The Chicago Farmers & St. Louis Ag Club Invite

Chuck Zimmerman July 19, 2005

The Chicago Farmers are holding a meeting in Peoria in August you may be interested in. The members of the St. Louis AgriBusiness Club have also been invited and sent out this invite.

Here’s the details I have:

St. Louis AgriBusiness Club members are invited to join The Chicago Farmers for a unique opportunity to visit the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) and Caterpillar’s C13 ACERT engine plant Wednesday, Aug. 24. The National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research is one of four USDA research centers in the United States. The purpose of the research is to find new uses for agricultural products.

Agenda
9:45 a.m. Meet at the NCAUR Ag Lab (no later than 9:45 a.m.)
10 a.m. National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research to noon Ag Lab tour
Noon We’ll drive to Mossville (site of Caterpillar’s ACERT engine production).
12:30 to Lunch at the CAT plant, where Raymond Poe, Illinois
1:15 p.m. State Representative (R) for the 99th District, will address the group
1:15 to Hear from one of Caterpillar’s engine specialists and
2:30 p.m. take a tour of the facility

Go here to register. Registration is $25 ($30 for non-members). The deadline for registration is Thursday, Aug. 11.

Ag Groups

AgCareers.com Partners With International Agri-Center

Chuck Zimmerman July 19, 2005

If you’ve ever used Monster to try to find a job or hire someone and are looking for an “aggie” then you ought to check out AgCareers.com. They’ve just partnered up with the folks at the International Agri-Center in California.

International Agri-Center partners with AgCareers.com

TULARE, CA: The International Agri-Center has announced a new partnership with AgCareers.com, an Internet website that does for agriculture what Monster.com does for techies – it links employers seeking staff with prospective employees, all with an agricultural bent. The Agri-Center is located in Tulare, Ca.

“The Agri-Center looks to AgCareers.com to assist with recruiting efforts within the West,” says Gary Schulz, Agri-Center general manager. “They are the leading online human resources site for ag, food, natural resources and biotechnology.”

For more information contact Doreen Nagle.

Agribusiness

GoE Boyz Still Road Tripping

Chuck Zimmerman July 19, 2005

I pointed you to the GoE guys before. Have you been keeping up with their summer road trip? All you gotta do is subscribe.

Anyway I really like what they’re doing and how this demonstrates blogging as a promotional tool. In one of their latest posts the guys visited Hebron, ND. They liked the name so much that “. . . we liked the word Hebron. So, we’ve decided to make it applicable to anything and everything. Meaning that we can use it as a noun, verb, ajective, or adverb at any time we want, just so we can give ourselves as many opportunities to say Hebron as we can. Example: Hey, cool hat man! That is totally hebron! or Wow, I’ve had a heck of day. I’m pretty hebronned out. See what I mean. It’s pretty cool, huh?”

I think they’re funny and this is a great promotion.

Ethanol

Renewable Fuels Discussed At Breakfast

Chuck Zimmerman July 19, 2005

Breakfast this morning in Columbia, MO was at the MFA Oil headquarters. The Columbia Chamber of Commerce has a Food For Thought Breakfast Series that features interesting topics and speakers. Today it was Michelle Kautz, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition and Jon Kleiboeker, Missouri Soybean Association speaking about renewable fuels, ethanol and biodiesel.

Pictured here is MFA Oil’s David Perkins, special projects manager, who also discussed how MFA Oil is supporting and encouraging the use of renewable fuels. The people attending were from a variety of business interests and many learned a lot about ethanol and biodiesel that they never knew. Judging by the questions asked there’s still a big job to do educating the general public about renewable fuels. For example, one of the speaker said that many consumers who purchase a flexible fuel vehicle (runs on E-85 or regular gas) don’t even know that they can put E-85 in it! I also heard that one of the reasons many gas pumps that contain up to a 10 blend of ethanol don’t even label it as such is because they found that consumers shied away from it thinking it would hurt their car somehow!

Obviously a lot of consumer education to do about these renewable fuels!

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Ethanol

Corn Congress Discussed On CornTalk

Chuck Zimmerman July 19, 2005

Last week Missouri Corn Growers Association CEO Gary Marshall was in Washington, DC where his meetings focused on several issues. In this week’s CornTalk program Cindy interviews Gary about the energy bill, the highway bill, WRDA and CAFTA.

You can listen to CornTalk here

CornTalk is also a weekly podcast of AgWired. Just use the link you’ll find in our sidebar to subscribe.

