Rhea & Kaiser Hosts High School Ag Students

Chuck Zimmerman

Rhea & Kaiser Groundhog Day EventThis first picture is of Jim Myers, vice president, creative director at Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications discussing integrated marketing communications with students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Rhea & Kaiser hosted the students as part of the national Groundhog Job Shadowing Week. It’s a great idea to have students get a taste of the real world in a setting where they’re free to observe. I think I need to do some of this too.

This was the third year R&K invited high school students to its Naperville headquarters as part of Groundhog Job Shadowing Week, a national program that each February gives middle and high school kids a firsthand look at day-to-day life in the workplace. Helping prepare tomorrow’s leaders means taking time today to show the opportunities while encouraging them to stay in school and develop their skills,” said Steve Rhea, president and CEO of Rhea & Kaiser and a CHSAS advisory board member.

Students received an overview of R&K’s integrated marketing communications operations, as well as presentations from the agency’s Creative, Media, Production and Public Relations groups. A tour of the Naperville office followed.

Rhea & Kaiser Groundhog Day EventAnother Rhea & Kaiser staffer, Brooke Hepler, far right, got in the picture. She’s posing with eight students and a counselor from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.

R&K also has provided job shadowing and professional development opportunities for students from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Illinois Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Northwestern University and the National FFA Organization. An internship at R&K is scheduled for 2007.

Agencies

New Cattle-Fax Officers & Directors

Chuck Zimmerman

Cattle-FaxCattle-Fax has some new officers and directors. They were elected during the organization’s board meeting at the recent Cattle Industry Convention. The new President is Alabama cattleman Ned Ellis, owner of Circle E Farms.

Ellis is the Southeast Regional director on the Cattle-Fax Board. He succeeds John Maddux of Imperial, Neb., as president. Jamie Willrett, the Midwest Regional director on the Cattle-Fax board, was named president-elect. New directors elected to the Cattle-Fax board are Kevin Hughes of Boise, Idaho, and Kent Bamford of Haxtun, Colorado.

Ag Groups

President Bush With Ethanol Indy Car

Chuck Zimmerman

President Bush & Indy Car - White House PhotoI’ve got to believe all my friends in the ethanol business are happy about this picture. President Bush visited Novozymes today in Franklinton, NC.

He was there to participate in a panel discussion on cellulosic ethanol. The best part of the story is that it’s on the White House website, including the picture of President Bush with the #17 Team Ethanol Indy Car. How much do you want to bet he’d like to get in that baby and take it for a spin?

Ethanol

Harker Now a Farm Broadcaster for Brownfield

Chuck Zimmerman

Julie HarkerI think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Business must be good at Brownfield. They’ve just added a new farm broadcaster and friend of mine, Julie Harker.

“We are excited to welcome Julie to the Brownfield team,” said Brownfield Farm Director Cyndi Young. “Her tremendous journalistic skill set and ability to communicate effectively to any group will help us further our mission to tell the story of agriculture to a broader audience.” Julie Harker was born in Chicago but grew up in the Missouri Ozarks. She came into radio in college where she got a job as an announcer at KSMU, a campus radio station at Missouri State University. She interned at KTTS, in Springfield, Mo., then moved to northwest Arkansas where she worked in local radio. Her radio path led her back to Missouri where she became a news writer at a station in Branson. That led her to Learfield, where for seven years she was an anchor/reporter with the Missourinet and for the past nine years has been a writer/editor for Learfield Data.

Okay, Cyndi. How many are on your team now?

Media

United Soybean Board Reviews Communications Contract

Chuck Zimmerman

Osborn & Barr CommunicationsIt’s always good to review how things are going and after 11 years it’s probably about time. However, I’m sure this can be an interesting time if you’re Osborn & Barr Communications.

Osborn & Barr Communications (O&B) today announced it will fully participate in a United Soybean Board (USB) periodic review of its communications contract. The USB decision to commence this review was reached during a regularly scheduled USB Board Meeting held this week.

“USB is mandated by the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, under which it operates, to annually evaluate its programs and program contractors,” stated Eric Niemann, USB chairman and Kansas soybean farmer. “Our responsibility as USB directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture requires us to periodically request additional marketplace information that will enable the board to decide how best to achieve its goals and strategic priorities. This request is a normal course of doing business and reflects our fiduciary responsibility to ensure we are receiving the greatest value for our investment.”

Niemann clarified that USB has not requested additional marketplace information or issued a request for proposal involving any of its primary contractors for more than 11 years. O&B has provided strategic and tactical communications support for USB since 1995.

This review will include an open request for proposals from qualified companies. Further details of the periodic review process will be announced by USB as they are developed. O&B will continue its role as a primary USB contractor, fulfilling all its current and any future assignments throughout USB’s 2007 fiscal year.

Ag Groups, Agencies, USB

Marcia Zarley Taylor Exec. Editor DTN

Chuck Zimmerman

Marcia Zarley TaylorDTN just announced that it has hired Marcia Zarley Taylor as executive editor.

She will play a key role in DTN’s efforts to expand its editorial coverage of the rapidly changing agriculture market driven by the expansion of renewable fuels. Widely regarded as one of the most authoritative voices in American agriculture, Taylor will bring additional depth and leadership to DTN’s industry leading news and market coverage.

