New Media is New to Me

Chuck Zimmerman

Commodity Classic Student blogger Margy Fischer, sponsored by Monsanto

Margy FischerHello! My name is Margy Fischer, I’m a senior at the University of Missouri – Columbia studying Agricultural Journalism, and I’ll be blogging on this site during the 2006 Commodity Classic thanks to a student fellowship with Monsanto. It was almost three weeks ago that I learned of this opportunity from Bill Allen and am very grateful for this trip.
Blogging is completely new to me. The closest I may have ever come to posting a blog would be the weekly e-mail updates I would send my friends this past summer while interning in Washington DC. If those e-mails can serve as any precedent, then my posts will be full of anecdotes and observations of my surroundings. But my lack of experience with “new media” could be interesting enough that you’ll want to stay tuned.
I am intrigued by the idea that blogs have the power to turn bystanders into sources and reporters. In my journalism classes we discuss the philosophies behind our journalistic principles and practices, and blogs have done an amazing job of throwing convention to the wind. This week in Anaheim I want to experience as much as I can and in turn present all of that to you.
It was beautiful here in Columbia today, so the weather in California will be hard pressed to beat a day like this. However, I hope that I am so busy attending events and meeting people that I won’t be able to leave the convention hall. Those are probably the reasons why I am very excited to be attending this year’s event. So a big thank you again to everyone who made this possible.

Commodity Classic

The Journey Begins

Chuck Zimmerman

Mary Irelan Hello, My name is Mary Irelan and I am a student at the University of Illinois. I am currently a sophomore and I am majoring in Ag Communications. I would like to start off by thanking my sponsor, Monsanto, and specifically Tami Craig Schilling and Mica DeLong for allowing me to take part in this amazing experience. I would also like to thank Chuck Zimmerman for giving Margy and I the opportunity to blog for this website. I am extremely excited to participate in the Monsanto Future Ag Journalist Fellowship and I know I will learn a lot.
A little background on me: I am from a grain farm outside of Sparland, Illinois which is just north of Peoria. I live with my parents Dave and Jean and my sisters Elizabeth and Christine. I was extremely active in 4-H and FFA and even live at 4-H House at U of I.
I am currently packing my suitcase and getting more excited and, I must admit, nervous by the second. I have never been west of Nebraska so the prospect of visiting California is exciting in itself. This will be my first time attending Commodity Classic and I can’t wait to take it all in. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of people and learning about new technology about to be brought out into agriculture. The Lorrie Morgan Concert is going to be a plus as well. I’m eager to hear the major announcement Monsanto is making to the public and also one being made by FFA.
There is going to be lots to do and lots to see. I hope you continue to log on to read about Margy and I as we experience the 2006 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California.

Commodity Classic

Dont Expect CWB Changes Anytime Soon

Chuck Zimmerman

Harry SiemensIt looks like Canada’s new Ag Minister is retreating from making changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, at least not quickly. In meeting with CWB officials, Manitoba’s Ag Minister Rosann Wowchuk, and reporters after the meeting, Strahl said, “What I said to the wheat board’s board of directors is the same thing that I’ve been saying publicly . . . that our campaign promise was to move toward dual marketing.”

Strahl also said his controversial plan to let western farmers market their wheat without going through the board won’t happen in the near future. “I don’t anticipate any quick changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, and certainly not without lots of consultation with both farmers and the wheat board.” Some producers feel they could get better prices on their own, and point out that Ontario wheat farmers don’t have to sell through the board. But others, including the National Farmers Union, say an experiment with a voluntary board in the 1930s hurt producers and led to lower prices.

Strahl will discuss the issue further at a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers, set tentatively for March 20. I’m all for a dual market in Western Canada, but the thing that concerns me is that our American friends want to do away with the CWB too. That’s what doesn’t figure in my books. I’m thinking farmers have an advantage, but the Americans think they have a disadvantage. Go figure!

Siemens Says

International

It Feels Like Spring Today

Chuck Zimmerman

Missouri RiverI sometimes get asked how you can find something to write about everyday, much less multiple times a day. I’ve been blogging over a year and haven’t run into that problem yet. There’s inspiration everywhere, like alongside the Missouri River today. Since it was so warm here in Missouri I took a break for some biking on the Katy Trail. All I had was my Treo phone camera.

