The Beltwide Has Concluded

Chuck Zimmerman

2006 Beltwide Cotton ConferenceThe Beltwide Cotton Conference has been going on all week in San Antonio. The Conference is all about improving and enhancing cotton production, but some policy issues always come up – especially when trade is such a vital part of the US cotton industry. National Cotton Council President and CEO Dr. Mark Lange spoke at Beltwide on Thursday to explain just what came out of last month’s WTO meeting in Hong Kong and how it impacts cotton. I couldn’t go this year but Southeast Agnet’s Randall Weiseman, who has been attending, was kind enough to send us a portion of that speech. Listen here (MP3 5MB)

Some other announcements from Beltwide include:

Dr. Daryl T. Bowman, a professor of Cotton Breeding at North Carolina State University, is the recipient of the 2005 Cotton Genetics Research Award.

And . . .

They might not farm in the garden spots of the Cotton Belt, but that’s not stopping this year’s winners of the Farm Press/Cotton Foundation High Cotton Awards from growing good crops while doing their best to protect their soil, water and wildlife.

The Tidewater area of Virginia, northeast Mississippi and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are not the first places most cotton people think about when you talk about prime production areas. But this year’s High Cotton winners like their land just fine, thank you.

The recipients of this year’s awards, which are sponsored by Farm Press Publications through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, will be honored at the National Cotton Council’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences in San Antonio January 4. They include Cliff Fox, Capron, Va.; Joe Bostick, Golden, Miss.; Lawrence Braswell, Raymondville, Tex.; and Wally Shropshire, Blythe, Calif.

Ag Groups, Audio

Turn Off Conventional Radio Forever

Chuck Zimmerman

Motorola's iRadioThat’s the theme on Motorola’s new iRadio website. I signed up to be alerted when this new service is available later this year. They claim it will have “Hundreds of commercial-free radio stations and your personal digital music collection on the one device you’re never without–your iRadio-enabled mobile phone.”

I’ve got Sirius satellite radio and one of the things you deal with when driving is having the antenna blocked by things like tunnels, overpasses, trees, etc. Motorola claims:

Hitting the road and don’t want to miss an iRadio beat? Not a problem. Connect iRadio to your car’s sound system wirelessly, with the Motorola wireless audio car adapter. It works with most stereos already installed in vehicles*. But keep your phone in your pocket and control your six iRadio channels via six preset buttons on your car stereo. Your car. Your music. Your iRadio.

Oh no, it’s a tunnel. Whatever. Since iRadio content is cached on your phone, your audio will never be interrupted. Whether you’re in town or in the country, on the subway or in flight, you’ll never miss your iRadio.

Thanks to Marketing Vox for the heads up on this. Motorola claims it will have 435 channels to choose from! I see no mention of farm programming but this sounds like a great application for it. I’ll be contacting them to see what they think. Anyone know what percentage of farmers have mobile phones? How many would buy an iRadio phone if they could get market reports and farm news this way?

It looks like besides commercial-free music channels they’ve even made deals with “traditional radio” companies like Clear Channel (via Techtree.com ). “Jeff Littlejohn, executive vice president, Clear Channel Radio, said, “Motorola iRadio lets us deliver top-rated talk content and custom music channels to listeners wherever they are throughout their day.”

Media

Butter Is Bigger & Better

Chuck Zimmerman

Pennsylvania Farm Show Butter SculptureA little butter makes things better. In this case The Farm Show got kicked off in Pennsylvania with a sculpture crafted from 800 pounds of butter that was donated by the Land O’Lakes plant in Carlisle, PA.

The theme for this buttery work celebrates the Farm Show’s 90th Anniversary and recognizes the progress made in Pennsylvania’s dairy industry. The sculpture depicts an old-time milk delivery wagon pulled by a horse, ready to unload a modern milk vending machine. The Pennsylvania Farm Show and the Commonwealth’s dairy industry have worked hand-in-hand throughout the past 90 years. By working with the state’s dairy promotion organizations, four milk vending machines have been permanently placed in the Farm Show Complex, providing another way for visitors to enjoy dairy while enjoying the various shows held throughout the year.

You can listen to Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff describe the sculpture here. You can also see a short video clip here.

If you’re into food like I am you’ll like these demonstrations that start this weekend:

Stove burners will be lit beginning at 11 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 7, when Dave Lieberman, host of the Food Network’s Good Deal with Dave Lieberman, takes the Pennsylvania Kitchen Stage. The Philadelphia native is also the author of Young and Hungry – a collection of tasty recipes made with inexpensive, everyday ingredients.

Sunday, visitors can watch as Robert “Chef Bobo” Surles continues his crusade to improve the eating habits of school children, seeking to transform lunch menus by adding healthy foods with great taste. Surles is the author of Chef Bobo’s Good Food Cookbook. He will host demonstrations at noon and 1 p.m.

Howard Helmer, the “World’s Fastest Omelet Maker,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records, returns to the Culinary Connection this year. Chef Helmer has spent the last 30 years scrambling to spread the word about the incredible egg. He has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, and the Food Network’s Cooking Live. He will amaze audiences Wednesday, Jan. 11, at noon and 2 p.m.