Ag Groups, Audio, Podcasts

Purina’s Animal Advice Podcasts

Chuck Zimmerman July 18, 2005

You know we advocate podcasting and are just waiting for the ag public relations world to “get it.” Some people already do. Take the folks at Purina. They podcast pet advice.

They’re also using RSS very effectively and have a number of feeds available that include:

Dog Pictures and Profiles From the Latest Beneful® Dog Pages
Cat Advice (Emotional): Purina® Cat Chow® Mentor Amy Shojai
Kitten/Mature Cat Advice: Purina® Cat Chow® Mentor Dr. Debbie Horwitz
Cat Advice (Nutritional): Purina® Cat Chow® Mentor Dr. Janet Jackson
Cat Advice (Physical): Purina® Cat Chow® Mentor Dr. Steffen Runquist
“Real Cats, Real Stories” From Purina® Cat Chow®
Expert Cat Care! Advice From the Purina ONE® Online Vet
Expert Dog Care Advice From the Purina ONE® Online Vet

Okay, so maybe they’re targeting the general public. I don’t know why anyone would think that farmers are any different though.

Agribusiness

NCGA’s FSATF Report

Chuck Zimmerman July 18, 2005

I had not seen this report before seeing a link to it in today’s NCGA News of the Day. It’s the result of NCGA’s Future Structure of Agriculture Task Force II work. It looks like a lot of work went into this document. I wonder how it’s being used and if it will have any impact. Anyone know?

You can read the full report on their website.

Their Executive Summary makes a clear statement that some things need to change for production agriculture to continue to grow and be a viable business for farmers.To revitalize rural America, agriculture needs a new focus—an emphasis on entrepreneurship versus entitlement. Hundreds of farmer-owned ventures have flowered throughout the Grain Belt since the mid-1990s. But more investment beyond production agriculture is critical, since future profits in commodity agriculture will grow only in nickels and dimes; upstream processors, many of which can be farmer owned, will capture the real dollars from value-added agriculture.

The report makes a number of specific recommendations:

• Elevate bio-based research and technology to a national priority.
• Encourage farmer-owned brands by removing legal barriers.
• Reform producer-owned business structures to improve tax efficiency, easily raise capital and offer investor liquidity.
• Foster and fund value-added education and rural entrepreneurship.

Ag Groups

Milk Is Milk To Alex Avery

Chuck Zimmerman July 18, 2005

I don’t think I’ve pointed you to the Milk is Milk blog yet have I?

This is where the Center For Global Food Issues, director of research & education posts his thoughts. He is Alex Avery.

He doesn’t write often but when he does it’s well thought out and he makes good use of links. His latest post for example is on happy cows and unhappy birds. It’s about grazing and claims made by organic milk producers and environmentalists and he puts links to sites that contain information to back up what he’s saying.

I think this is a great example of how you can incorporate blogging into your web strategy since the blog is linked to from the Milk is Milk website!

Uncategorized

Farm Radio & Print In Florida

Chuck Zimmerman July 18, 2005

This week’s ZimmCast features Gary Cooper. No, not that Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper as in, president of Southeast AgNet & Citrus Industry magazine.

Gary has been in farm broadcasting all his life and now he owns a magazine. Ever wondered what it’s like to try to marry these two mediums together? Well, in my interview with Gary we talk about why he made the purchase and how he’s integrating these two mediums for the benefit of Florida citrus growers and the companies that advertise.

You can listen to my interview with Gary here

Our ZimmCast is also a weekly podcast which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar.

Audio, Media, Podcasts, ZimmCast

Johanns In Madagascar

Chuck Zimmerman July 17, 2005

Our Secretary of Ag, Mike Johanns was in Madagascar this past week. I wish they’d invited AgWired to go along. Cindy and I sponsor a child in Madagascar through CFCA and I’ve wanted to visit him and his family. Anyway, it looks like our secretary got some work done there.

Transcript Of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns At the Signing Ceremony for MOU and a Food for Progress Agreement – Antananarivo, Madagascar – July 16, 2005

SECRETARY JOHANNS: “Mr. President,Mister Ministers,

“Let me start out and say that it is a great pleasure to be here in Madagascar. My wife Stephanie and I are honored to be here. We have enjoyed firsthand the beauty and the natural resources of this remarkable country, and we look forward to our visit over the hours ahead. We certainly appreciate your warm welcome.

“I am here in order that our two countries will further develop our common interests, continued cooperation in the progress on economic reforms that will expand freedom, security and prosperity to all.

For the full transcript visit this link.

Uncategorized

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