Welcome AgWired Contributor Melissa Sandfort

Chuck Zimmerman

Just in case you’ve been wondering who the “Melissa” is that’s been posting our Zimfo Bites, it’s Melissa Sandfort. Melissa has just accepted a job with the Cattlemen’s Beef Board as their Trade Media Manager. We want to congratulate her on that and tell her boss, Tom Ramey, CBB CEO, that he’s got a good one. In fact, I just interviewed Tom here at World Dairy Expo for our Milking Parlor podcast on World Dairy Diary.

Melissa has been working for BCS Communications and has a background in not only the agency business but in the dairy industry too when she worked for the Dairy Farmers of America.

We’re thrilled to have Melissa working with us as a contributor and in her new role with the CBB, one of our clients too! Hopefully she’ll get a little time to relax before jumping into her new job on the CBB producer communications team.

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Getting a Charleston|Orwig Dairy Perspective

Chuck Zimmerman

Mike OppermanIn case you’d like a little more dairy news today I thought you might enjoy this. A quiet place to get away from the crowd at World Dairy Expo is the Charleston|Orwig suite in the Coliseum where they hold meetings and entertain clients.

Since Charleston|Orwig is one of our sponsors for coverage of World Dairy Expo this year, I did a “Milking Parlor” podcast with Mike Opperman, account supervisor. It was through the agency’s inquiries that we decided to start the Milking Parlor as a regular feature on World Dairy Diary, and for Charleston|Orwig, it is a way to help them demonstrate to their clients the potential for new media.

Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Mike here: Listen To MP3 Interview with Mike Opperman (MP3)

You can also watch the video here:

2007 World Dairy Expo Photo Album
World Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
NutriDense Silage , Charleston Orwig

Agencies, Audio, Dairy, Video, World Dairy Expo

New Media Coverage of World Dairy Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

Cindy Working at World Dairy ExpoIt’s been a busy morning of interviews here at World Dairy Expo. Cindy and I are now editing away here in the media room. We’re shooting interviews on video from which we can take the audio so we can feed the Milking Parlor Podcast and post. An example is my interview this morning with Jerry Weigel, who represents our sponsor, BASF Plant Science – NutriDense.

Jerry says that besides talking with producers about NutriDense which is a nutritionally-enhanced corn that contains a stacked set of output traits, they’ve got some incentives for those that stop by their booth.

One of those includes a free world famous grilled cheese sandwich and a milk shake. So, you can watch the video or listen to the interview:

Listen to interview with Jerry here: Listen To MP3 Interview with Jerry Weigel (MP3)

And of course we’ve got a photo album going which is feeding the Zimmages here on the AgWired homepage or available from the following link.

2007 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

I’m here through the end of the show on Saturday so keep an eye out for the latest on what’s going on in dairy here and on World Dairy Diary.

World Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
NutriDense Silage, Hoard's Dairyman Magazine, Charleston Orwig.

Audio, BASF, Dairy, World Dairy Expo

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, announces it is commercializing soybean varieties developed using a technology that increases yields by as much as 12 percent per acre. Pioneer is introducing five varieties with the technology for 2008 planting, pending wide-area product advancement trial results. This announcement officially launches one of the company’s three soybean yield traits from its pipeline to commercial status. It will be commercially known as Accelerated Yield Technology™ (AYTTM). AYTTM uses proprietary molecular breeding techniques to rapidly scan and identify genes that increase yield then incorporate them into elite soybean genetics.
  • Strategies to reduce GHG emissions in the dairy industry have to be evaluated at a global level to ensure that mitigation strategies to reduce emissions do not increase emissions at another point in the chain of production. Some reasonable reductions have already been done in the input amount at farm level in most dairy countries (fertilizer, concentrate, energy consumption, etc.), and should continue in the future. These reductions should help to reduce GHG emissions in the dairy industry. Carbon dioxide and perfluorinated hydrocarbons are the greenhouse gases that the dairy processing sector can have a significant influence on. Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions at farm and manufacturing levels” is the new Bulletin of IDF n°422/2007. It can be ordered in electronic form via the IDF Web site.
  • Farms.com is pleased to announce that Bob Brcka has been promoted to General Manager PigCHAMP, a Farms.com business unit. Bob joined PigCHAMP in 2005 as Marketing Manager. Under Bob’s leadership, PigCHAMP has recently launched PigCHAMP CARE 3000, a Windows-based software program that is setting new standards for pork production record keeping and data analysis. Brcka has more than 25 years of agricultural management experience with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Principal Financial Group and Pioneer Hi-Bred International.
  • Jeff Springsteen has accepted the position of market manager for non-selective corn herbicide products with Bayer CropScience. In his new role, Springsteen has the product management responsibility for Bayer CropScience corn products, including Radius®, Balance®, Option® and Autumn® herbicides. In addition, Springsteen is responsible for introducing new products to the marketplace, including Laudis™ herbicide, which the company anticipates launching by 2008, along with three additional corn herbicides to be launched in 2009. Most recently, Springsteen held the marketing responsibilities as manager of Bayer CropScience marketing programs and customer relationship management (CRM).
Zimfo Bytes

Obligatory Agri Talk Picture

Cindy Zimmerman

WDX AgriTalkWe are covering World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin this week, along with over 175 other media representatives from all over the world.

