: Listen to MP3 Virgil Sparks Interview (4 min MP3)

    Syngenta Learning Centers Photo Album

    Audio, Soybean, Syngenta

    Fall Family Fun on The Rock Ranch

    Laura McNamara

    Mike Leetch Mark your calendars for September 15th, when The Rock Ranch kicks off its Fall Family Fun Days. Scheduled events include a art, square dancing, music and more.

    The Rock Ranch, a 1,250-acre cattle ranch owned by Chick-fil-A® Founder S. Truett Cathy, kicks off its “Fall Family Fun Days” on Sept. 15 with its unique blend of “agritainment” (a mix between agriculture and entertainment). Fall Family Fun Days at The Rock Ranch feature a wide variety of interactive, educational and family-based events, activities and programs for its guests.

    September 15: Grand Opening Weekend featuring the grand opening of the new “Get Lost in a Good Book” corn maze, a birds of prey program and a reptile show. September 22: The Rock Ranch Bluegrass Festival: national and regional featured acts will include the Lovell Sisters, Cedar Hill and Peachtree Station, amongst others. September 29: Blue Ribbon Country Fair with activities including old-fashioned contests such as quilting, photography, children’s art, and best-tasting pies, etc. October 6: The Rock Ranch Square Dance featuring a live square dance band and caller, who will teach common square dance steps. October 13: Wagon Wheel Weekend Arts and Crafts Festival: variety of vendors from around the region will feature hand-made arts and crafts. October 20: The Rock Ranch Hot Air Balloon Rally sponsored by Ferrell Gas: hot air balloons will have a competition flight and display “evening glows”. October 27: All Souls Day Christian Music Concert in association with Atlanta’s J93 featuring popular Christian artists. November 3: Pumpkin Destruction Day: join the fun by assisting in the destruction of any unsold pumpkins or bring your own to recycle.
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