AgWired

I’m sorry Hugh but I had to do it.

I’m sure Hugh Whaley thought he was in a nice quiet little nook away from the crowd as he was working that Blackberry. I guess having just come out of the Commodity Classic trade show with all its noise I was struck with the calm intensity with which Hugh was thumbing away.

I think he’s one of the hardest working guys in agricultural communications and a long time friend. In fact, I remember when Hugh used to work for the American Soybean Association long before there was a Commodity Classic. Now he’s one of the key leaders of Osborn & Barr Communications.

Post Update: Hugh emailed me to make sure I know that he doesn’t use a Blackberry. He has a Palm Treo (like mine) and he’s not a crackberry addict but he may be a little Palm-Fried or maybe TreoOD.

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Now this is the kind of “booth” I like. Just pull your yacht up to the dock, hang out a banner and say “Y’all stop by now.”

Successful Farming had this one parked outside the convention center and people were wandering out to enjoy some sunshine today.

Waving from the dock next to the boat is Gene Hemphill and Holly Fritz.

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People getting on the shuttle buses at Commodity Classic today got a nice new backpack from BASF.

I saw them all over the trade show floor this evening. You know how you’re always picking something up at a trade show. The bags gave growers a handy way to carry that stuff around.

I kept hearing people who didn’t have one asking, “Where did you get that bag?”

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The opening reception at Commodity Classic was sponsored by Syngenta and had all your usual things like food, beverages, music and fellowship.

This year it also featured something I’ve never seen before. Crab races. This is definitely out of the ordinary.

Basically, you have people betting on who’s crab is going to win. They’re put under a little net in the middle of a table. The race master lifts up the net and the winner makes it to the outside circle first.

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The Classic blogger got his picture taken doing his thing.

I’ve got lots of pictures and audio for you but it’s time to head to the trade show opening for a while so bear with me as I’ll have a lot posted overnight.

In the meantime most of my pictures have been uploaded to the 2007 Commodity Classic Photo Album.

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New Holland is giving corn/soybean/wheat growers a chance to win a blue iPod this year at Commodity Classic.

Like last year all my interviews and pictures will be loaded onto the iPod before it gets shipped to the winner.

All growers have to do is go by the New Holland booth which I believe is number 333.

There’s really no stopping the iPod movement!

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Last year I had a couple of students helping me blog Commodity Classic. They were sponsored by Monsanto. This year they’re not working with me but Monsanto still has some student bloggers here.

One of them is Alyssa Bane. You can find her blog here. It says that you can follow the “Adventure in Agriculture through Alyssa’s Eyes.”

I am a freshman at the University of Illinois majoring in Agricultural Communications. I was selected to be one of the Ag Journalism Fellowship Program Interns, and I have the incredible opportunity to accompany the Monsanto public relations representatives to the 2007 Commodity Classic.

The other student blogger is Tyne Morgan. Tyne website is called Tyne’s Take.

I’m currently a junior at the University of Missouri-Columbia majoring in Agricultural Journalism. I started my career in radio at the age of 16 for an agricultural radio station in Northern Missouri. One thing led to another and I am now a Farm Broadcast Intern for Brownfield ag radio network. So, as you can tell I have a strong passion for agriculture and enjoy communicating agriculture’s story everyday.

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