Soft bodied insects had better watch out. AgraQuest has you in their sights. They’ve got a new biopesticide from their Codena acquisition and they’re ready to rock your soft little squiggly world.
AgraQuest, Inc., has acquired Codena, Inc., a Quebec-based company that specializes in the research and development of insecticides derived from plant extracts. AgraQuest, well-known in the large and rapidly growing biopesticide market for its strong research, robust pipeline, and commercialization capabilities, gains a new natural insecticide for controlling soft-bodied insects.
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Snacking At The Food Safety Summit
With food safety such a big issue right now, going to Las Vegas in March for the Food Safety Summit (March 22-24, Las Vegas), is an option. It was just acquired by Stagnito Communications which is an Ascend Media Company.
I personally think food safety sounds kind of boring but I know how important it is to people in today’s world and how much companies and organizations are investing in it. To get someone like me to attend they had to add an extra feature. That extra feature this year is having the Snack Foods Association hold SNAXPO at the same time and place. Now that would help I’ve got to believe. In fact, I want to know that my snacks are safe while we’re at it!
Triple Nickel Comfort For Military
If you’re going to wear Kevlar for protection add a little cotton for comfort. At least that’s what I think Dr. Seshadri “Ram” Ramkumar of Texas Tech University’s Institute of Environmental and Human Health is doing for our military. He’s also doing it with the “triple nickel.” What’s the triple nickel? Good question. From a D&Pl release:
As the old saying goes “it is better to be lucky than good” which could certainly be the case in this research as the best fabrics tested so far have been developed from DP 555 BG/RR, the country’s number one variety for three years running. Although much work remains to be done before DP 555 BG/RR can be making soldiers lives a little bit more comfortable, consumers of U.S. grown cotton are already benefiting from enhanced comfort since approximately 25% of the bales grown in the U.S. last year were DP 555 BG/RR. With highly popular fabrics treatments like permanent press and stain resistance negatively impacting cotton’s comfort, use of U.S. grown cotton in these fabrics should increase their comfort value to consumers.
Yep, good old DP 555 BG/RR. That’s the “triple nickel.”
Some Sweet Varieties of Corn
This announcement made me think of Florida sweet corn boils and especially the Zellwood Sweet Corn Festival. It’s nice to know that new varieties are still coming out.
NK Brand dealers are providing a portfolio of 11 sweet corn hybrids for farmers planning to produce the traditional summer delicacy in 2006. In cooperation with ROGERS, a Syngenta Seeds brand that provides vegetable seeds to commercial growers, NK Brand dealers are offering sweet corn choices that include the new BC 0805, an ATTRIBUTE insect protected sweet corn with TripleSweet eating quality, and Avalon, the first white TripleSweet corn.
“Sweet corn seed is a popular add-on when growers purchase their corn and soybean seed, making these new hybrids another reason to contact your NK Brand dealer soon,” said Eric Brown, NK Brand marketing programs manager. “We are very excited that our dealers will be providing these sweet corn offerings because they include hybrids usually only available for commercial production. Most importantly, both BC 0805 and Avalon offer outstanding eating qualities and superior taste.”
I like that part about “outstanding eating qualities and superior taste.” Back in my Florida Farm Bureau Federation days I helped our field staff cook and serve boiled sweet corn at lots of events. We had it down to a science. Boil, peel back, dip in melted butter, sprinkle with salt and serve!
Doane Looking For Director
Doane is looking for a new “head.”
Grant Cooper & Associates has been retained to recruit the new head of Doane, a long-standing leader in agricultural and commodities information and advisory services, headquartered in St. Louis. Doane was recently acquired by Vance Publishing which is a closely-held, family-owned company in business and information communications, headquartered outside of Chicago. The diverse audience for Doane’s services ranges from individual, family-owned farms to mega-Fortune 500 companies who have vulnerability to food commodity price fluctuations.
The successful candidate will have a background in agricultural economics and commodities, and be known for their ability to convey sometimes complex theory into practical reality. They will also be a dynamic, creative, forward-thinking marketer with unquestioned sales and managerial skills. A knowledge of publishing and in particular digital media is a strong preference.
You can see a list of specifications for the job here.
DomesticFuel Blog Takes Off
Posting has been a little light this week but I will have a lot coming out over the next couple days. ZimmComm has been a little busy evolving ever further into the new media world. For that reason we’re changing our name to ZimmComm New Media, LLC. We’re pretty much all about new media now, even though a lot of what we do still involves marketing and communications. As a former colleague used to say about his organization, “We’re a constantly evolving strategy.”