I highly recommend taking a break and getting away from the computer. Great way to let the creative juices flow. Mine were doing that as I sat next to the Missouri River for a while in the sun. Expect to see the result of today’s meditation soon.

As I was riding along, heading to this spot on the river I passed a couple of farmers out in a field just wandering around. I’m sure they had a purpose. It’s such a nice day I think they’re just itching to get something done. A little further along I passed a guy with a Bobcat pushing around some dirt at the edge of one of his fields. The smell of freshly turned earth has got to be one of the best I know of!

Spreading FertilizerThen there was this guy out spreading what I assume was fertilizer. He was moving fast which is partly why it’s not a good picture. I love my Treo but great camera it is not. I think he was hurrying to get done so he could get home and pack before flying out to Commodity Classic tomorrow.

Uncategorized

Student Bloggers Sponsor Interview

Chuck Zimmerman

MonsantoKicking off our coverage of Commodity Classic 2006 is an interview with Tami Craig Schilling, Monsanto Public Affairs Director, about their Future Ag Journalist Fellowship program which is sponsoring our student bloggers, Mary Irelan and Margy Fischer. Tami explains how the program came about, why they picked Mary and Margy and what the objectives of the program are. She said that if this works well it might be something they’ll do again. If so, AgWired is ready, willing and able to do our part to help.

You can listen to my interview with Tami here: Listen To MP3 File Tami Craig Schilling Interview (10:42 MP3 File)

Mary and Margy should begin posting today, although we won’t be travelling to Classic until tomorrow.

Agribusiness, Commodity Classic

Solid Manure Injection Testing

Chuck Zimmerman

Harry SiemensThe Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Humboldt, Saskatchewan hopes to field test a new and improved prototype solid manure injection system this spring.

Beginning with a prototype precision manure applicator that could distribute solid and semi solid manure on the soil surface, engineers at the PAMI have developed a flexible screw conveyer type single injection device that can deliver manure under the soil surface.

Project leader Dr. Hubert Landry says the next step is to fabricate a tool bar attachment that will connect the injection devices onto the existing prototype. “The components development and testing for the injection device itself was completed last fall,” said Landry. “Now, we need to integrate that injection system to our prototype land applicator.”

The researchers added a toolbar attachment at the back of the trailer type implement. That attachment is on a parallel linkage for depth control. “We’re looking at two rows of disc openers and have six of the injection devices that PAMI developed,” he said. “The toolbar attachment at the back of the machine will allow us to bring the manure from the existing distribution system to the disc openers using that injection device which is basically a flexible screw conveyer.”

Landry says fabrication of the components developed last fall will occur in the next two months, to be field-testing as soon as weather allows. He estimates the testing phase will take about two years and a finished prototype for manufacturing at that time.

Siemens Says

International

Aliens Getting Our Cows

Chuck Zimmerman

Cow Abduction Thanks to Andy over on World Dairy Diary for this one. This is worth a look. Here’s what he wrote:

I have officially found the coolest website of all time. The California Milk Processor Board, the Got Milk people, has launched cowabduction.com – The official site tracking the alien abduction of dairy cows around the globe. Site features are numerous, including video of victims’ herdowners, pictures of the missing and exploited cows, tips and tricks to ward off the alien abducters, and frequently asked questions about the aliens and the missing cows. There is also a feature where you can warn your friends and neighbors of the dangers of cow abduction. The site is fun, fun, and really really fun. Check it out, and let me know your favorite part.

So let us know what you think. What’s the purpose? Are these the rustlers we’ve been hearing about?

Dairy

Blogs Not A Passing Fad

Chuck Zimmerman

Thanks to one of our subscribers for the heads up on this excellent article on blogging posted today on the Wall Street Journal titled “Blog Epitaphs? Get Me Rewrite!”. It’s not long and I suggest you read it. I couldn’t even begin to cover all of it here. Basically, the author, Jason Fry starts out talking about all the recent main stream media articles that suggest that the blogging “fad” is fading. As it regards that he has this to say:

Reports of blogging’s demise are bosh, but if we’re lucky, something else really is going away: the by-turns overheated and uninformed obsession with blogging. Which would be just fine, because it would let blogging become what it was always destined to be: just another digital technology and method of communication, one with plenty to offer but no particular claim to revolution.

