AgStar Financial Delivering Harvest Lunches

Chuck Zimmerman

Brownfield NetworkAs we struggle to get in touch with growers in the middle of harvest someone’s reaching them the right way. That’s AgStar Financial. This story was on Brownfield Network today and it’s just a “good” story so I had to point you to it.

You’ve all been there, harvest time, the combine is running flat-out, the trucks are just barely keeping up and you know you don’t have many days before the weather turns. The last thing you want to see is some guy driving out in your field to talk to you…unless he’s bringing lunch! This is a very familiar happening for farmers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. AgStar Financial Services calls it their Harvest Lunch program. Since 1989, AgStar employees have delivered lunches to farmers in the field during the fall harvest.

Of course you’ll find an audio file to listen to as well.

Agribusiness, Audio

D&PL Announce New Cotton Varieties

Chuck Zimmerman

D&PLThe new product announcements just keep on coming. Delta & Pine Company has a whole range of new cotton varieties. The announcement gets into some pretty technical stuff that includes a lot of number and letters. I recommend visiting their website to learn more.

Delta and Pine Land Company announces the commercialization of the much-heralded new mid-maturity, stacked-gene cotton
variety, DP 454 BG/RR, plus new exciting Bollgard® II/Roundup Ready® Flex varieties for 2006.

“As the leading cotton seed supplier to U.S. producers, D&PL has the breeding and research capabilities to keep America’s cotton farmers armed with a wide range of maturities and technologies to meet farm requirements and textile mill demands,” said Jim Willeke, vice president of sales and marketing at D&PL. “Our 2006 cotton variety lineup offers producers yield, fiber and more technologies than ever before.”

Agribusiness

LPC Has Their Own Boot Camp

Chuck Zimmerman

Livestock Publications Council Boot CampWe’ve reported on one kind of Boot Camp here on AgWired and now we’ve got another one to point you to. It’s the Livestock Publications Council, Boot Camp ver. 1.05.

When:
Friday, November 11, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Registration 8:30-9:00 am

Where:
Executive Inn,Louisville, KY ($95 per night), 800-626-2706, (Book immediately as all hotels close to the fairgrounds will fill up fast because of NAILE!) Other options: Best Western Ashton Inn, 502-375-2233, Courtyard by Marriott, 502-368-5678, Howard Johnson’s, 502-363-9952, Hampton Inn, 502-366-8100, Comfort Inn, 502-361-5008

Cost:
LPC Members, $60, Non-members, $75, Students, $35, (Includes lunch)

Registration Deadline:
November 4, No-Shows will be billed

This Boot Camp will offer affordable and practical ideas for you to take back and actually put to use. A great opportunity for anyone in the design or production department for your publication!

LPC

55 Percent of Corporations Are Blogging

Chuck Zimmerman

Are you still wondering about blogging and don’t know if it has an application for you and your company? Are you reading this? If so, you have an involvement in blogging! At the just completed BlogOn 2005 in New York they released the results of Guidewire Group’s “Blogging in the Enterprise,” a first-ever study of the adoption of blogging by communications and marketing professionals. Now I’ve always told my kids, “Just because someone else is doing it doesn’t make it right.” However, there’s a lot of corporate blogging going on folks!

Here’s an example of an interesting tidbit from their results:

• Almost 90% of those surveyed said they are or plan to use blogging in their communications efforts.

A story on the study appeared on Internet.com and had even more information from the study.

The poll of corporate marketing and communications professionals found that 55 percent of corporations are blogging, with 91.4 percent of those using them for internal communications and 96.6 percent for external outreach. More than half had launched their blogs within the last year.

Uncategorized

Learn How Beef Producers Influence The Checkoff

Chuck Zimmerman

MBIC Report PodcastThis week’s MBIC report from the Missouri Beef Industy Council is with board member John Kleiboeker of California, Missouri, who is also a member of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Joint Nutrition and Health Issues Committee. John talks about how Missouri producers can provide input on how beef checkoff dollars are spent on the national level.

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 in our sidebar or on the newly designed MBIC website.

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Podcasts

Lorrie Morgan Wants 5 Minutes of Your Time

Chuck Zimmerman

Lorrie MorganWhat part of “You must attend Commodity Classic” don’t you understand?

Commodity Classic, the combined convention and trade show of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the American Soybean Association (ASA), has announced country star Lorrie Morgan will be the headline act for the Evening of Entertainment at the 2006 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, Calif., March 2-4.

