Zimfo Bites

Chuck Zimmerman February 24, 2007

Some tidbits you might enjoy:

New D&PL Soybeans Combine STS and Roundup Ready Trait Technology (pdf) – Midsouth soybean producers will be able to better manage herbicide resistance while setting the stage for high yield potential with the new Roundup Ready/STS stacked-trait soybean varieties from Delta and Pine Land Company.
Cottage Hill Farm Receives USPOULTRY’s Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award – Cottage Hill Farm, Petersburg, W.Va., was selected as one of five family farms around the nation to receive the Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award at the 2007 International Poultry Expo. This award is given by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association in recognition of exemplary environmental stewardship by family farmers engaged in poultry and egg production. Cottage Hill Farm was chosen as the winner from the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Rural Broadband Access Remains Challenging – The broadband growth statistics become more impressive with each new study: 78 percent of all home web users have high-speed connections. Broadband coverage will reach 50 percent of all U.S. households in 2007. And major cities such as Los Angeles are pushing for free or inexpensive wireless access for all residents.
New Holland Used Website – With its first birthday just around the corner, the www.newhollandused.com website is drawing loads of attention, with January receiving over 100,000 visits, and helping New Holland dealers move 1,677 pieces of used equipment with a value of at least $105.8 Million!

I just received a link to Monsanto’s annual pipeline technology update “Putting technology to work in the field: 2007 R&D pipeline at a glance.” (PDF) The invite says:

I think you will find it is a useful reference guide for the ways Monsanto is investing in beneficial ag technologies and the pipeline progress of important projects. It also contains information on breeding advances and the development of new generations of crop technologies.

It’s a very colorful and comprehensive update.

Agribusiness

Podvertising Growing

Chuck Zimmerman February 23, 2007

A new article on eMarketer.com talks about the growth in advertising in podcasts. They’re looking at the whole issue from a mass consumer standpoint and make it very clear that this is a niche audience channel. What I’d like to see is research on those of us who are specifically using it as a niche vs. mass audience channel. For example, my weekly ZimmCast is usually downloaded somewhere between 50 and 100 times within the week after I first post a new episode. However, if you look at the downloads for programs over the last year I have some programs that have been downloaded as many as 900 times. I haven’t really tried to find an advertiser for it yet although feel free to be the first one! The key here is who those people are. If they’re the top thought leaders in our niche business then I don’t care about the masses do I? Who do you most want to reach? The leaders right?

Here’s an excerpt from the eMarketer.com article:

As a rule, most widely consumed podcasts still have less than 50,000 downloaders, and most have far fewer, but podcast distribution and viewing mechanisms are proliferating and podcast advertising has marketers buzzing.

No wonder.

Even though podcast advertising spending was a mere $3.1 million in 2005, it rose to $80 million in 2006, and eMarketer forecasts that it will grow fivefold in the next five years.

I have no doubts they’re right. There’s seems to be no stopping iPod sales and with the iPhone coming out soon even more people are going to be looking for content to listen to. Are you in the conversation?

Podcasts

Bob’s Buying For Kemin

Chuck Zimmerman February 23, 2007

Bob sounds like he has a job I would enjoy. Just ask Cindy. She’s always saying that I buy too much stuff but I keep telling her it’s all for the growth of our business. Hey Bob, someone’s got to do it, right?

Kelly Parnell, director of operations for Kemin AgriFoods North America, announces the appointment of Bob Minkler as Senior Supply Chain Specialist for Kemin AgriFoods North America. Parnell said, “Bob’s many years of experience in purchasing will help us better manage our input costs and ingredient inventories.”

Minkler joined Kemin from Briggs Corporation in Des Moines where he was New Business Development Manager and Senior Buyer. Earlier, he worked for BK Nogg, Titan Distribution, Cobbs Manufacturing, and Rolscreen Company. His experience includes assignments as Industrial Engineer, Methods Analyst, Operations Manager and Planner.

Agribusiness

FMC Wants You To Be A Hero

Chuck Zimmerman February 23, 2007

The activity at Commodity Classic next week is going to be hot and heavy and you’re going to get a full dose here on AgWired starting Wednesday morning. Leading up to next week’s event, we’ve been getting a rundown on the activities of all the major companies who will be exhibiting like FMC. I thought this was a pretty cool idea so I thought I’d share it with you here.

When corn, soybean and wheat growers from around the nation gather in Tampa next week for the 2007 Commodity Classic event, FMC Corporation will give them a unique way to support U.S. servicemen and women stationed overseas. Today FMC announced it will make a donation to support the United Service Organization’s (USO) Operation Care Package initiative as part of the company’s “Be a Hero, Support a Hero” promotion at the Commodity Classic event. For every crop producer who registers for the company’s prize drawing at the FMC Corporation booth (#300) at the Commodity Classic trade show, the company will donate $5.00 to the USO Operation Care Package initiative. In addition, FMC will make a $5.00 donation to “Operation Care Package” for every crop producer who attends the FMC What is New and Closing Learning Center sessions at the Commodity Classic event. Read More

Agribusiness

Rhea & Kaiser Hosts High School Ag Students

Chuck Zimmerman February 23, 2007

This 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.

Another 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 February 23, 2007

Cattle-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 February 22, 2007

I’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 February 22, 2007

I 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 February 21, 2007

It’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

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