Agriblogging Away

Chuck Zimmerman

Just two years ago when I mentioned blogs to people in agrimarketing I got blank looks or an amazing amount of skeptical comments. Since then our business has flourished and we’re seeing more and more adoption of new media channels in agricultural communications. I’ll be speaking on the subject at an ag journalism class in Columbia, MO on Tuesday. Colleges are realizing that their students need to know more about these mechanisms if they’re going to be prepared properly for the real world when they graduate. Companies of all kinds are also starting to get it.

I’ve been doing a little bit of office catch up this past week and realizing how far we’ve come already. For example, here’s a list of websites we’ve built for clients and in some cases continue to manage:

I think we may need to get beyond the fact that these are blogs and just consider them websites that can be updated easily and frequently, are highly search engine optimized, can be subscribed to and provide a direct channel of communication to customers who are searching for information and probably the thought leaders in their business.

Uncategorized

Moving To His Own Private Idaho

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve Taylor and MeI can’t believe I went a whole day without posting but it was a catch-up day after many on the road. One of the things I got to do yesterday though was help Steve Taylor load a truck to move stuff to Idaho. Steve used to be the executive director of the Missouri Beef Industry Council and is how the CEO of the Appaloosa Horse Club.

This is my first post from my Mac. I also spent a while yesterday moving all my data from my Dell. About the only thing I’ve got left is to re-format my iPod for the Mac and learn some new software.

So far I like it. Since I’ve been a Microsoft Office user for so long I went ahead and purchased Office for Mac so I’m fully compatible with anything you want to send me. I’ll be online a lot today so look for some more posts soon.

Ag Groups

My Mac

Chuck Zimmerman

My MacIs there anyone who doesn’t know what company this logo stands for? When I got home this afternoon from a blog training session in Kansas City I found that my Mac had arrived. You’ll notice that the apple is not lit up. That’s because I haven’t had time to turn it on yet and yes, I’m typing this on a PC.

As I go through my Mac conversion experience I thought I’d document it and periodically post some pictures and thoughts about it for you. I’m hoping this will be good for both of us. I’ve always thought of Apple computers as some sort of mysterious gadgets that geeky people used. If you’ve thought the same thing then maybe I can take some of the mystery out of it. We’ll find out together is this box is everything they claim it to be.

I’ve also created a photo album for the experience too. It’s just got a few unpacking photos in it right now but I’ll be adding to it periodically. I guess my first comment on the experience is when I visited the Apple store. I had an appointment with an advisor who spent a lot of time with me and not only answered all my questions but showed me how he’s personally using his Mac. When I started to unpack I was struck by how simple the unit is packaged. There’s not a ton of stuff here. You’ve got the box, the ac adapter, a remote control and a get started booklet. Simple. Not a lot of junk that seems to come with a PC. Score one for Apple in my opinion.

Well you know what I’ll be doing this weekend. I’m going to set it up myself and tranfer all my PC data to it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Uncategorized

A Skateboard in Your Farm Plan

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Plan Skateboard AdI guess this is a magazine ad for John Deere’s Farm Plan program. I’m not sure how many farmers are skateboarders but it caught the attention of Adrants which is where I saw it.

Adrants links to larger pictures of the ads. There’s one for Skateboards and one for Disco Ball.

You can catch Disco Ball in action on the Farm Plan website.

It’s nice sometimes to see creative that’s creative.

Advertising, Agribusiness, John Deere

WildBlue Down on the QuickFarm

Chuck Zimmerman

QuickfarmI haven’t heard anything from or about Wild Blue in a long time. I guess they’re doing okay though if they’re hiring Quickfarm to handle a customer web portal for them. This also makes you realize how important the rural market is to a satellite internet access provider. I wonder how many farmer customers WildBlue has.

WildBlueQuickFarm announced today an agreement with WildBlue Communications to provide content and hosting services through the WildBlue Customer Portal.

QuickFarm will provide WildBlue retail subscribers with robust market commentary, national radar weather with zoom and animation, commodity market quotes, Ag news, LDP information, cash grain prices and local news and agronomic information.

An always-on broadband Internet connection, WildBlue’s service offers access speeds that are up to thirty times faster than dial-up. WildBlue’s two-way broadband service provides high-speed data in both directions, upstream and downstream.

Agribusiness, Internet

Big Thinkers Thinking About NAMA

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Convention 2007The NAMA Convention Trade Show Committee is meeting right now. We’re hoping you’re “Thinking Big” and planning on being there this year in Dallas.

We’ve got some great plans coming together for the Trade Show. Right after the Best of NAMA you’ll be able to go downstairs to the show and enjoy several varieties of good wine and food, sponsored by DTN. Don’t forget to come look for your AgriMarketing Magazine toy tractor too.

