A BCS Conversation

Chuck Zimmerman November 29, 2006

Here’s the magnificent trio of BCS Communications. (L-R) Illinois Blasdel, Kelly Schwalbe and Leigh Ann Cleaver.

It’s the BCS Communications open house. We did a little work before the “pig out” part of the party got started.

The agency is 4 years old now according to Illinois. You can learn more about how the agency is doing in our pre-party conversation which was recorded via web cam.

I just uploaded the video to YouTube so if you don’t see it yet, give it a few minutes to finish processing.

In the meantime you can also download the video here: BCS Communications Conversation (9 min WMV file)

Here’s the link to the interview from the first BCS open house last year: First BCS Interview

Agencies, Video

Chilly Piggies at BCS

Chuck Zimmerman November 29, 2006

Well winter has made its way to the midwest. Here’s my windshield after a few minutes at the BCS Communications open house in Kansas City.

We’re about to “pig out” here. I’ve got a nice little video interview of Illinois, Leigh Ann and Kelly for my next post.

If you’re a chocoholic then come on out and dip in the fountain. Who cares about a little ice and snow?

Agencies

The old food vs. fuel debate never ends. I am of the opinion that our farmers and agribusinesses can more than compensate for the needs of both. For example, take this announcement from ADM. They’re going to increase oilseed crushing capacity at a number of plants. I’m sure this is just one example of how we’ll continue to develop alternative fuel sources while still feeding the world.

Archer Daniels Midland Company will increase its North American oilseed crushing capacity through expansions at oilseed crushing plants in the U.S. and Canada. Five soybean crushing plants will be expanded in Quincy, Illinois; Frankfort, Indiana; Mexico, Missouri; Fremont, Nebraska and Des Moines, Iowa. Two canola crushing plants will also be expanded in Velva, North Dakota and Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada. The expansions will support ADM’s two North American biodiesel facilities in Mexico, Missouri and Velva, North Dakota. “Expanding our crush capacity will enable us to meet the increased demands for vegetable oil and oilseed proteins, driven by the world’s growing need for energy and food,” stated Scott Fredericksen, President-North American Oilseed Processing.

Agribusiness, Biodiesel, Soybean

Bean Breeding Ground (breaking)

Chuck Zimmerman November 29, 2006

Monsanto is building a new soybean breeding facility in South Dakota. They broke ground just this week in fact.

The site will develop and test new soybean varieties developed by Monsanto’s breeders, as well as varieties containing traits in various stages of pre-commercial advancement in the company’s product pipeline. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in conjunction with the dedication of the adjacent corn breeding facility that opened June 30, 2006. “Farmers in the Dakotas have been leading adopters of biotech-improved soybeans,” said Mike Hawbaker, Monsanto North America soybean breeding lead. “This new facility further supports their adoption and growth in acreage during the past decade. Harrisburg is an ideal location, and we look forward to serving our customers with this new facility.”

The 17,500-square-foot site will have an initial permanent staff of two and a seasonal staff of up to 10 part-time employees. South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds said that Monsanto’s plans in this area — coming so soon after the opening of its corn breeding facility — has positive implications for the state’s bio-tech and agricultural industries.

From left to right: Jay Van Den Top and Craig Hagen (both representing Harrisburg Industrial Park); Clint Turnbull (Monsanto); Senator John Thune; Mike Hawbaker and Brian Ternus (both of Monsanto); Jon Klemme and Jeff Eckhoff (both representing Lincoln County Economic Development Association); South Dakota Lt. Governor Dennis Daugaard; Harrisburg Mayor Reed Ramsted, and Rob Everist (representing Harrisburg Industrial Park).

Agribusiness, Soybean

NAMA Presentations Available Online

Chuck Zimmerman November 29, 2006

If you attended the NAMA Agribusiness Forum recently, the presentations that were recorded are now available online, including presenter slides. I’d tell you how to access them for free but I think Eldon would kill me. If you did attend then contact the NAMA office to obtain your coupon code for complimentary access. It’s just another benefit of attending.

If you didn’t attend you can still access the presentations for a reasonable fee. Either way you’ll need to go to http://payment.nama.org/forumpresent.html and select the presentations you would like to access.