My bet: Within a couple of years blogging will be a term thrown around loosely — and sometimes inaccurately — to describe a style and rhythm of writing, as well as the tools to publish that writing. This is already happening: One of the chief problems with some chronicles of blogging’s demise is their confusion about definitions, a confusion that’s mirrored in efforts to measure blogs’ popularity or to say anything that can apply to bloggers as a group.

He makes another good point in talking about the fallacy in thinking that blog popularity should be measured by how many in-coming links there are from other sites. Amen to that. Although AgWired is linked to on a number of websites, out traffic has grown consistently and our visitors come to us directly (almost 98%) instead of from links on another website. Links are fine but we don’t judge our success by that measure. I like to think that our visitors desire to come here on their own, bookmarking the site and telling their friends and colleagues who then do the same. I love WOMA!

Blogging will not go away. I am not at all surprised to hear that most blogs don’t survive long (about 10% do). How many businesses last more than 1 year? BTW. ZimmComm is just about to celebrate its second anniversary. Oh yeah. Oh and BTW. Since we got into this blogging thing at the end of the first year, our revenue has doubled year over year. Oh yeah again. Blogging and podcasting are tools that the savvy marketer will recognize and use to their advantage. They aren’t meant to be an exclusive strategy. They are part of a very successful one.

Uncategorized

This Quasimojo Member Won’t Be Forgotten

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s a post I really wish I didn’t have to do. I received an email a little while ago that Andy Markwart, the editor of John Deere’s “The Furrow” magazine just passed away. I only just got to know Andy in the last year or so since I’ve become involved with AAEA and IFAJ. Andy was one of the members of the popular Quasimojo band that played at their events. I know I will join many people in missing Andy. The news was a shock and he and his family will be remembered in our prayers.

Andy has been on AgWired in the past, including an interview I did with him late last October. You can also see him in two other posts, here and here.

Here’s the funeral information supplied by AAEA this morning:

Andrew J. Markwart, 43, Shawnee, KS, passed away Friday, February 24, 2006. Visitation will be 4-8 p.m., Tuesday, February 28, 2006, at the Amos Family Chapel of Shawnee. Services will be 10:30 a.m., ednesday, March 1, 2006, at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 7851 West 119th St., Overland Park, KS. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Capitol Federal Savings, c/o the Markwart Children Education Fund, 5700 Nieman, Shawnee, KS 66203.

Andy is survived by his wife, Thelma, and their two children, Marlaina (7) and Owen (3). Condolences can be made at www.amosfamily.com.

Agribusiness, Publication

E-Watch Your Release Results

Chuck Zimmerman

E-WatchThe folks at PRNewswire have been listening to their clients and are now offering users who send a news release a “complimentary” service to find out about online “use” of a release that’s sent via their US1 wire. It’s called E-Watch Media Monitoring.

Beginning February 27, you can receive complimentary online media monitoring when you send a news release over any US1 newsline. US1 Media Monitoring will monitor thousands of online news sources for mentions of your organization for 30 days after the release is issued.

When you send a US1 release, you’ll receive an e-mail prompting you to activate your monitoring account. Once you click on a link in the e-mail, you’ll receive a username and password, allowing you to log into the site where you can view results, add keywords to track products, issues and industry players as well as forward articles to colleagues and save articles to download into clip reports.

Monitor more than 14,000 online news sources and blogs.

This is interesting especially since they mention blogs separately from news sources. I wonder what the difference is in a blog and a news service. I may have to send out a release through PRNewswire to see how they generate a report. I realize how much agencies in particular want to measure their PR efforts, something I think is difficult and very easy to mis-interpret and mis-represent. For example, let’s say you know how many reporters open and look at your release and maybe they even download an image or audio file. Does that mean they used your release? How would you report that information to your client? At least with online media like this service will monitor you can actually see the story. At least it sounds like it. Has anyone used this yet? How do you like it? Does it provide you with the information you need?

Media