This is why I posted that picture of the new FFA Officers. Those are some very impressive young adults who will be found throughout the agribusiness industry as time goes. Take for example, Seth here who’s joined Bader Rutter
Seth Heinert has joined Bader Rutter & Associates as an assistant account executive in the agency’s Lincoln, Neb., office. Prior to joining Bader Rutter, Heinert was a speaker/facilitator for Cross Anchor Presentations. A Hulett, Wyo., native, Heinert holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Wyoming. He is active in FFA and has served as a national FFA officer.
Almost 12,000 Unique Visitors To AgWired
AgWired readership continues to grow. We look at those web stats frequently and the end of the month makes for a good comparison point. So far we’ve had almost 12,000 unique visitors to AgWired and growing daily. We had 133,000 page views last month. Once again last month we had more new visitors and total visits than any previous month by a significant percentage. Our average daily traffic increased too.
Amazingly, although we are a seriously search engine optimized website 93 % of our visitors come directly from typing our url into their browser or from a bookmark. In fact, 35 % of news visitors add us to their favorites. An equal number come from search engines and links from other websites (about 3.5%/ea.). We’ve also had visitors from 72 countries that can be identified with the top ones being European Union, Australia, Slovenia and Great Britain. There are quite a few unidentified’s and I know the EU isn’t a country but they must have their own domain extension.
Someone seems to like what they see I guess. All I can say is “thanks for visiting.” I’m a little overwhelmed by how well AgWired has been received. The kind words of support we’ve received mean a lot. We wouldn’t have this level of traffic if it wasn’t for word of mouth since we haven’t had any budget to do some serious promotion yet. We’d like to do so and are currently seeking the support to make that happen. If you’d like to assist please let us know.
Stay “tuned in” because there’s a lot more to come. Oh, and if you need help setting up your blog, we’ve got a growing list of clients for whom we’re designing and building sites and conducting training. Our rates are reasonable.
Domestic & International Events Impacting Farm Policy
Key developments in both the domestic and international arenas this past week are likely to have an impact on the future of federal farm policy.
Following on the heels of a $3 billion Senate Agriculture Committee deficit reduction bill, the House Agriculture Committee on Friday passed a similar measure containing $3.7 billion in cuts to federal agricultural spending.
Although both bills contained reductions in direct payments and conservation programs, the House bill included $844 million in cuts to the food stamp program. This provision encountered too much political opposition on the Senate and was not a part of that Committee’s legislation.
Still, each plan will have to be approved by the respective body and then differences will need to be resolved in House Senate conference.
On the international front, the W.T.O. Doha trade negotiations picked up some potential momentum on Friday when the European Union released their counter-offer to a previous U.S. proposal.
However, reaction to the EU’s latest offer was tepid at best.
Saturday’s New York Times noted that, “the proposal came under immediate attack from all directions: from the United States and Brazil for being inadequate and from France for going too far.”
Interestingly, the recent Congressional budget activity and the on-going Doha talks are intertwined.
An editorial in Thursday’s New York Times pointed out that the Senate budget measure contained a provision that “extends the subsidies paid to growers of cotton, rice and other commodities until 2011, subsidies that were supposed to expire in the 2007 farm bill.”
The editorial pointed out that U.S. “trade negotiators say the Senate Agriculture Committee’s move will make their job at the trade organization talks more difficult. It’s hard to preach the free trade gospel abroad when lawmakers at home are busily taking care of their own special interests.”
This is just another reminder of how domestic political activity increasingly has broad ramifications on the world stage.
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. To sign up for this FREE publication, just send an Email to this address.
Use Your Phone To Do Live TV
This is too cool not to let you in on. We haven’t even started doing video here on AgWired (just wait) and already you can now do live video “broadcasts” from a mobile phone, direct to your blog. The company introducing it is Comvu and they call it PocketCaster. You can watch a demonstration here.
ComVu, a developer of innovative software and automated video delivery technologies, demonstrated an efficient new “direct to blog” feature of its live mobile broadcasting service at the recent BlogOn Social Media Summit. ComVu is the first to offer mobile users the ability to transmit live video broadcasts of any length and to any size audience using ComVu’s “do-it-yourself” video network. With this technology marketing and media professionals can now broadcast breaking news, spokespeople interviews and product demonstrations easily and inexpensively to its stakeholder audiences.
Syngenta Upgrades FarmAssist.com
You can’t be a weblog and not get into checking out websites. We will only report on them after doing so. That’s why I waited hours to post this announcement from Syngenta. These are the folks who created the very cool, Resistance Fighters site.
