Syngenta’s AVICTA Complete Pak has been named Product of the Year by AgriMarketing magazine.
In its first year of introduction, the product captured nearly 50% market share of the estimated $43 million segment. Syngenta says it expects to grow sales by 35 to 50% this year. Runners up for the award were John Deere’s 4930 self-propelled sprayer, Great Plains Manufacturing, and Crop Quest’s Paramount Reporting service.
Senator Frist in Iraq
Here’s the lastest story from Paul McKellips, US Department of State, Public Affairs GO Team on assignment in Iraq. In this one he speaks with U.S. Senator Bill Frist on his first visit to Iraq where he toured a prosthetics lab, the sprawling “tent city” field hospital at the Balad Air Base, and met with President Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Senator Bill Frist, M.D., from Tennessee and Senator Mel Martinez from Florida made multiple strategic stops in Iraq as part of a fact-finding trip. Sen. Frist graduated from Princeton University in 1974 and from Harvard Medical School 1978. The senator worked as a heart and lung transplant surgeon and the director of the heart and lung transplantation program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“When you look at the unbelievable fields here, you can’t help but see great potential for the future. There are incredible partnerships building between the United States and Iraq,” said Frist. “The University of Tennessee, for example, has a great agriculture program. There’s enormous potential for the university to work hand-in-hand with Iraqi farmers.” Listen to the report here: 
Senator Frist in Iraq (1 min MP3)
Light Posting Here
I should be back in the swing of things by tomorrow evening. It’s not that I’ve been away from blogging though.
Tomorrow I’m heading up to Ocala, FL on the way back from this personal trip. I’ll be conducting some blogging and podcasting training there.
We’ll get up to date shortly.
More Money For Broadband
Just last month USDA announced loans for the development of rural broadband. At the end of last week they announced more.
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner announced that nearly $30 million in loans will be provided to telecommunications firms in Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas. The funds are provided under the USDA Rural Development’s Broadband Access and Telecommunications Programs.
“Since 1949 USDA has been providing long term financing to build and maintain communications infrastructure that is the cornerstone of rural America’s telecommunications system,” said Conner. “These loans continue a long tradition of ensuring that rural residents fully participate in commercial and educational opportunities that can be provided only by reliable broadband and telecommunications services.”
CBOT Record
It’s been a busy week but no where more busy than the Chicago Board of Trade it would seem.
The Chicago Board of Trade today announced its Agricultural complex set an all-time volume record yesterday. The new record of 929,546 contracts surpassed the previous high of 869,005 contracts set on February 22, 2005.
CBOT President and CEO Bernard W. Dan said, “The combination of increased demand in the Agricultural sector coupled with the August 1 addition of side-by-side trading in our Agricultural complex has created greater access and opportunity for the entire marketplace. This new record is a direct reflection of those demands and our determination to create an environment to meet them.”
LPC Meeting At WDE
Thanks to Diane Johnson for sending in a couple pictures from the Livestock Publications Council meeting that took place at World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI. Pictured first are Terri Smith, Select Sires Inc., JoDee Sattler, Dairy Business Communications, Cathy Bewley, Select Sires Inc.
Yesterday Livestock Publications Council hosted its first ever breakfast event during the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. It was an opportunity for LPC friends in the dairy industry to get together and hear more about LPC’s purpose and upcoming events. It was well attended for the first ever LPC organized function at a dairy event. We’ll definitely have a second one next year!
I wish I could have been there. Well, not really. I’m in Sarasota for my high school reunion. Went to the beach today for a while before driving around the old home town (Sarasota, FL).
This picture is Diane Johnson, LPC executive director (left) and Melissa Muegge, Allflex communications director.
Best of NAMA Entry Deadline
It’s that time folks. Last Call for the Best of NAMA competition.
The deadline for submitting entries into the Best of NAMA competition is only one week away! Entries must be RECEIVED by Friday, October 13. Entries are sent directly to the NAMA office and are judged by industry professionals at a regional level for possible advancement to the national competition.
Remember, your local chapter receives $25 per regional entry. So, enter your work in Best of NAMA and support your local chapter at the same time. To view the Best of NAMA Call for Entries visit, http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/index.htm. Download the Entry Form in an Adobe .PDF document at http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/entryform.pdf.
IDairy Announces FAIR System
With the help of Mary Knigge with the National Milk Producers Federation, we have this picture from the IDairy press conference at World Dairy Expo.
Representatives from the IDairy coalition officially announced the National FAIR system as the database for manageing dairy identification information on Thursday, October 5, 2006 at World Dairy Expo. During the press conference, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the six organizations naming National FAIR as IDairy’s choice to confidentially house dairy and livestock identification data in compliance with the upcoming national animal identification system.
“Dairy producers need a private animal identification database that can ensure confidentiality, while also complying with the needs of USDA, at a low cost,” said Jerry Kozak, National Milk Producers Federation President/CEO. “As the IDairy coalition looked across the industry for such a system, National FAIR was the clear choice. Producers who choose to work with IDairy can be ensured they are leading the charge for a national animal identification system.”
Dairy and livestock producers can visit the IDairy website: www.idairy.org to learn more about the IDairy database system.
Barns Not Painted Tractor Colors
I’m not sure what the ROI is on this advertising strategy but it’s sure making some old barns more colorful. It’s Bob Evans way of advertising their new Italian dishes.
Though not quite as enigmatic as Mona Lisa’s smile, there is another Italian painting that has been turning heads recently in Ohio. First, a barn on the Bob Evans Farm in scenic Rio Grande, Ohio, painted like an Italian flag, and now another in rural West Jefferson just like it. But the latex paint on barn siding isn’t meant to be a reminder of da Vinci’s 16th century oil painting on poplar wood, it’s part of a new advertising campaign created for Bob Evans Restaurants. In fact, it is a message to consumers that Bob Evans is introducing a line of new pasta dishes.
The barn will be featured in a new commercial for the restaurant chain that’s going to be filmed next week according to the news release.
Blogging My Reunion
If you listened to a recent ZimmCast you might have heard that I’m going to my 30 year high school reunion. Well, I’m leaving tomorrow for Sarasota, FL and the Riverview High School Class of 1976 Reunion.
What’s that you say? Will you be blogging? Of course. I won’t bore you with all that here but I’ve already got over 100 posts on the Reunion Blog I started last year and I can gaurantee you there will be a lot more before I stop.
You might be interested to know how the blog has helped impact our event. Last I heard we have almost 300 people rsvp’d. That’s way higher than the norm for a graduating class of 700. We’ve got people coming from Italy (found the blog online one day) and people who didn’t bother to come to the 10 or 20 and only decided to come after reading about this one on my blog. I’ve had almost 90 comments posted and received more emails than that from people who have found the website on their own, including a couple of former classmates I didn’t know lived here in Missouri.
So, posting might be a little light the next couple days. They’ve got me emceeing our events for some reason I can’t figure out. I’ll be driving back next week and stopping to do some staff blogging and podcasting training with a client on the way!