Who says cowboys don’t use computers? Of course they do and this software from Cattlesoft, Inc. is one of the programs that will help them manage their herds. It’s now out in the 2006 edition.
CattleMax is flexible so that ranches with ten head and those into the thousands will find CattleMax beneficial in their record-keeping needs. With customers in 49 U.S. states and 25 countries, CattleMax is THE leading cattle management software!
R&K In Top 100 Again
Steve Rhea says they’re headed in the right direction. They being Rhea & Kaiser Marketing and Communications. This year Adweek ranked them number 83 in the top 100 agencies.
This marks another milestone for the agency, which broke into the prestigious Adweek list last year at No. 96. The annual Adweek Top 100 includes advertising agencies based in North America and is based on billings and revenue growth. In 2005, Rhea & Kaiser’s revenue grew 13.8 percent, with billings totaling $124 million. Rhea & Kaiser is not a newcomer to Adweek’s ratings. The agency has ranked in The Top 50 Midwestern Agencies list for the past three years.
Nominate Your Favorite Red Meat Exec
Who’s your favorite red meat industry executive? You might want to nominate him/her for the 8th annual Richard L. Knowlton Innovation Award. This award is given by Meatingplace and honors executives of the red meat industry who demonstrate exceptional business leadership, product or process innovation and overall exemplary corporate citizenship.
The award honors the legacy of the former Hormel Foods chairman, whose vision led Hormel into the then-emerging category of value-added foods to satisfy changing consumer needs. Knowlton changed Hormel’s corporate structure, reorganized its marketing and business functions, incorporated new technologies into production and launched the company on a program of product diversification. Eligible nominees include processors in upper management positions who have been affiliated with their company for a minimum of two years. The nomination process is open to anyone in or affiliated with the U.S. red meat processing industry.
The deadline for nominations is June 13, 2006. You can find out more about the award and how to nominates someone here.
BTW. I really like Meatingplace’s tagline, “In Print, Online.”
Bader Rutter Rings The Bell
Bader Rutter cleaned up on some regional Business Marketing Association’s Bell Awards at the presentation in Milwaukee. Not all of them are for ag accounts.
Among the seven awards, Bader Rutter received two Bell Awards, the highest honor in a category, and garnered five Awards of Excellence in a variety of disciplines. The agency received Bell Awards in the Direct Mail Campaign/Flat division for its Dow AgroSciences LLC southern crop postcard series and in the Public Relations Campaign division for its Jefferson Wells “Increase Awareness and Familiarity” campaign.
Show Us Your Tunis
A red headed blogger has to post a story about red headed sheep. In this case it’s Tunis Sheep. The “show us” headline is because:
The Tunis show and sale will also have a photo contest. The “Show Us Your Tunis” photo contest will be open to all Tunis Breeders. Tunis Breeders are asked to bring their favorite photo of their flock. The photo contest is sponsored by Darling Tunis of Zanesfield, Ohio.
They will have their national sale coming up next month. You will be able to find the sales catalog here.
The National Tunis Association announces that the National Sale will be held in Wooster, Ohio over the Memorial Day Weekend. The sale will be held at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. The sale is in conjunction with the Great Lakes show and sale plus a wool show. The show begins on Saturday, May 26 at 1 p.m. and the sale is on Sunday, May 28.
Zimfo Bites
- You figure this one out. An FAO-led group called IMARK, has issued a new learning tool designed to help specialists and interested parties access and exchange agricultural information online.
- A Purdue University ag economist says that, “farmers should not expect their site-specific tools to remain viable any longer than their home computers.” Find out more on their Site Specific Management Center.
- Delta Farm Press says that Cotton Inc. is now sponsoring Nashville Star.
- Students won scholarship funds at World Ag Exo.
- Missouri Agriculture Industries Council summer meeting announced. Register here.
- The FAO is holding its Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in Caracas, Venezuela, this week.
Humane Society Takes on Factory Farming
I can remember visiting a local humane society as a kid to get a puppy to raise at home. So I used to have this image of the organization as one that took in stray, lost or abandoned animals and found them a home. Of course the Humane Society of the United States has long since moved on.
I just saw an alert to their Factory Farming Homepage. You might be interested to see what they’re doing in this regard. Of course they have the obligatory video of the cruelty imposed on animals so beware your tender sensibilities.
Protect That IP Today
Every day has to be some sort of “day” anymore. Today it’s World Intellectual Property Day according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. Here’s what their Director General, Kamil Idris, says, “World Intellectual Property Day is an opportunity to encourage people to think about the role played by intellectual property in everyday life, and about its importance in stimulating and safeguarding innovation and creativity.” They’ve even got a 30 sec video clip you can watch here (WMV file).
The heads up for this comes from Croplife America which says:
CropLife America supports the efforts of its global federation, CropLife International, to create partnerships with regulators and law enforcement to prevent the counterfeiting and piracy of plant science innovations. Counterfeiting crop protection products affects American, Asian and European multinational companies as well as farmers, consumers and the environment.
Blogging & Podcasting Workshop For NCGA
In just a few short minutes I’ll be conducting a blogging and podcasting workshop for the National Corn Growers Association, National & State Staff Meeting in St. Louis. They don’t even know I’m here yet.
This post will serve as an example of how you can very quickly distribute information from literally anwhere you can get connected.
I’m on the Westin hotel meeting room wireless and all I had to do was take a quick snapshot with my camera, load, crop and tweak it with Photoshop, upload to my server and login to my admin panel and here you are. This post with picture took less than 10 minutes from the time I walked up to the door.
It’s about time to get started so until later AgWired fans . . .
Post Update
We’re actually blogging now in the workshop and this update is for demonstration purposes.
Post Update #2
Right after our workshop concluded this morning I interviewed Mimi Ricketts, NCGA and Mark Lambert, Illinois Corn Growers Association. We talked about what they get out of this annual meeting and if the new media tools I demonstrated today have an application in their communications work. You can listen to our interview here: 
Mark & Mimi Show (4 min MP3)
MyPyramid Website Rocks Along
Last week was the one year anniversary for the USDA MyPyramid food guidance system. Apparently the website has received a huge amount of traffic making it “one of the most popular federal websites ever.”
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says the inagural success of My Pyramid will be built upon in its second year with a variety of improvements and outreach programs. You can listen to him describe the future for the program in this report from USDA Radio News: Mike Johanns MyPyramid Story (1 min MP3)
I guess I have to wonder why we have an obesity chrisis in America with all this good nutrition information and so many people accessing it.