Don Gomery Awarded The Crowing Cockerel

Chuck Zimmerman

Netherthorpe AwardThis is just too good. Don Gomery (pictured left) is an example of the wonderful kind of agricultural journalist you’ll get to know if you become involved in the activities of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. If you were a member then you’d know from the new and improved IFAJ Newsletter that he just won a very prestigious award from the Guild of Agricultural Journalists. Don is pictured receiving the award from former Guild president Tony Pexton. Don, I will lift a pint in your honor the first chance I get.

The Guild’s honorary general secretary, Don Gomery, was the surprised and delighted recipient of the Netherthorpe ‘Communicator of the Year’ award, presented at the Royal Show. The Netherthorpe is the Guild’s most prestigious award, as it is made on the basis of nominations to a member judged to have made a prolonged, consistent and high-quality contribution to communications within agriculture and/or horticulture and the countryside.

Despite this busy workload, Don finds time to handle the endless administration involved in keeping the Guild running, while also representing the organisation at International Federation meetings. He has been honorary general secretary for 22 years now and during that time has been involved in some way or other with just about every event the Guild has staged, including International Congresses held in Britain in 1987 and 1997, while also helping look after the Guild’s Charitable Trust as its secretary.

Here’s the best part of the story though. “All in all, a well-deserved recipient of the bronze ‘Crowing Cockerel’ trophy, which is displayed year-round in the bar of the Farmers Club in London.” I think we should have an AAEA award on permanent display in a bar somewhere too. Maybe Howl at the Moon?

IFAJ, International

Getting To Know Syngenta

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-133 - Syngenta Learning CentersIt’s going to be a green week on AgWired as I cover the John Deere product launch in Cincinnati, OH. That coverage should start on Wednesday. With some nice rain falling here in central Missouri maybe it’ll be a green week at home too since we’ve been dry.

On this week’s program you can hear Farm Industry News editor Karen McMahon talk with me about the Syngenta Learning Centers field day we attended in Iowa last week. Karen was one of several media representatives attending. The event provided a great opportunity to learn more about the company and their brands. I don’t know about you but with all the mergers and acquisitions of different brands it can be a little confusing to reporters. Think of how difficult it might be for farmers too.

The program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network and Alex Lehrhoff. The song is “Green Roots Blues.” If you’re going to go green, do it with the blues.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 133 (10 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast133-8-20-07.mp3

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Agribusiness, Audio, Syngenta, ZimmCast

Oscar in Agriculture Award Deadline Extended

Chuck Zimmerman

Oscar in AgricultureWhile I’m on the topic of farm broadcasting I thought some of you might be interested to know that the deadline for the New Holland Oscar in Agriculture award has been extended.

You’ve now got until September 28 to get your entries in.

The New Holland Oscar in Agriculture program recognizes and encourages excellence in broadcast reporting on a wide variety of issues. The purpose of this award is to recognize excellence in reporting skill, thoroughness and attention to audience interest. Entries should describe the approach used to develop the reporting and coverage of that issue. The nomination should also include enough examples of articles or taped programs to illustrate the scope of the work. All work submitted must have been aired on or after August 1, 2006.

You can find the entry form online here.

Entries need to be filled out and sent to:

Dr. Kristina M. Boone
301 Umberger Hall
Dept. of Communications
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3402
Phone: 785-532-5804

NAFB

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.

    Uncategorized

    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.

    Uncategorized

    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