Many of them are farm broadcasters – and here is our obligatory Agri Talk picture, kind of a tradition for us to post a photo of them from every event we both attend.

Some other farm broadcasters I have seen today include Pam Jahnke, Cliff Mitchell, Don Wick, Emery Kleven, and Bob Bosold. Not to mention all the ag publications and dairy industry media, including one of our World Dairy Diary sponsors Hoard’s Dairyman magazine, the appropriately named Lee Mielke of Dairyline, and Dairycast podcaster Ned Arthur.

Our coverage of World Dairy Expo on World Dairy Diary is being sponsored by:
NutriDense Silage Hoard's Dairyman Magazine Charleston Orwig

Agencies, BASF, Dairy, Farm Shows, Media, World Dairy Expo

Shell Pumps Up Ethanol Frenzy Before Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans

Laura McNamara

Pumping the American Le Mans Series #31 Ferrari F430 GT with E10 fuelConsumers enjoyed discounted fuel and free fountain drinks and coffee at the Sam’s Mart in Atlanta, GA this afternoon. The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council sponsored an ethanol pump promotion where consumers could fuel up with E10 fuel for 50 cents less than the going rate.

The promotion officially kicked off the 2007 Petit Le Mans race weekend for EPIC. American Le Mans Series drivers Tom Milner and Peter Dumbreck manned the pumps, handed out autographs and divulged the benefits of ethanol fuel to consumers. E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline, is “the official ethanol-enriched fuel” of the ALMS. This is the first year an endurance-based racing series has used a street legal renewable fuel.

The Sam’s Mart at New Northside Drive in Atlanta, GA pumped more than 1500 gallons of discounted E10 fuel for customers between 11:30 a.m and 1:30 p.m. Consumers were filling their tanks at a rate of $2.25 per gallon. This morning the fuel was selling for $2.75.

Racing fans also got to check out Peter’s #31 Ferrari F430GT, the official ALMS car for Petersen Motorsports/White Lighting Racing. Click here to check out the Ferrari’s deep, throaty throttle:
ferrarithrottle.mp3

2007 Petit Le Mans Photo Album

Audio, Environment, Ethanol

EPIC Represents Product of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

EPICIn a near unanimous decision, ethanol has been chosen as the 2007 AgriMarketing Product of the Year by AgriMarketing Magazine.

According to the magazine, the entry was submitted by long time ZimmComm client, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).

In just the past year, ethanol production has increased over 50%, given several segments of the ag economy a much needed boost, and increased household income by $6 billion.

The combined Nov/Dec issue of AgriMarketing magazine will feature a special supplement about ethanol and its impact on North American agriculture and agribusiness.

Ag Groups, Ethanol

Early Numbers Show Successful 2007 Rice Harvest

Laura McNamara

Enfer DiagnosticsU.S. rice harvesting is just about a quarter from being complete in six of the major rice-producing states. Early data shows the harvest is well ahead of last year.

The U.S. rice harvest is progressing ahead of last year’s harvest in California and Missouri, at 50 percent vs. 41 percent harvested in California and 80 percent vs. 67 percent harvested in Missouri. The Missouri harvest is substantially ahead of the five-year average of 58 percent harvested. Mississippi and Arkansas are 75 percent and 95 percent harvested respectively, while Louisiana and Texas are 99 percent and 98 percent harvested respectively, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Crop Progress report released today.

Ag Groups, Farming

The Milking Parlor Podcast

Chuck Zimmerman

The ranks of the farm podcast now have a new addition. It’s “The Milking Parlor” podcast, the official podcast of World Dairy Diary. The Milking Parlor will feature interviews with dairy industry leaders and producers. World Dairy Expo and our event coverage sponsors are providing us with a great platform to launch this new service. The podcast provides you with an easy way to subscribe to our audio content and get it on your computer/iPod/other mp3 player so you can listen to it when and where you want!

If you don’t have an iPod or don’t want to subscribe we’ll still post our interviews for you to click and listen just like we have been doing. Now you’ll have more choices. The first three episodes of our podcast feature interviews with our sponsors.

Cindy and I will be attending World Dairy Expo this week and posting lots of interviews here on the website and they’ll also be part of The Milking Parlor podcast. If you’re not sure how to subscribe then we’ve got some instructions for you.

World Dairy Diary coverage of World Dairy Expo is sponsored by:
NutriDense Silage Hoard's Dairyman Magazine Charleston Orwig

Dairy, Podcasts, World Dairy Expo

Making Some New Media Plans

Chuck Zimmerman

Gary, Robert and ChuckToday I met with ZimmComm web guru, Robert, pictured here in the middle. If you look at any ZimmComm site, including all that we’ve built for our clients then Robert has been the primary designer and developer. We had a very productive session today. You’ll be seeing the results of some of our ideas soon.

On the left is Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet. Gary and I attended the Podcast and New Media Expo before spending some time with Robert today. We’re working on some website revisions for Gary which will be showing up in the near future.

Tomorrow’s a travel day for me as I head to the World Dairy Expo. Cindy should be arriving as I get this posted. Keep an eye on World Dairy Diary to keep up with the activity there.

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