Meet Mary Irelan, University of Illinois student and about to become, AgWired blogger. Actually, she’ll just be blogging her experiences as a first time visitor to Commodity Classic next week. Her trip is being sponsored by Monsanto as part of it’s Future Ag Journalists Fellowship program. Monsanto wants to make sure the future agricultural communicators get some “new media” training.
Meet Margy Fischer, University of Missouri student and also blogging her Commodity Classic experience right here on AgWired. Both Mary and Margy will begin blogging their trip next Tuesday. All their posts will be categorized by their name so you can easily find them, since they’ll be mixed in with my coverage of the event. Additionally, they’ll also be helping me with my coverage. I was very happy to find out that they will be bringing a digital camera and notebook computer. That’s what the ag journalist of the future must be equipped with.
This is very cool and I can’t wait to see what our Monsanto Future Ag Journalists have to say. The same goes for Monsanto Public Affairs Manager Mica DeLong. She says the opportunity will provide the students with a unique real-world media experience. Monsanto has a long- standing commitment to promoting youth involvement in agriculture by supporting programs such as Future Farmers of America, 4-H, Agriculture Future of America, Ag in the Classroom and other notable agriculture youth and leader development organizations.
“These students will make some new contacts and learn more about the agricultural industry at one of the largest and most widely recognized ag events of the year,” says DeLong. “ZimmComm has offered a unique opportunity for both students to write for AgWired, which gives them exposure to one of the newest forms of communications and can really broaden their knowledge.”
I think Monsanto is one of the companies that’s “getting it.” They’re already video podcasting and now they’ve created an opportunity for students like Mary and Margy to create event coverage via a blog. Who would have imagined this a year ago when we got AgWired kick started?
Guess who ZimmComm will be looking for at graduation time.
Our last session of the day involves a discussion on intellectual property rights and how they benefit society.
When we got to precision farming it was time for a tag team approach again. Getting this session started was Tom Doerge, Agronomy Research Scientist. Tom talked about using yield monitors and doing on-farm testing. He had some great photos of fields in which different treatments were applied side-by-side and in other patters. I will ask if these presentations are available.
Tag team member Todd Prescott got into the services Pioneer offers its customers who want yield mapping done for them. A certain amount of this information is or can be available via internet and computer. So, I asked him what kind of feedback he gets from growers about internet access. I was surprised and pleased to hear him say that farmer access to broadband is growing fast. He sees a lot of DSL becoming available and throughout the corn belt and soybean growing areas of the country. In fact, he’s spoken with growers who now have high speed options. He’s been hearing growers say they’ll have it installed and working as soon as they can now that it’s available in their area.
Jody did a great job and I hope he earned himself a Pioneer logo blazer!
I said there’s a lot of media here at the Pioneer event. I’m actually surprised that almost all of them have stayed through the whole event.
Nitrogen utilization is a very important issue today. Ask Cindy, who’s editing our 
The Canadian Pork Council suggests, in the face of stable North American consumption, it’s important for the Canadian pork industry to continue its focus on sales opportunities in non-NAFTA countries.
Number two on the program today is Steve Paszkiewicz, Agronomy Research Scientist.
We’re back in the presentation room here at Pioneer. Today is research day. Lots of information about the research work that’s going on.