Then we’ll be open for lunch on Thursday of the convention and have a unique game for you with an awesome prize. More on that later. We’re still looking for a sponsor for the Trade Show Lunch session. Interested?

Finally, on Thursday evening we’ll have the closing session and lets just say that you probably have never seen the kind of activity we have planned. It involves animals. It’s sponsored by NAFB. Again, more on that later.

I almost forgot to add that we’ll have a door prize at each session which will be a digital picture frame and one final session prize which will be a 30GB Video iPod!

NAMA

Alltech Symposium on Food, Feed or Fuel

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech 2007 SymposiumIf you don’t have an invitation to the Alltech 23rd International Feed Industry Symposium, May 20-23, 2007 in Lexington, KY, then you need to contact your local Alltech representative. I’ll be there along with the whole International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) executive committee.

In fact, besides covering the event here on AgWired I’ll be conducting a blogging/podcasting workshop for the IFAJ. This is going to be fun. I hope they all speak at least some English.

The theme of this year’s Symposium is “The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed or Fuel?” It’s a subject on everyone’s mind.

The shift in corn use toward fuel ethanol has wide-ranging implications for the animal feed industry in terms of feed costs, availability, and ration formulation. It also raises the crucial question of whether ethanol production might place an important human food source out of reach of the world’s population, particularly the poor.

As such, a special goal of this year’s Symposium is to look at how practices, products, and programs will ultimately affect how we utilize feed energy as well as protein ingredient resources.

Agribusiness, IFAJ

2007 PRRS Research Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

2007 PRRS Research WinnersThe folks at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. have announced the recipients of its 2007 Advancement in PRRS Research Awards.

This year’s selected research programs focus on the development of monitoring and sample diagnostic guidelines, risk factors and transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Each year $75,000 is awarded to support three separate studies by independent swine researchers and practitioners in their investigation of new ways to diagnose, control and eradicate this costly swine disease.

The following are the 2007 award recipients and their research proposals recognized at the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) Conference in Orlando, Fla.:

Jeff Zimmerman, DVM, PhD, Iowa State University, Ames (pictured on left) – research award to develop an inexpensive and convenient method for PRRS virus monitoring; to evaluate the stability of PRRS virus; and to develop guidelines for handling and diagnostic monitoring of oral fluid samples.

Derald Holtkamp, DVM, MS, Iowa State University, Ames (pictured in middle) – research award to conduct a cross-sectional study of PRRS-positive swine breeding herd sites to evaluate the association between risk factors and a case definition based on number and severity of clinical PRRS episodes.

Bob Morrison, PhD, MS, University of Minnesota (pictured on right) – for his research proposal to estimate, quantify and compare PRRS virus transmission information between pigs of different PRRS vaccination status.

Agribusiness

Largest Combine in North America

Chuck Zimmerman

Lexion 595RThis is one big combine and it was on display at the Commodity Classic last week.

I really didn’t get much done in the way of video but Cindy got motivated and thought that something this big spinning on a pedestal was worth a minute of YouTube’s time.

So here’s what you’ve got. A minute of: The largest combine in North America, the LEXION 590R, is now available on tracks with the 2007 introduction of the LEXION 595R. Bob Armstrong, product marketing manager in Omaha, says the LEXION 595R uses the proven technology of the 590R—introduced two years ago and still the largest combine in North America—and provides the largest footprint of any combine harvester on the market. The 595R utilizes the Mobil-Trac System, providing more flotation than any tire combination available today at 10.5 PSI and the capability of road speeds up to 18 mph.

Commodity Classic, Equipment, Video

The NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

Dale LudwigThe word is out and the NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year is Dale Ludwig, Missouri Soybean Association. I just saw Dale at Commodity Classic and congratulated him. I guess we’ll see him in Dallas.

The National Agri-Marketing Association has named Dale R. Ludwig, executive director/CEO of the Missouri Soybean Association and the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council, the 2007 Agribusiness Leader of the Year. This award, which is NAMA’s highest honor, will be presented at the Opening General Session of the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Think Big!,” April 12, 2007 in Dallas, TX. The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness related areas who exemplify excellence in agribusiness by their significant contributions to the industry.

Ludwig is a visionary leader with a proven record of building coalitions to improve Missouri agriculture. He helped forge producer/agribusiness partnerships that have positioned Missouri as a leader in biodiesel production. In addition, he pioneered the effort to identify new traits in soybeans through biotechnology and helped re-position the U.S. soybean commodity with competitive advantages over global competitors.

Ag Groups, NAMA, Soybean