Audio, Farm Shows, Video

Bugs Have Been Bugging Me Today

Chuck Zimmerman

I had hoped to have some more items posted today but thanks to a bug on my main notebook computer that hasn’t been possible. If I could find the person who created this bug I’d love to “pinch his little head off” as a good friend of mine likes to say. I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure of experiencing “Winfixer” or “virtumonde” but just hope you don’t. I run daily updates and scans with Norton Internet Security, Microsoft AntiSpyware and Spy Sweeper on my notebook (which is running in safe mode right now while scanning again) and this bug still got in there somehow. It is a real problem too. It slows down the computer, runs popups and tries to install software even if you tell it not too, plus programs just lock up for no good reason. I won’t bore you with any more of the problems this causes. I’m also going to install Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search and Destroy. I spoke with a Microsoft security technician during this whole process who says you can’t run enough of these programs to keep up with the hackers out there. Nice. Not.

Internet

Show Me Shape Up Challenge

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThe Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with Consumer Information Director Alane Lidolf who talks about the upcoming Show-Me Shape Up Program. MBIC is helping to sponsor the shape up program which begins next week. People can sign up for the challenge at http://www.smsg.org/showmeshapeup/.

You can listen to this week’s MBIC Report here: Download MP3 File

The MBIC Report is an AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page or on the MBIC website.

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Podcasts

iPod Guru is Radio Person of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

Radio Person of the YearI thought I was done for the day until I saw this on Jaffe Juice. Steve Jobs was named Radio Person of the Year by Radiodailynews.com. As Joe Jaffe says it best, “That’s like Hurricane Katrina being named Time’s Person of the Year. Disruptive. Life changing. Massive economic impact. Check. Check. Check.”

Radiodailynews.com is “The Daily Voice and Journal of Broadcasting.” Steve Jobs is best know lately for the iPod and iTunes (where you’ll find AgWired’s ZimmCast).

As the news release says about the award:

The “Radio Person of the Year” award from RadioDailyNews.com is not just a recognition, it also represents a challenge to Steve Jobs and his associates who designed and continue to modify and improve the iPod in 2006. Indeed, it is a challenge to all involved in the broadcasting and entertainment programming industries, in particular AM, FM, HD Radio and satellite radio owners, managers, programmers and talent, to dedicate themselves to provide to the listener and viewer the best entertainment, information and news programming that creative minds can conceive.

I think this applies to farm broadcasting and farm podcasting too.

Media, Podcasts

CowChips Introduces HeatWatchII

Chuck Zimmerman

CowChipsI would probably have posted a story about this anyway and I’m going to use in on World Dairy Diary too, but a company with this name deserves recognition. Besides the company name they’ve come up with a pretty good product name too.

CowChipsDenver, CO – CowChips, LLC has announced plans to introduce HeatWatch II as the new standard in electronic heat detection and estrus data collection. Details of the new product will be featured at the 2006 Pennsylvania Farm Show, the National Western Stock Show, the Houston Livestock Show and other cattle industry events.

What more is there to say?

Agribusiness

ZimmComm Blog Sponsors Announced

Chuck Zimmerman

Accelerated GeneticsWe’re going to send out a news release on this but I’m too excited to wait. As some of you may have noticed earlier this week on AgWired, we have new sponsors coming on board World Dairy Diary. Accelerated Genetics is one of those brave companies that sees what we’re doing as a new way to communicate. Thank you Angie!

The Callicrate BanderAnother one is The Callicrate Bander from No-Bull Enterprises. These folks were one of the charter sponsoring companies on World Dairy Diary and they’ve decided to stay on board here in the new year. Thank you Rachel!

We’ve got room for more and there will be more. In fact, in my discussions we’ve been asked about sponsoring all our properties. By properties I mean our blogs. I actually am finding it hard to believe that we own “properties.” Back in my days in traditional media properties meant radio networks, especially sports radio networks, as in “sports properties.” Now all I’ve got is these little old blogs. You can’t argue with traffic and results though can you? It’s new media time.

Wanna sponsor the most exciting thing happening in agricultural communications? Click here.

Agribusiness, Internet

Farm Products And Rose Bowl Bet

Chuck Zimmerman

2006 Rose BowlThe Rose Bowl will be played shortly so how much more timely could this post be about the Governator waging a little promotional bet with his counterpart in Texas?

The story is in the Sacramento Bee. Basically California’s Governor Schwartzenegger is betting Texas Governor Perry some agricultural products:

Each governor also has offered a basket of home-grown items – which also would go toward the victorious state’s National Guard. California’s basket includes avocados, salmon, chicken, turkey, lamb, strawberries and wine, among other things. The Lone Star State is offering grapefruit, oranges, barbecued beef brisket and 100 pints of Blue Bell ice cream.

Uncategorized

Record First Quarter For Monsanto

Chuck Zimmerman

MonsantoIt looks like Monsanto is planning on having a good year. According to their President and CEO, Hugh Grant, “The contribution of our seeds and traits business continues to grow, as more and more farmers throughout the world recognize the value and convenience of our products for their farms. Stronger adoption of our traits in Australia, coupled with stronger and earlier sales of Roundup herbicides and the addition of the Seminis business, helped make this a record first quarter for our company.”

You can get the full story, including slides, and listen to the replay of their webcast (for 3 weeks) on their website.

Agribusiness