CBOT Says Try Mini Me

Chuck Zimmerman

Chicago Board of TradeI guess that farm broadcasters needing some more program material have got it now. Mini Futures.

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) announced today that it will launch mini-sized CBOT Ag futures contracts on its e-cbot electronic trading platform. This is the first time these contracts will be available on an electronic platform and they will include mini-sized Corn, mini-sized Soybeans and mini-sized Wheat contracts.

The mini-sized Ag contracts are 1/5 the size of their full-sized counterparts, or 1,000 bushels. They will trade on the CBOT electronic trading platform on the overnight hours beginning at 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., Sunday through Friday. In addition, these products will continue to trade in the open auction market from 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.

The contracts are scheduled to launch mid-second quarter 2007. CBOT mini-sized Ag contracts are designed to provide market participants with enhanced trading opportunities, offer global customers, particularly in Asia, a smaller contract that is sized to their needs. In addition, these products will utilize CBOT’s innovative process for directed fungibility allowing market participants the opportunity to offset mini-sized contracts against full-sized contracts as they near expiration. These mini-sized contracts will benefit from the arbitrage opportunities with the full-sized contracts, and the increasing liquidity during the European and Asian trading day.

Agribusiness

Rodeo Blogging in Green Bay

Chuck Zimmerman

Three Hills RodeoAs I was driving to a client presentation today I received a phone call from another client and tomorrow I’m headed to Green Bay, WI for the Three Hills Rodeo. This is going to be fun. For one thing, I haven’t been to a rodeo for a while. For another, I’ll be shooting some more video to play around with on my Mac afterward.

The client is New Holland which is a rodeo sponsor and Michael Peterson will be kicking things off. I’ll have a lot more for you starting on Friday and over the weekend.

New Holland Helps Open Chutes for Rodeo Action!

Three Hills RodeoAs the Official 2007 Sponsor of Three Hills Rodeo, Inc. New Holland will help behind the scenes at events as a New Holland TM145 will be grooming the arena at our events. While the new Skid Steer is on the road, a New Holland TM145 tractor will be servicing the livestock needs on the ranch in Iowa. Gene Hemphill, of New Holland, has also helped bring a great attraction to the Front End of the Three Hills Production. Michael Peterson, Country Music Recording Artist and New Holland Spokesman will be performing at Green Bay Bulls and Broncs Event. We hope to see him at other events down the rodeo trail!!!

Yes sir. This should be a fun event to blog about.

Agribusiness, New Holland, Rodeo

The NDCPPHRB

Chuck Zimmerman

Terry WeckerlyI want you to say, “North Dakota Crop Protection Product Harmonization and Registration Board” 7 times in a row real fast. Ready? Go.

Terry Weckerly, Vice President of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association was named to the North Dakota Crop Protection Product Harmonization and Registration Board. The North Dakota Crop Protection Product Harmonization and Registration Board was created by the state Legislature specifically to address and resolve pesticide availability and pricing fairness issues for the state’s farmers. The bi-partisan board consists of elected state officials and farmers who have a common mission of working with regulators and pesticide manufacturers to make effective products available at fair prices. It seeks to promote the registration of new, safe crop protection products for farmers to use on the more than 70 crops that are raised in North Dakota. Primarily, the board is focused on efforts to harmonize the availability and pricing of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides to match those of our world competitors, most notably in Canada, our immediate neighbor to the north.

Ag Groups

Cathy Erickson To Manage O&B Des Moines

Chuck Zimmerman

Cathy EricksonOsborn & Barr Communications has a new managing director for its Des Moines office.

Cathy will serve as the strategic lead for Iowa-based accounts, and will manage the overall productivity and growth of the Osborn & Barr Iowa and Upper Midwest operations.

“Cathy brings to the agency a wealth of marketing knowledge and understanding of the Iowa, ag and rural marketplaces,” said O&B Senior Vice President Hugh Whaley. “Her event marketing expertise will be a great addition to our service offering for current and potential clients.”

Prior to joining O&B, Cathy served as director of marketing and events at Clear Channel Radio in Iowa, where she gained extensive management, promotion, media relations and public relations experience with clients including John Deere, Iowa Soybean Association, Owens Corning and Petco. Most notably, she produced the WHO Radio Great Iowa Tractor Ride from its inception through its ten-year anniversary, Under her direction the event grew to immediately sell out every year, draw 27 sponsors annually, and was replicated by Cathy in multiple Clear Channel markets.

Agencies

iPhone Drawing At NAMA Booth

Chuck Zimmerman

iPhone Drawing at ZimmComm New Media/Truffle Media Networks NAMA BoothHere’s a reason to go to the NAMA Convention and stop by the ZimmComm New Media/Truffle Media Network Booth. How would you like to be one of the first people to get an iPhone?

