Corn Smut Contest

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn SmutCorn smut is not pretty. But that’s what the National Corn Growers Association is looking for.

Actually they’re looking for a different kind of corn smut:

Pick up a newspaper, turn on the evening news, listen to the radio. Corn growers are polluting the water, eroding the soil, causing global hunger. We’d cry if it weren’t so darn outrageous. Instead, we believe it’s time honor the naysayers of production agriculture with an award uniquely their own: The Corn Smut Award.

Corn Commentary invites its readers to submit nominees and categories for the award. But allow us to get things started. In the next few weeks we’ll be sharing our nominees in the following categories.

Most Outrageous Headline
Most Hyperbole in a Quote
Worst Movie
Most Worn-Out Spokesperson

The corn smut picture is via Cornell University.

Corn

Make The Logo Bigger Cream

Chuck Zimmerman

Make The Logo Bigger CreamAs if a song about making the logo bigger wasn’t enough, now we’ve got Make The Logo Bigger Cream.

This stuff, “Improves brand recognition, grabs customer’s attention, works in just minutes and goes on smooth.”

Learn more about it with the video you’ll find on the homepage.

It’s brought to you by Agency Fusion.

“You need to MAKE MY LOGO BIGGER!,” clients say. While some requests may seem ridiculous, your clients still depend on you to help them get noticed and make them look good.

That’s where we come in. We’re Agency Fusion, a web development firm dedicated to helping you build and maintain websites that look exactly the way you design them.

via Adrants

Agencies

The Moose Says Party

Chuck Zimmerman

Party MooseIt’s hard to believe we’re about to enter the holiday season. However, as the party moose will attest, “It’s here.”

Of course the party moose means a BCS Communications party. I’m sure there will be more.

Make sure your friends in agricultural marketing know about your holiday party by letting us know here at AgWired.

Agencies

Heading Home With a Bang

Chuck Zimmerman

Diana OlsonIt’s time for the agriblogger to hit the road home. The World Championship Appaloosa Show has been great fun.

Last night’s program included a short show by Diana Olson who is President of the Arizona Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association. She has a beautiful horse and just in case anyone was nodding off after a long day she woke them up.

Thanks to Steve Taylor and his staff at the ApHC for working with me and having come spend a couple days blogging there show.

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Horses

I Wish I Were A Lipizzaner

Chuck Zimmerman

The Lipizzaner MoveI grew up in Sarasota, FL near where the famous Lipizzaner Stallions had a facility so I got to see this move quite a few times. Last night here at the World Championship Appaloosa Show this move got a big “ooh” from the crowd and I just happened to be ready to take a picture.

This was right before the Rope Race Invitational while each contestant was being auctioned in a Calcutta to raise money for Appaloosa youth scholarships. If you don’t know what a rope race is then you’re missing some excitement. Basically the contestants race to a wire that has ropes dangling from it where they have to grab one. The problem is there’s one less rope than contestants. So in each heat the number of contestants drops by one until only one person with a rope is left. You can watch the first heat on YouTube:

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Horses

Farm-City Week Luncheon

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm CityPretty soon it will be National Farm-City Week. It’s held the week before Thanksgiving. To kick it off I’ll be attending the National Farm-City Week Kickoff Luncheon in Washington, DC next week.

The luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m., and the keynote speaker/entertainer is motivational speaker and country music artist Michael Peterson. The award-winning country music artist not only sings, but also speaks eloquently about the value of agriculture and those involved in it.

We all know Michael will do a great job since we’ve seen him perform before. I’m really looking forward to it. I also want to thank New Holland for sponsoring my coverage of this year’s event.

Ag Groups

Horse Photograhper Extraordinaire

Chuck Zimmerman

Karen and Larry WilliamsSometimes the photographer gets his picture taken. I hope Larry Williams is happy with this one of him and his wife Karen.

They’re the official show photographers of the Appaloosa World Show and boy do they have a job to do. You can only imagine how many pictures they have to take and take care of. They do thousands at a show and their system is very impressive.

Larry said he’d been trying to figure out how to make a living in the horse business for a long time. I think he found a way since equine photography is his business and specialty. Like a lot of people Larry has had some mentors and people to learn from and he talks about them in our interview.

You can listen to my interview with Karen and Larry here: awcs-07-williams.mp3

stump racerI showed Larry this photo I took at the stump races this morning and he said it looked good. I asked him for some tips on how to get a good one of something going this fast in relatively low light. His answer is “lots of light” and “shoot a lot.” He’s got lights rigged all around the ring that all flash with the camera on the floor.

After shooting Indy cars at 220 mph I’m not sure which is more difficult!

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Audio

Learn About Reining

Chuck Zimmerman

I know a lot of you are like me, “not very horsey.” But you work at a show like the World Championship Appaloosa Show and you can get pretty horsey real fast. How many of you know what a reining competition is? Quick show of hands. That’s what I thought. So watch this video clip and then you’ll have an idea

Of course you can see the action live on the arena webcam.

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Horses, Video

Steve’s Angels

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve's AngelsHey, if Charlie can have some then I guess Steve Taylor can too.

Actually these were some of Steve’s helpers at last night’s World Championship Appaloosa Sale. They were responsible for getting the paperwork to the winning buyers in the auction.

And we wondered why Steve left Missouri for Idaho.

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Uncategorized

Shining Up a Storm

Chuck Zimmerman

Storming Norman MillerIf you need your boots shined at the World Show then “Storming” Norman Miller is your man.

I got mine done earlier today and had a little chat with the shine king. He says he’s been doing this for the ApHC for at least 15 years and about 53 years all together locally. I asked him how many shines he’s done. He says that there’s 5,280 ft. in a mile and he’s shined a lot of miles! He handled my interview with him like the professional he is.

You can listen to my interview with Storming here: awcs-07-miller.mp3

2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album

Audio, Horses