Canadian Farmer Web Auction Business

Chuck Zimmerman December 27, 2005

Here’s a great ZimmCast to end the year with on AgWired. I’ve brought Global Auction Guide.com to your attention before and finally got to interview president Dwayne Leslie. Dwayne is a farmer who got into the internet business to provide his fellow farmers with information and products he needed and knew they would want as well.

FarmAuctionGuide.com got him started and is now just one element of Global Auction Guide.com. In addition to a website that farmers can visit who are looking for farm products, Dwayne provides the auction site contents to publications and other traditional media outlets for their websites through an innovative syndication program. This allows traditional medias to earn revenue from offering new services to their advertising clients without cannibalising their current revenue streams. He’s started a blog about it all.

What got me interested to talk with Dwayne was the fact that he’s a regular listener to the ZimmCast on his Ipaq (pda). He emailed me about listening to it and other podcasts when he’s driving his truck or tractor. Dwayne talks about farmers adapting to and seeking out programming in the form of podcasts. One of the reasons he gives is that he gains a perspective from listening to programs from all over the country that he doesn’t get from local, traditional media outlets. He also doesn’t have to listen to the same content over and over and over. He believes there’s huge potential for companies (including the traditional media outlets) to provide content directly to farmers.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast here:

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also now find the ZimmCast on CoolCast Radio or subscribe in iTunes.

Agribusiness, Audio, Internet, Podcasts, ZimmCast

A “Sweet” Budget Deal

Keith Good December 27, 2005

Last week, the Senate narrowly passed the federal budget reconciliation bill.

In its final form, the budget measure will trim $2.7 billion from federal agricultural programs, while adding an additional $998 million spending to extend the Milk Income Loss Contract Program.

For the measure’s full details on agriculture, see this summary which was prepared by Jerry Hagstrom.

On Sunday, Des Moines Register reporter Philip Brasher reminded readers that the $2.7 billion was a long way from what the Bush administration had originally proposed back in February.

At that time, “The Bush administration proposed cuts in farm programs that would have totaled $9 billion over five years to help reduce the budget deficit,” Brasher said.

The bill passed on a very close 51-50 count, with Vice-President Cheney casting the tie breaking vote that pushed the measure over the top.

As can be expected on a close vote, some horse trading occurred to secure passage.

As Joel Havemann noted in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) withheld support for the budget measure until a provision was removed that “would have eliminated $30 million in subsidies for sugar beet growers, many of them in his home state.”

Some farm policy observers interpreted Sen. Coleman’s action as a way to make amends with some sugar beet growers in his state who were upset that he had supported the Central America Free Trade Agreement (C.A.F.T.A.). Generally speaking, sugar groups, including sugar beet growers, were opposed to C.A.F.T.A., which ultimately passed on a very close vote this past summer.

In any event, Sen. Coleman’s action was an example of the sway that the sugar industry maintains. As Andrew Martin pointed out in last week’s Chicago Tribune, “the industry gave about $3.2 million to federal candidates during the 2004 campaign.”

Keith Good writes The FarmPolicy.com News Summary, an Email newsletter containing a summary of news relating to U.S. farm policy which is published most weekdays. For more information, go to www.FarmPolicy.com.

Farm Policy

Is Email Spam Increasing or Decreasing

Chuck Zimmerman December 26, 2005

I’m curious if you’d agree with the FTC that email spam is levelling off or actually declining. I saw this story a few days ago right after I’d received about 5 emailed viruses (Norton Internet Security took care of them) and another 20+ pure unadulterated spam emails. It seems to me like the level has been increasing the last month.

I don’t use spam filters because they can’t really tell the difference between good and bad email. They also make it very difficult for people who are trying to send legitimate email messages (like our AgNewsWire.AgWired.com service). This is why I embrace RSS and hope we’ll see improvements in it over this coming year.

So, feel free to comment. Is the FTC keeping us safer from spam or are they just confused?

Internet

Beef, It’s What’s For Christmas

Chuck Zimmerman December 26, 2005

Well I won’t win any prizes for presentation but I didn’t think to take a picture until after it was already on the plate. This is my Christmas day “Beef Tenderloin with Easy Cranberry Balsamic Sauce.” Actually it isn’t tenderloin. I used a round roast but everything else is according to the recipe.

It was only one of the menu items for a great dinner at the Puyear’s. I will definitely be working out today at the “Y.” My kids looked at my beef presentation and were offended that I’d already put sauce on the sliced beef. Then they tasted it. I noticed that they put beef on their plate and asked if there was some extra sauce!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Beef