We’re conducting a drawing from our NAMA Convention Trade Show booth for an iPhone.

The winner will receive their phone as soon as they’re available. A service plan is not being included. We’ll conduct the drawing at the conclusion of the trade show but the winner doesn’t have to be present and I’ll announce it right here.

So if you want to find out more about how to include new media options in your communications plan, you know where to go. Hey, you just might be a winner!

NAMA

E Energy Adams Live Webcam

Chuck Zimmerman

E Energy Adams WebcamAfter putting a link to E Energy Adams in my last ZimmCast post I took a closer look at their website and found out I could take a closer look at their ethanol plant under construction. If you’ve ever wanted to watch an ethanol plant being built, well now you can.

They’ve got a very cool live webcam set up which allows you to control it (pan, tilt, zoom, etc.). This is a still photo from just a couple minutes ago. You have two choices of what kind of stream you want to view, Motion Jpeg or Mpeg-4. You can watch as the crews are hard at work. If more than one person is on at the same time it puts you into a queue so you wait your turn. Then you’ve got about a minute before your time’s up.

I’ve been discussion webcams for ag applications with a number of people lately and thought you might be interested in seeing this one.

Agribusiness, Ethanol

Ethanol, EPIC and Indy

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-112 - Ethanol at IndyThis past weekend I got to spend some time in the home state attending the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300. It was historic because it was the first race powered by 100% ethanol fuel. No matter who won, ethanol won. In fact, if you checked out the coverage on ESPN2 they called it the Ethanol Indy 300.

While I was there I interviewed Bobby Rahal, Rahal-Letterman Racing, for his thoughts just before the race kicked off. You can hear him in this week’s program. Of course he might have had a few choice words after the race too since one of his driver’s, Jeff Simmons, spun out in lap 93. I also spoke with Jack Alderman, Chairman of E Energy Adams, an ethanol plant under construction in Adams, NE and a brand new member of EPIC, my coverage sponsor. Jack says they joined EPIC because the industry needs a promotional champion and small ethanol plants can’t do it themselves.

BTW. This is my first ZimmCast fully edited in Garage Band on the Mac. I did it using 4 tracks of audio and after getting some more self-training time in. I think I’m getting more acclimated to to the Mac world everyday.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 112 (8 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast112-3-28-07.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.

Audio, Ethanol, ZimmCast

IFAJ Star Prize Contest

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ Star PrizeIf you’re an agricultural photographer then it’s time to enter the IFAJ Star Prize contest.

The entries are now open. You can find out more information by visiting the IFAJ website or emailing Katharina Seuser.

The competition closes May 1, 2007. The IFAJ Star Prize is sponsored by John Deere.

IFAJ

Growing Goodness Online Community

Chuck Zimmerman

Growing GoodnessHere’s a new website/community called Growing Goodness or the Farmers Market Channel. It looks like supporters of Farm Aid are behind it since when you open the site you get a Farm Aid YouTube video clip. If you’re looking for a good example of an online community you might want to check it out. There are a number of links to organic farm websites for example. You can visit their Vlog here.

Growing Goodness™ is a community-based broadband TV network for viewers with extremely passionate interests—beyond what cable television can provide.

Our mission is to create more public awareness and active interest
in our local farmers markets.

• Explore the U.S. farmers market world
• Generate farmers market awareness and active interest
• Increase understanding of community affairs and events
• Foster lifelong skills for good living
• Spotlight excellence in goodness

Farmers Market Channel™
Hosted by the community members our Farmers Market Channel™ spotlights farmers, locally grown produce and neighborhood farmers markets.

Post Update: I heard from Keith Gengler who originally brought the site to my attention that my story has one little correction as follows: Thanks for the blog story (http://agwired.com/2007/03/27/growing-goodness-online-community/) every little bit helps. Farm Aid is not behind this project not as of yet anyway… we are simply reporting on their most amazing and generous contributions. Our PRIMETIME content changes frequently. Growing Goodness is a grass-based movement and is powered by the Growing Goodness community as seen listed and linked throughout the site.

Ag Groups, Farming

Beach on a Phone

Chuck Zimmerman

Ft. Lauderdale BeachThis picture shows you why I miss Florida. This is Ft. Lauderdale beach on Sunday where I went for a power walk in the sand.

That’s one of the reasons I didn’t post much after Saturday’s late night, rain-delayed, IRL race.

Sometimes you just need a little relaxation. All I had with me was my Palm Treo but it does pretty good in sunlight.

Uncategorized