Some Sweet Varieties of Corn

Chuck Zimmerman

Sweet CornThis 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!

Agribusiness, Corn

Doane Looking For Director

Chuck Zimmerman

DoaneDoane 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.

Publication

DomesticFuel Blog Takes Off

Chuck Zimmerman

DomesticFuelPosting 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?

Ag Groups, Ethanol

Top Producers Honored

Chuck Zimmerman

Top ProducerThe 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.

Publication

Aprhodisiac Tomatoes From Florida

Chuck Zimmerman

Florida TomatoesDoing 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.

Ag Groups, Agencies, Video

CBB Blog To Inform Producers

Chuck Zimmerman

Cattlemen's Beef BoardWhen 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)

Ag Groups, Beef

New Website For U. S. Grains Council

Chuck Zimmerman

U. S. Grains CouncilA 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?

Ag Groups, Internet

Beef Lover Sweepstakes Contests

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThe Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with Marketing Director Dawn Thurnau who talks about sweepstakes contests for beef lovers that are being promoted in national magazines in addition to regular beef advertising.

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

Iowa FarmIndex Directory of Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Farmindex DirectorySounds like a phone book for farmers only more. This is the FarmIndex Directory for Iowa, which was just recently released. It claims to provide complete statewide producer and crop information.

Prepared and published as a joint venture of NewCentury Marketing Services and Cole Information Services, the Iowa FarmIndex Directory includes crop and livestock allocations and volumes, organized by county and then by production volume.

“The Cole-NCMS FarmIndex Directory provides a vast amount of information about crop and livestock producers,” says Claus Thiles, President, NCMS. “The FarmIndex provides a clear connection for the Iowa agricultural community, from individual operator to multi-crop farm enterprises. If you want to talk to corn producers in a specific county, the FarmIndex tells you who they are, how much crop they grow, and how to contact them.” The new Iowa FarmIndex Directory is designed to provide a single information resource for research and marketing projects. More states will be available in the near future.

“We developed this FarmIndex Directory as an entirely new tool for the ag business professional,” explains Jim Eggleston, Vice President & Publisher, Cole Information Services. “By bringing these multiple sources of information into a single volume, we provide an easy way for businesses to connect with new customers.”

Agribusiness

Ag Relations Council In Graceland

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s a reminder for all you agricultural public relations professionals. The Agricultural Relations Council is holding a meeting in Memphis (one of my favorite towns) March 23 – 25. Can you say “Ribs & Blues?” Yeah, there’s the professional improvement thing too.

Join the Agricultural Relations Council as it goes to Memphis March 23-25 for Public Relations 101-404 with a full day and a half of professional education programming, PLUS the Making and Management of a Legend.

Registration — $300.00 for ARC Members, $350.00 for nonmembers, which includes the Thursday evening Graceland tours and reception, Friday speaker program as well as breakfast, breaks and luncheon, and Saturday program, breakfast and luncheon. Check www.agrelationscouncil.org for more detailed program information as it develops.

ARC