Taylor comes to DTN from Top Producer magazine, where she served as editor-in-chief since 1990. Before joining Top Producer, she was the Washington, D.C. editor with Farm Journal and a farm management editor with Successful Farming magazine. She also took a sabbatical to teach as a visiting professor in agricultural journalism with the University of Missouri- Columbia.

Media

Rhea & Kaiser Reaps Some NAMA Joy

Chuck Zimmerman

Rhea & KaiserIt’s Rhea & Kaiser’s turn to brag about their NAMA regional awards. It looks like they made out very well with 14 first place honors.

In the Chicago regional competition, Rhea & Kaiser secured two Best of Show and eight first place awards in advertising, public relations and specialty categories. In Raleigh, Rhea & Kaiser was presented a Best of Show and five first place awards in advertising and public relations categories. Additionally, Rhea & Kaiser received a first place nod in the West Coast region for a Bayer CropScience advertising campaign. “We applaud the work of our teams, whose collective talents make it possible for Rhea & Kaiser to continue to excel in the agri-marketing communications industry,” said Van Kaiser, executive vice president and creative director.

Rhea & Kaiser achieved Best of Show in Chicago for two Pfizer Animal Health campaigns – “The Power of One: EXCEDE Launch Meeting” in the public relations events category and “REVOLUTION Kitty Commitment” in the advertising specialty categories. The agency won Best of Show in Raleigh for collateral work on the Bayer CropScience “SCALA Wine Brochure.”

Agencies, NAMA

Ethanol Song & Statistics

Chuck Zimmerman

Bob DinneenWhat a great week of biofuels blogging this has been. The National Ethanol Conference is now over and saying goodbye was RFA President/CEO, Bob Dinneen. One of the last things he did was play a video (I’ll try to get a copy) supplied by Ron Fagen, Fagen, Inc. It’s actually a music video so when you listen just imagine what pictures go with it. I’m guessing the song is titled, “I Love Ethanol.” It starts out with a little bit of IRL race car sound so give it a few seconds to develop.

Listen to the song here (5 min): nec-07-love-ethanol.mp3

The RFA released a new economic analysis on the impact of the U.S. ethanol industry today which I thought you might want to read. The report shows that in 2006 the industry is providing the federal government with a sound return on its investment. According to the analysis, ‘Contribution of the Ethanol Industry to the Economy of the United States,’ (pdf file) the federal government received tax revenues of $2.7 billion simply from the construction and operation of ethanol biorefineries. The tax revenue generated exceeded the amount of money the federal government provided in tax incentives to oil refiners who use ethanol.

Don’t forget that you can see all my photos from the Conference with this link: 2007 National Ethanol Conference Photo Album. If you haven’t checked it out, then you can see a lot more at the National Ethanol Conference Blog. Let me know what you think about having a conference blog. This is one of several that I’ve worked on now. How about bringing in the pioneers to do it for you?

Audio, Ethanol

RSS Feeds From NCGA

Chuck Zimmerman

National Corn Growers AssociationThe National Corn Growers Association just announced that they are now using RSS to distribute information. Just use this link to subscribe like I did with my NewsGator Outlook plugin. Why don’t we see more of this? It’s good for getting information to members and the media. Sure, not all farmers know how to use RSS. Not all of them have a computer either. But a growing number of them do. I think NCGA’s timing is great with Commodity Classic coming up next week. I’m sure this will be a great mechanism to help keep us all informed.

NCGA RSS FeedBeginning today, you can enjoy the convenience of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) News of The Day coming to your personalized home page. NCGA now provides free RSS feeds, bringing the latest news, Ag Roundups and other information direct to your computer. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is an XML-based format for content distribution. RSS feeds are free content feeds from Web sites, such as www.ncga.com, that contain article headlines, summaries and links back to full-text articles on the Web.

RSS is an easy way for you to be alerted when content that interests you appears on the NCGA web site. Instead of visiting a particular Web site to browse for new articles and features, RSS automatically tells you when something new is posted on the site.

Ag Groups, Corn

The State of the Ethanol Industry

Chuck Zimmerman

Bob DinneenIf you want a fact-filled rundown on just how things are going in the ethanol industry then look no further than today’s State of the Ethanol Industry speech by Renewable Fuels Association President/CEO, Bob Dinneen. He was introduced as the Reverend of Renewable Fuels and if you listen to the end of his speech you’ll know why. I love this quote from Bob, “We have met the nattering nabobs of negativity, and we have soared.” In a word, he says the ethanol industry is sound.

Here’s a couple quick facts from Bob’s speech. In 2006, the ethanol industry:

  • Increased gross output by $41 Billion;
  • Supported the creation of 163,000 jobs, including 20,000 in the manufacturing sector;
  • Put an additional $6.7 Billion into the pockets of American consumers;
  • Added $2.7 Billion in new tax revenue for the federal governmant and $2.2 Billion for state and local treasuries.

Here’s a link to the text of the speech: State of the Ethanol Industry (Word doc)

Listen to Bob’s speech here (25 min): nec-07-dinneen-open.mp3

Audio, Ethanol