Blogging From Berlin

Chuck Zimmerman

Checkpoint Charlie BearI will find out the story behind Checkpoint Charlie Bear. He sits outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel here in Berlin city center. He certainly helps you know where you are.

I just got settled in to the hotel and thought I’d start off with a short video clip for you. You can expect more than this over the next several days. Once I get into the Green Week complex there’s going to be lots of demonstrations that will lend themselves well to video.

I can’t say that Berlin is the prettiest city I’ve ever been in but then I don’t have a car to drive around in either. I was here for International Green Week years ago and got to take a tour. I know there’s a lot to see in the area.

You’ll be seeing a lot of information from the IFAJ board meeting and the show at International Green Week. As I recall it’s acres of food from around the world. When I was here before I didn’t even have a digital camera but I did take a lot of pictures. I should have scanned some of them. Now why didn’t I think of that.

Post Update:

According to a hotel staffer the bear is a “buddy bear” which is one of many scattered throughout the city (sounds like the Cow Parade) and the bear is the city mascot. If you’ve got more than that let me know.

IFAJ, Video

Make Farmetrics Predictions Receive Rewards

Chuck Zimmerman

FarmetricsIt always helps to have a cool name. Farmetrics. The release says the site is “sponsored” by Bunge Global Markets, Inc. The copyright on the site says Bunge so I’m thinking it’s more like a Bunge website don’t you think? If not let me know.

Farmetrics, the first prediction market tailored for U.S. agribusiness, enables participants to learn more about local, state and national crop conditions. Using their knowledge and experience in the agricultural industry, participants submit predictions for local planted acreage, yield and harvested acreage at www.farmetrics.com. These predictions are aggregated and shared weekly with participants. Farmetrics provides access to information as local as the county level. Farmetrics participants can even earn Reward Points redeemable for prizes at an online catalog. There is no cost to participate or win.

“Gaining real-time, more accurate information about local crop conditions is vital to U.S. agribusiness,” said Bill Towles, who manages farmer focus programs for the Web site’s sponsor, Bunge Global Markets, Inc. “The Farmetrics Prediction Market helps everyone manage risk more closely. It is already proving to be an important tool in understanding supply conditions around the country.”

Agribusiness

National Corn Marketer

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast102 - Fred Stemme, NCGAThe National Corn Growers Association is familiar to just about everyone in agriculture but how many of you know how their marketing department works? To find out what they do there in St. Louis I dropped in and spoke with NCGA Vice President of Marketing, Fred Stemme. Fred used to work here in mid Missouri for the Missouri Corn Growers Association before getting his job with the national organization.

Fred Stemme, NCGAThis week’s program is a conversation between Fred and myself. I asked Fred when he’s going to start the NCGA blog and he didn’t say “never.” I also asked him if he thought news bloggers could be considered legitimate media. You’ll have to listen to hear his answer. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Fred’s pictured here in the NCGA office in Chesterfield (west St. Louis) in front of their display of products made from corn.

To listen to my complete interview with Fred you can download the ZimmCast: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 102 (23 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast102-1-15-07.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.

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bites

Chuck Zimmerman

Zimfo Bytes

Blog Post on AgWired = High Search Engine Rank

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag SpeakI spoke to a representative from AgSpeak on Friday and as we were talking I did a Google search of their name. They already knew this but the results show their website at the top and the 2 posts I did on them on AgWired show up as numbers 4 and 5 on the list! That’s higher than the news release they sent out through PRNewswire.

I’m pointing this out for a couple of reasons.

1. If you want to show up high in online searches for people searching a lot of ag related terms and keywords then figure out how to get on AgWired. That may be from me writing about you and your company or product or event. That might be from some type of sponsored content or advertising. How about having me do a review of a product or service? Let’s say it’s a tractor. I could drive it, take pictures of it including video and write about the experience and interview you while doing this. Just giving you some ideas.

2. To point out again one of the key ways a blog helps you in your online strategy. These websites are highly search engine optimized. How much are you paying for SEO? How much would it cost to start a blog? You might want to compare these things.

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bites

Chuck Zimmerman

Zimfo Bytes

Thinking About National Agriculture Day

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag Day LogoRight about now I like the idea of spring. We’re in an ice storm situation here in the midwest. It’s nasty out.

That’s why I thought we should think about National Agriculture Day which is coming up in just a couple months.

National Agriculture Day takes place on the first day of spring as a way to celebrate American agriculture and to honor the people – farmers – who work to meet our everyday needs. In honor of this special time of the year, the Agriculture Council of America (ACA) is coordinating events in Washington, D.C. on March 15 to celebrate the importance of agriculture to America’s economy and society.

“Many Americans have lost the knowledge and understanding about how agriculture touches our everyday lives,” said Jim Bone, vice president product development, public and government affairs, DuPont Crop Protection, and chairman, ACA. “National Agriculture Day is a time to create awareness of the role agriculture plays in providing food, fiber, shelter, energy and other materials.”
Read More

Ag Groups

Nutrena Iron Horse Award Winner

Chuck Zimmerman

World's Best AppaloosaI’m sure you know that we built a blog for the Appaloosa Horse Club and I think Steve Taylor and company are off to a good start with it. So we now get their announcements like this one about the Nutrena Iron Horse Award. I’ve heard of an iron man competition but this is the first I’ve heard of an iron horse competition.

The Appaloosa Horse Club crowned the second Nutrena Iron Horse at the 2006 World Championship Appaloosa Show in Fort Worth, Texas. The $10,000 award is sponsored by Nutrena, the official feed of the Appaloosa Horse Club. CAPTAIN ZIP AHOY was crowned the 2006 Nutrena® Iron Horse as well as the World’s Best Appaloosa. The World’s Best Appaloosa award is one of the most prestigious awards in the colored breed community, and CAPTAIN ZIP AHOY became the first horse to win it in conjunction with the Nutrena Iron Horse award. CAPTAIN ZIP AHOY, sired by COUNTRY CAPTAIN and out of RESTLESS BREEZE, is owned by Jim Jirkovsky of Kearney, Nebraska.

Ag Groups, Horses

Russell Graves Photo Essays

Chuck Zimmerman

Russell Graves - Puddle JumperRussell Graves has given me permission to use some of his photos here on AgWired and I’d sure like to do it more often. In fact, I hope to meet Russell in person some time. I just know we’d get along great. He’s going to continue to document wildlife in a variety of ways and I’m going to continue to document agribusiness not only here on AgWired but with some other plans I have for the future.

I thought I’d point you to Russell’s website again since he updates it with new online photo essays. The one this picture is from is called Puddle Jumpers. Take some time to visit Russell and enjoy some great photography.

Uncategorized