Today I’d like to announce that our DomesticFuel site is going public for the first time. Our first sponsor is the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). Tom Slunecka is a forward vision kind of guy who embraces the use of new technologies to communicate his organization’s message. In fact, DomesticFuel exists because of a discussion I had with him last fall. Here’s what Tom says about DomesticFuel: “We’re looking for creative new platforms to communicate our message directly to the public. ZimmComm’s pioneering efforts to use new media tools like blogging fits our strategy perfectly.”
The site has been up and running for several months and has already developed a loyal following of readers, several of whom contribute regular story ideas and comment on what we write. Cindy has taken over the editorial duties of this renewable fuels online publication. Just this week she even had a reporter from Fortune magazine contact her to alert her to his article in the most recent issue on the subject of ethanol in particular.
I’m very proud of Cindy for the great job she’s doing on DomesticFuel. It’s an excellent combination of some of the most important elements of blogging done right and for a purpose. It contains original news content and congregates and points to other industry news items that the interested readers want to know.
Within the next couple week’s we’ll begin podcasting a regular series of interviews with leaders of the ethanol industry in conjunction with EPIC. We’re also in the process of seeking a biodiesel sponsor for the site as well. Interested?
Top Producers Honored
The top producers were honored by Top Producer. These winners will be featured in upcoming editions of the magazine.
TOP PRODUCER, the business magazine of agriculture, honored Chad Olsen, 37, a farmer and custom harvester from Hendricks, Minn., as the national winner of its annual Top Producer of the Year Awards at a banquet in Chicago on January 19th. National finalists also include Rick Rosentreter, 37, of Carlinville, Ill., and Dean Walker, 32, of Orofino, Idaho.
The awards are meant to highlight individuals or multi-operator farms that excel at the business of farming, including marketing, finance, employee relations, production and environmental stewardship. Challenger sponsors the program and awards the overall winner a 200-hour lease of a Challenger tractor. AGCO Application Equipment co-sponsors the program.
Aprhodisiac Tomatoes From Florida
Doing creative television commercials doesn’t have to break your budget. That’s what the Florida Tomato Committee found out when they created this new tv campaign. The campaign will air beginning January 30 and run again in March on several cable networks targeting women, 25 – 54.
You can see the 4 15-second spots here (There is one called “Aphrodisiac”). The ads were produced by SenaReider.
CBB Blog To Inform Producers
When the Cattlemen’s Beef Board was looking into ways to better communicate with producers about the activities of the next week’s Cattle Industry Convention, especially their committee meetings, they turned to blogging and asked us to create and manage the site. There’s still some final pre-conference posting that will be done over the next couple days but the site is open and ready for activity. At the event next week, I’ll be blogging the CBB activities on Beef Board Meeting.com. One of the great things about this idea is that not only will information flow out to interested producers but each post and page of information has the comment feature enabled to allow them to provide their feedback. I have no doubt we’ll get some.
(Holts Summit, MO January 26, 2006 – AgNewsWire.AgWired.com) Cattle producers who are unable to attend this year’s Cattle Industry Convention February 1-4 in Denver can still stay informed and take an active role in decisions that are made through the Beef Board Meeting.com (www.beefboardmeeting.com) web log, according to Cattlemen’s Beef Board Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien of Amarillo, Texas.
“We’re trying to get information out to the producers to let them know exactly what’s going on at the convention and even allow them to have input back in to the committees, so that all of the people who pay the checkoff will be part of the process.”
The web log will feature postings throughout the convention following the various committee meetings to inform producers about discussions that are taking place and decisions that are made on how their beef checkoff dollars will be spent. O’Brien says the Beef Board wants all producers to have the opportunity to participate in decision-making at the national level.
“We have 108 producer members of the Beef Board who serve on the committees, who work hard to decide the best way to spend the checkoff dollars. But, of course, we have a lot more producers out there then those 108. We want every producer to be informed about what is going on and to be able to have input as to where the checkoff dollars are spent.” (Full Release)
You can hear a full interview with CBB Vice Chairman Jay O’Brien here. (2.2MB MP3)
New Website For U. S. Grains Council
A new website can be a beautiful thing. I especially like simplicity, ease of navigation. In other words, Don’t Make Me Think.
I can’t remember the old U. S. Grains Council website but the new one looks good to me. One thing I especially appreciate is this. They sent out a news release about it and the news release is on their website. You may not believe how often a company or organization overlooks putting their news releases on their own website. That can be very annoying for a reporter by the way. Good job Grains Council.
I wonder what everyone else thinks?