Passing of Legendary Farm Broadcaster Cliff Mitchell

Cindy Zimmerman

We called him legendary back in 2009, and he was inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 2005. Cliff Mitchell, one of the great farm broadcasters, passed away on his 89th birthday March 30.

Cliff is remembered for his service to the NAFB Foundation auction as auctioneer and as host of Aunt Sara’s Partyline. Those who were privileged guests on his program during NAFB Convention fondly remember the simple invitation of Cliff’s room number and time on the back of his business card. Upon arrival, Miss Ellie would offer you coffee and donut balls while you could hear Cliff talking to the board operator at KASM getting ready for the broadcast. His broadcasts included interviews with guests, the ‘road kill’ report, live commercials and a lot of fun.

A Celebration of Life with Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 8 at Seven Dolors Catholic Church in Albany, where Cliff married Miss Ellie in 1954. Military honors will be provided by the Albany American Legion. Cliff has donated his body to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial donations that will be used for a scholarship fund in Cliff’s memory to continue Cliff’s commitment to agriculture.

Learn more about Cliff in this interview with Mike Adams, Agri-Pulse:


NAFB, Video

Outstanding Young Farmers Recognized

Kelly Marshall

Some of the outstanding farmers at Ag Day: Kevin and Jennifer Wolsky, Ida and Joseph DeFrancesco III, Brooke Loisel, Nathan Youngquist, Jessica Niederer

As part of National Ag Day, John Deere welcomed four new inductees to the Outstanding Farmers of America (OFA) Fraternity as National Outstanding Young Farmers at the OYF Awards Congress.  This year Jessica Niederer spoke on behalf of the inductees. Niederer is an organic grower who sells all of her 57 varieties at farmer’s markets in New Jersey. Selling at farmer’s markets offers her a chance to interact with customers every day– to talk with them and share her own individual story each day.

“We can personally hope that agriculture holds the key to at least a shelter belt of common ground within the divisiveness within our country today,” Niederer says of her experiences. “For 10,000 years agriculture and the business of raising and growing food has been at the base of the way human societies have interacted with their environment and with each other. It’s how our culture really started.”

Growers are in the unique position to make the decisions that shape the way customers view agriculture, Niederer says. We’re under fire all the time, but we can conduct our businesses in a way that gives people a reason to be proud of our work.

The four national winners from the OYF Class of 2016 are: Jessica Niederer, Nathan Youngquist, Joseph DeFrancesco III and Kevin Wolsky.

Listen to Jessica’s acceptance speech here: Jessica Niederer, Outstanding Young Farmer

National Ag Day Photo Album

Ag Day, Audio, John Deere

Soy-Biobased Grassmaker Partners for Pets

Kelly Marshall

SYNLawn, a leader in soy-biobased artificial grass, has teamed up with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) International to offer turf to pet shelters, a discount to homeowners with a rescue pet, and sponsor a military pet rescue.

“We are pleased that our collaboration with the SPCA International allows us to donate premium synthetic grass in rescue shelters for pets that haven’t always been in friendly environments,” said George Neagle, SYNLawn’s vice president of sales and marketing. “The partnership will help raise much-needed funds for pet rescue and adoption.”

America’s energy security benefits because SYNLawn artificial grass is made with a U.S. soy-based backing called BioCel™ manufactured by Universal Textile Technologies. BioCel uses soy-based polyol technology developed with support from the soybean checkoff. Based on UL third-party verification, soybean oil displaces 60 percent of the petroleum-based polyurethane in BioCel. Using soy in industrial products like SYNLawn artificial grass helps to create new markets for U.S. soybeans and jobs here at home.

Soybean

CAPA Launches New Website

Kelly Marshall

The Coalition to Advance Precision Agriculture (CAPA) is excited to present their new website, www.DiscoverPrecisionAg.org.

CAPA is comprised of ag organizations, grower groups and agribusiness associations. Their goal is to facilitate communication between farm and agribusiness associations and government decision-makers in regards to all things precision agriculture. The new website will offer a valuable tool to promote science-based policy decisions for a safe, susutainable food source.

“From AgGateway’s perspective, CAPA is an important resource, informing government and industry leaders about the essential work being done to facilitate the exchange of electronic information for precision agriculture. The ability to manage data is key to the continuing success of U.S. agriculture,” Wendy Smith, President of member organization AgGateway.

Ag Groups

How to Subscribe to a Podcast

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s a Monday morning, “Ask the AgriBlogger” question. “How do I subscribe to a podcast?”

Good question. And it is one I am getting a lot all of the sudden. Farm podcasting has been around about 13 years now but seems to be getting quite a bit of traction as a communication channel now. So let me provide you with some direction on this very simple, while somewhat complicated topic.

Think of a podcast as a regularly scheduled, recorded audio program in the form of a digital audio file. Instead of it being broadcast via a radio transmitter to your radio it is distributed via a digital signal like your phone’s cellular connection or wifi or your home/office internet wired connection. The term podcast comes from the fact that when this started we only had iPods. It’s a goofy name but it’s what we’ve got.