This time it’s FarmAssist.com and Syngenta has added more features in the hopes that farmers just won’t need to go anywhere else. For example, there’s localized weather, markets that you choose, customized news and a lot of other stuff. Of course you can find out just about anything you want to know about any Syngenta product. Registration is required to create your own custom profile or “MyFarmAssist.” I’m a weather buff so having localized weather from AccuWeather is certainly a plus.
I know that while I was looking at the name I wasn’t confused but I hope that if someone “hears” it they don’t think, pharmacist.com!
The Big O Invites You To NAFB
Maybe this is the last NAFB convention audio invitation? Who knows. They just keep coming. With all this effort I’m expecting to see about 10,000 of you there next week. This one is from Orion Samuelson, who talks about the NAFB Foundation Auction. Orion has been a foundation supporter for a long time.
I remember meeting Orion for the first time at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA when he was announcing a John Deere demonstration. I knew right away my voice was way outclassed in the farm broadcasting field. He does have the pipes. BTW. I did just see an announcement about Orion and his ever faithful sidekick and broadcast partner, Max Armstrong, are starting a new weekly tv show on RFD-TV. Congratulations guys.
You can listen to Orion’s invitation here: 
New FFA Officers
They’re such a good looking group I had to post them for you. This is the newly elected national officer group for FFA. Their convention is over and you can find out a lot about it on their website.
Travis Jett of the Oklahoma FFA Association will lead a slate of six officers consisting of Anita Estes, Central Region Vice President; Stuart Joy, Western Region Vice President; Jessie Geib, National Secretary; Ryan Peterson, Eastern Region Vice President; Erica Der, Southern Region Vice President.
I wonder if any of them would like to discuss a career in ag blogging!
Osborn & Barr People In The News
It’s people in the news time at Osborn & Barr Communications. This time we have several announcements for you:
Jill Gainer, the former manager of emerging initiatives and media manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, has joined Osborn & Barr Communications as media director. After eight years on the client side of the business, Jill returns to agency life to lead Osborn & Barr’s media department. Her responsibilities include recommending the media vehicles that best meet the client’s communication objectives and supervising media planning and buying on all accounts.
Anna LaRue has been promoted to associate art director for Intervet, John Deere Credit, and Pony Express and Specialty Fertilizer Products. As part of her creative responsibilities, Anna has undertaken major rebranding efforts and contributed to interactive Web site development. Anna received a bachelor of fine arts with a major in graphic design from the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kent Martin was hired as associate director of public relations to provide communications expertise for association clients and government clients. Kent is also responsible for helping to grow Osborn & Barr’s Gov-Link business, specializing in providing outreach and education services to government agencies.
Osborn & Barr Communications has hired Justin McCurry as production graphics specialist. McCurry will be putting his agricultural experience and graphics expertise to work on the agency’s John Deere accounts. He graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia and has degrees in graphic design, sculpture and ceramics.
Osborn & Barr Communications has promoted Roxi Beck to account executive. Roxi’s farming background and familiarity with ag production and financing bring ideal expertise to the John Deere Credit account. The Iowa Farm Bureau account, Foxboro Business Center and the National Pork Board have also benefited from Roxi’s strategic approach and detailed planning. Roxi graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she worked in the public relations department to develop marketing and advertising campaigns for various events and supervised sponsorship efforts.
Phew. That’s all for now.
Pioneer & Dow AgroSciences Receive Herculex XTRA Approval
Pioneer Hi-Bred and Dow AgroSciences announced today that they’ve received U. S. regulatory approvals for Herculex XTRA Insect Protection. Growers can look for this trait in corn hybrids for 2006 planting. Of course this was produced and distributed as a Talking News Release!
Corn growers now have access to the broadest-spectrum in-plant insect protection in the marketplace with the federal registration of Herculex® XTRA Insect Protection.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. and Dow AgroSciences LLC, the trait’s developers, recently received registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Herculex XTRA Insect Protection. Kyle Whitaker, New Product Launch Manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred, says this action gives the companies the ability to offer this trait in corn hybrids to U.S. growers for 2006 planting. Full Release
Andy Markwart Talks About IFAJ 2009
If you’ve read AgWired for long you know about the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ). I got to attend this year’s congress in Switzerland and am on the planning committee for the 2009 IFAJ Congress, which will be here in the United States! We’ve already had our first planning meeting. I know 4 years seems like a long time but not when you’re planning an international event.
One of the planning committe co-chairs is Andy Markwart, editor of The Furrow, a John Deere publication. You can get some insight into the planning process as well as where we recommend it be held. The event will be held in conjunction with the Ag Media Summit that year.
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.