Commodity ClassicThe Evening of Entertainment will be Saturday evening, March 4, at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena. For more information about Commodity Classic, visit www.commodityclassic.com.

Commodity Classic

The Resurrection of The Livestock Round-Up

Chuck Zimmerman

Livestock UpdateThe Livestock Marketing Information Center has resumed publishing a quarterly electronic version of the “Livestock Round-Up. It’s an online PDF file that you can download from a sidebar link on their website.

Would you like to know more about consumer demand for beef, the outlook for cattle and sheep and lamb prices, and the Canadian cattle industry? Those topics are covered in the most recent issue of the quarterly Livestock Round-Up published by the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC).

Some of you “old time” livestock market observers may remember receiving the brown and white monthly Western Livestock Round-Up newsletter in the mail during the ’70s and ’80s. Later, readers across the Western and Great Plains states received the Round-Up as an insert in state agricultural magazines.

The LMIC is a unique cooperative effort that includes 24 state Extension Services (including the NDSU Extension Service), five cooperating USDA agencies and seven associate livestock-related organizations.

Publication dates are March, June, September and December. Articles will focus on livestock markets and related issues. The major species covered in terms of market situation and outlook will be cattle, hogs and sheep. Other species and related industries also will be covered periodically.

Publication

Sunbelt Ag Expo Features Over 1,200 Exhibitors

Chuck Zimmerman

Sunbelt Ag ExpoHere’s the latest news from Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. The reports we’ve had were sent in courtesy of Randall Weisman, Southeast AgNet. Thanks for the news!

The 28th Annual Sunbelt Ag Expo continues here in Moultrie, Georgia with big crowds enjoying everything from stockdog sheep trials, to beef cattle seminars, haymaking sessions, field crop exhibits, to machinery exhibits and machinery demonstrations. Overall, there are 1200 exhibitors on hand showing their goods and products.

As we mentioned Tuesday, the Lancaster/Sunbelt Farmer of the Year award was presented to Louis “Red” Larson of Okeechobee, Florida. But it has also been announced a ninth state has been added to participate in the prestigious program in 2006. Kentucky will join the eight original states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia at next years event.

But this years Sunbelt Ag Expo is still underway and runs through Thursday.

Farm Shows

1,207 Posts, 4 Blogs, 6 Months

Chuck Zimmerman

For the first time today I actually forgot about something that I had posted. I mean I was talking to someone today on the phone and saying that what we were talking about would be good material for AgWired and she pointed out that I had written about it 2 months ago! Wow. She was also someone I’ve never met and was talking to for the first time. In fact, I didn’t even get her name. I guess AgWired’s getting out there. But it made me wonder. How many of these posts have I posted? Maybe there’s a reason I’d better search my own blog before posting!

In 6 months I’ve posted 1,207 articles (my word for posts) onto 4 different ZimmComm blogs. Now this doesn’t count two personal blogs I operate or 2 different volunteer blogs I operate like the one for Gateway NAMA.

So here’s how that 1,207 breaks out:

AgWired – 965
World Dairy Diary – 197
DomesticFuel – 39
Talking News Releases – 6

I’ll bet you didn’t know there were that many things to write about in the agricultural marketing world. That’s only 6 months folks. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Why? Because we’re going to have some more writers and contributors to AgWired. I’m working on it. I can’t pay much yet and I’m only interested in someone who knows “ag” and who’s already blogging! But we’ll be introducing you to some pro bloggers here very soon. BTW. Are you interested? If so, please feel free to make your interest known but remember you have to be blogging already.

Uncategorized

Vermeer Manufacturing Promotes Cheap Roughage

Chuck Zimmerman

Vermeer ManufacturingWith all the corn harvesting going on Vermeer Manufacturing wants growers to know how important baling the stalks can be as an economical roughage for livestock. To help get the word out they sent a Talking News Release today.

When it comes to a good, affordable source of roughage, many cattle producers and livestock feeders are finding that cornstalk bales really fit the bill. Daniel Rippe (Rip-ee) who has a cow-calf operation in Auburn, Nebraska says he has found that cornstalk bales work better for his operation than hay bales.

“Part of it is that they’re – well, cheap. And I can feed distiller’s products with the corn stalks and end up with a decent ration and still be cheaper than going out and buying some higher quality hay.” Full Release

This is the third in a series of releases that Vermeer has distributed on this subject.

Agribusiness, Audio