NAMA is also interested in your input to help shape the content for next year’s Forum. If you’d like to have a say then please fill out the Agribusiness Forum survey at your convenience at www.nama.org/forum/survey.htm.

Get these 2007 dates on your calendar: Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show, April 11-13 in Dallas and the 2007 Agribusiness Forum, November 13-14 in Kansas City.

NAMA

Pigging Out With BCS

Chuck Zimmerman November 28, 2006

Isn’t he a cute little fellow? He’s got a nice set of antlers, something you don’t see on a pig everyday.

This is just to let you know I’ll be at the BCS Communications open house tomorrow evening. I’m hoping the weather cooperates.

Their invite says they’re going “hog wild” but I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay for that part.

So expect to see a little bit of online media content from this event. Hey, it’s what I do.

Agencies

RSS Feeds From CHS

Chuck Zimmerman November 28, 2006

Although I usually get CHS news releases via email or the service they use to distribute them, now I’m going to get them directly via their new RSS feed. It’s part of their new media room on their website. I sure wish more companies would get with the program and invest a little into this. I’ll be glad to help if you’ve got questions.

The CHS MediaRoom, being launched in conjunction with the company’s upcoming annual meeting, includes up-to-date contact information, corporate background materials, fact sheets, executive and Board of Director bios and key press releases. On Thursday, Nov. 30 and Friday, Dec. 1, the CHS MediaRoom will also have available speeches and a link to a live web cast of the company’s annual meeting. Further, journalists can opt-in to receive email alerts on news from CHS and schedule an interview. In regards to the upcoming annual meeting, staff from each operating area, senior management and the Board of Directors will be available for interviews, primarily before and after the business meeting on Friday.

Good job Lani.

Agribusiness

Where Is My Mediacom?

Chuck Zimmerman November 28, 2006

I don’t mean to complain but actually I really do. Since about 8:30am today our primary internet access has been down. We use the local cable company, Mediacom. I’ve spoken with their business account support staff at least 6 times. For half the day the reason was a loss of power from the utility company to their equipment.

The logical question was, “Do you have backup power?” They said they have generators but apparently weren’t using them. That’s not good. If you’re going to have business level accounts like ours you might want to consider that electricity is important!

Since then the reason has been that we’ve got line problems such as a low signal to noise ratio and major “packet loss.” I can’t believe we’re losing packets. Sounds bad. I’ve been promised a technician on the spot for the last 4 hours. It’s not looking promising.

So I’ve put in some serious work on my Sprint PCS card today. That’s my backup. I just wish the local Sprint had their EV-DO but it has allowed us to get our client work done. It’s just cut into my posting time in a major way.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest and expect more AgWired news soon.

They did say they’d pro-rate my service this month by a day. Ain’t that nice?

Uncategorized

Interactive Media Producer

Chuck Zimmerman November 28, 2006

Here’s a new communications title I haven’t seen before. Interactive media producer. This new media world is spawning a lot of uh, new things. It looks like Successful Farming is gearing up to move further ahead into this online world we live in. Kudos! It will be interesting to see some of Jason’s product.

Jason Meeker recently joined the staff of Successful Farming magazine’s Agriculture Online Web site, assuming the new position of Interactive Media Producer. Meeker previously was employed as Television and Multimedia Producer at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He has experience in production of video, Web content, podcasts, and other multimedia. He has a B.A. in broadcasting/business from the University of Northern Iowa and an MBA from the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. Meeker has ten years of experience in video production and six years of Web content production.

Media, Publication

Blog Posts On Google News Searches

Chuck Zimmerman November 27, 2006

I know a lot of people who use Google Alerts. Here’s one I got this evening that I’ve had for a long time for the keyword “dairy.” I’ve been hearing about how Google is adding blog results and just started seeing them recently.

So how cool is it when your own blog shows up in your Google News Alert? This one contains a link to this post on World Dairy Diary.

Now the question might be, “What if I don’t use the alerts?” Well, I just went to Google and typed in the keyword “dairy” and clicked on News. It brings up the traditional news article links but at the bottom of the page is a choice to “Search blogs” and my post is the 4th result on the first page!

Of course if farmers don’t Google then I assume you really don’t care about this. . .

Uncategorized

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