100 Years of the National Western

Chuck Zimmerman

Stick Horse RodeoThis would be me in a rodeo. You can’t get thrown and trampled by a stick. However, I wouldn’t be safe because you can still trip over a stick and fall down and break your neck.

This is just one element of the multitude of fun you’ll find at the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo and lots of other stuff. I’ve never been but I’d love to go. It’s the 100th year and to get a little background they have a story for you:

If the founders of the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show were to attend its 100th anniversary celebration in January, they’d likely pop a few buttons with pride. The brainstorm of Elias Ammons, Fred Johnson and G.W. Ballantine, the first show opened on Jan. 29, 1906, for a six-day run that attracted 336 entries–a number with which the trio was mighty pleased. The mid-winter date, sandwiched between the busier fall and spring seasons, appealed to farm and ranch folks, while for the show’s Denver boosters, primarily businessmen, the livestock hoorah was just the fix for those post-Christmas blahs. The first three shows were held under canvas. Full Story

Anyone going? Want to send me some pictures and a story?

Farm Shows

Brownfield’s Year In Review

Chuck Zimmerman

Brownfield NetworkI’m not planning on doing a year in review although it seems like a lot of people are. Take the Brownfield Network for example. Tom Steever looks back at the year in agriculture in this hour-long special report: Stream or Download (22mb mp3)

Speaking of the Brownfield crew, another one’s going south of the border.

Brownfield’s Josh St. Peters will travel to South America Jan. 19 through Jan. 29. St. Peters, along with several Illinois farm families and agribusiness leaders, will tour Brazil’s cities and farms. The farm broadcaster will also be accompanied by staff of South American Soy, LLC., an Illinois-based group that is investing in Brazilian agriculture.

Agriculture is truly international so I’m sure Josh is going where the action is. He can’t just want to get out of the office can he?

Post Update: I must have missed this announcement. Besides the boys going south Tom Steever is headed overseas.

Brownfield’s Tom Steever is traveling to Berlin, Germany in January to attend the East-West Agriculture Forum, which is part of that country’s International Green Week observance. Steever is going at the invitation of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., which extends the invitation to one U.S. journalist each year.

This is a great trip and one I went on back when I was with Brownfield. I have a lot of stories Tom. Make them take you out to eat some good old German food. The first couple days we ate everything except German for some reason. If you try to convince us that you made it to all the booths I won’t believe you! This is one huge show going on there.

Audio, Media

The Radio War Perspective From Sundog

Chuck Zimmerman

Sundog Carol of the ChinsIt’s still the Christmas season so you can still enjoy singing a carol or watching someone or something else sing them. Like these chins from Sundog.

Actually I found them when I visited their site to see Greg’s latest post on “Radio War Heats Up.” If you haven’t visited Sundog you ought to. I mentioned them earlier this year since they did the creative behind the excellent GoE Roadtrip blog. If you’re looking for an agency that “gets it” when it comes to the new online world of communications then give these guys a try. Of course, you can call us too.

I am bringing this to your attention because I’d like your thoughts on what Greg writes. For example, eventhough he points you to studies that show the growth in various forms of new audio delivery mechanisms he still believes in it: “While all these radio alternatives make it almost impossible to use any one segment of the “radio” broadcast pie to reach a mass audience, it, nevertheless, makes it easier to narrowcast targeted, relevant messages to more granular market segments. Ultimately, this should increase the return on investment for advertisers.”

I wonder how it applies in the farm world. How fractionalized are the ways a farmer “listens?” How do you reach them if they’re listening to satellite radio, internet radio and podcasts in addition to their local radio station? Do you believe they are using all of these? How do we measure this? Anyone want to sponsor a national farmer media use study that will include questions about their computer, internet and use of new technology like iPods besides how and when they listen to their local station? I’ve got just the completely independent company that can do the research for us. They aren’t one of the “traditional” ones that always conducts the studies we see and hear about. Interested? Want to know what your members and customers are really doing?

Agencies, Internet

The AgWired Frappr Map

Chuck Zimmerman

AgWired Frappr MapAs if I didn’t have anything else to do but play around with something that I’m guessing is almost completely worthless interesting, you can now check out the AgWired Frappr Map. What is it? I’m not really sure. Just another experiment in internet social communication.

The theory is that all my friends will want to got there and add themselves. (addition: Show me where all the AgWired friends are.) They (you) can enter your location, comments, a picture and it’s even got a user forum which I’ve got set up with the topics of agriblogging and farm podcasting just to get you started.

We’ll “see how this works” as someone I know said about theirs.

Internet

Blog Training At MBIC Today

Chuck Zimmerman

MoBeef UpdateIt’s the Missouri Beef Industry Council’s newest website project and it’s a blog. It’s MOBeef Update and was the subject of an MBIC Report recently.

I got to conduct a training session with the staff today. Besides Steve Taylor, the executive director, Dawn and Alane can now post their own information. I’m sure we’ll start seeing their content as they become comfortable and find their voice.

It’ll be interesting to see how the board likes the new communications vehicle. I’m planning on giving them a presentation at their next meeting and show them how to subscribe if they aren’t by then.

Ag Groups

MBIC Year In Review

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThe Missouri Beef Industry Council’s weekly MBIC Report this week is with director of marketing, Dawn Thurnau. Dawn reviews the marketing activities of the organization for the year, including youth, restaurants and grocery stores.

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

Meatingplace.com A Good Place To Meat Up

Chuck Zimmerman

Meating PlaceI subscribe to Meatingplace.com, “The online home of POULTRY and MMT magazines,” and enjoy the daily list of news articles, some of which have become AgWired articles. They’ve just announced some major changes and new stuff that will be available to members starting next week. You might want to check it out if you’re interested in the meat business.

A suite of new online editorial features geared toward meat and poultry plant managers will debut on Meatingplace beginning Monday, Jan. 2.

A new Technical Articles section will feature practical tips for meat and poultry plant operators, written by the editors of Meatingplace.com, as well as outside experts. A fresh lineup of Technical Articles will appear each month and be previewed in the all-new print edition of Meatingplace, which replaces the former Meat Marketing & Technology magazine. The new feature articles also will be supported by a bi-weekly e-newsletter, called Processing Solutions, that will be sent to select members of Meatingplace.com. The first edition will be sent Jan. 2.

The second enhancement to Meatingplace’s online content is Supplier Showroom, an online collection of new plant equipment, supplies, services and vendor news. Readers will have the option of a one-click response mechanism to request additional information from suppliers about any given product or service. “This kind of interactive content is perfect for the Web. This significantly streamlines the process by putting interested buyers and sellers immediately in contact with one another,” said Gregerson.

As with the new technical feature articles, Supplier Showroom items will be previewed each month in Meatingplace in print. Likewise, a dedicated e-newsletter, called Sourcing E-ssentals, will be sent on alternate Mondays beginning Jan. 9 to select members of Meatingplace.com.

Publication

Missouri Corn Industry Year In Review

Chuck Zimmerman

CornTalk podcastCornTalk is the week’y interview program of the Missouri Corn Growers Association. The association has accomplished many things during a very challenging year for corn growers. In this week’s CornTalk, CEO Gary Marshall provides a year in review. He describes the challenges facing corn growers, reviews the accomplishments of the MCGA and looks forward to some of the key issues the organization will focus on in the coming year.

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

CornTalk is a weekly AgWired podcast which you can subscribe to using the link you’ll find on our “Blogs & Podcasts” page.

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, Podcasts

Canadian Farmer Web Auction Business

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast478- Dwayne LeslieHere’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: Download MP3 File

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

FarmPolicy.comLast 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