So here are some notes on how to subscribe:

  • The podcast file must be put into a little text file called an RSS Feed. This small file contains the directions (code) for your device to download the audio file so you can listen to it. RSS Feeds can be used for different purposes but here we’re just talking about distributing the audio program.
  • You device (computer, smart phone, tablet) needs to have an app that will use that podcast RSS Feed. This app will know when there is a new episode of the podcast and automatically download it for you. You only have to subscribe one time.
  • App examples would be Podcasts on iOS or Google Play on Android. On your computer, most all browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome) have a built-in app that lets you subscribe to the podcast RSS Feed.
  • There are a number of online directories which use the podcast RSS Feed to make the podcast more easily found and available for your device. For example, my weekly ZimmCast can be found in the iTunes podcast directory. If you open iTunes on your computer or device and search for “ZimmCast” you will find it and iTunes easily lets you subscribe right there.
  • Using the ZimmCast as an example, here are the links for what I have described above.

    ZimmCast RSS Feed
    ZimmCast in iTunes

If you will be attending the National Agri-Marketing Conference this year, please stop by the ZimmComm booth where we will be answering this question and even helping you subscribe to podcasts in whatever device you have.

Email me if you have questions or problems.

Podcasts

More Beans and Cotton, Less Corn and Wheat

Cindy Zimmerman

The first estimate for crop plantings this year by USDA is calling for less corn and wheat but more soybeans and cotton.

The 2017 Prospective Plantings report based on farmer surveys estimates that corn planted area for all purposes in 2017 will be 90 million acres, down 4 percent or 4.0 million acres from last year. Soybeans planted area for 2017 is estimated at a record high 89.5 million acres, up 7 percent from last year.

All wheat planted area for 2017 is estimated at 46.1 million acres, down 8 percent from 2016, which would be the lowest total planted area for the United States since records began in 1919. All cotton planted area for 2017 is estimated at 12.2 million acres, 21 percent above last year.

The MGEX crop call on the report today featured commentary from Brian Basting of Advance Trading, Inc. Listen to it here: MGEX Crop Call with Brian Basting, Advance Trading

Audio, Corn, Cotton, Soybean, USDA, Wheat

Tebow Wins 2017 Charles Eastin Award on Ag Day

Kelly Marshall

Sue Tebow was the recipient of this year’s Charles Eastin Award, presented on National Ag Day. The award honors advocates who communicate between rural and urban audiences; Tebow’s Facebook page, agri.CULTURE, certainly does that job. She credits her vantage point as an outsider to the industry with shaping the message that has allowed her to reach thousands of people.

“I realized it is a life; it is not a job,” Tebow explains. “So it gave me a very special insight on what people do not know about farming and what they do know.”

Her Facebook page features the stories Tebow has captured with her camera– the culture of the hard working men and women. It’s the simplicity that makes it the success it is, Tebow says.

Listen to Tebow’s message here: Ag Day Eastin Award, Sue Tebow

National Ag Day Photo Album

Ag Day, Audio

FMC to Acquire Portion of Dupont Crop Protection

Chuck Zimmerman

In an early morning call FMC and DuPont made a major announcement:

FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC) and DuPont (NYSE: DD) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for FMC to acquire the portion of DuPont’s Crop Protection business it must divest to comply with the European Commission ruling related to its merger with The Dow Chemical Company. Additionally, DuPont will acquire FMC Health and Nutrition and receive $1.2 billion in cash. FMC will acquire DuPont’s global chewing pest insecticide portfolio, its global cereal broadleaf herbicides, and a substantial portion of DuPont’s global crop protection R&D capabilities. In 2017, FMC expects this acquired business will generate approximately $1.5 billion in revenue and $475 million of EBITDA.2

After closing of the acquisition, FMC Agricultural Solutions will become the fifth largest crop protection chemical company in the world by revenue, with estimated annual revenue of approximately $3.8 billion.

“This is a significant step forward for FMC, and for our Agricultural Solutions business in particular,” said Pierre Brondeau, FMC president, CEO and chairman. “The combination of market-leading products from DuPont’s crop protection portfolio and its world-class R&D capabilities will transform our Agricultural Solutions business into a tier-one ag technology company.

You can learn a lot more from the call this morning and I’m sure we’ll be getting more details and updates as time goes on. Of course, this deal is dependent on the success of the Dow and DuPont merger. You can see the slides from the webcast in this .pdf.

You can listen to or download this morning’s call here: FMC Acquisition from DuPont Call

Agribusiness, Audio, FMC, Herbicide, Insecticides, International, Technology

World Backup Day 2017

Chuck Zimmerman

It is back. It is more important than ever. It is World Backup Day.

C’mon, what are you waiting for? Back up your phone, tablet, computer. You don’t want to be one of the ones who does not and waits to think about it when they have lost all their photos, music, confidential company documents, etc. Do you?

Check out the World Backup Day Graphic on their website for some really interesting statistics.

Technology

It’s Time for IFAJ in Africa

Chuck Zimmerman

It looks like the Two Gregs Guide Team is ready for action in Africa as the 2017 IFAJ Congress gets underway this week (Greg Lamp & Greg Hillyer).

The AgriBlogger and FarmPodcaster could not make things work to be there for this year’s event but we are able to attend virtually. BTW. The IFAJ email software got hacked and sent out a fake request so please don’t fall for the scam that was perpetrated on us this week. #IHateScammers

This year’s location and program provide you with just one reason why being involved in IFAJ is such a good thing for an agricultural journalist. Next year it’s on to the Netherlands!

IFAJ, International