Agriculture Reacts to #Election2016

Jamie Johansen

nafb-16-panel-1To kick-off the 2016 National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Convention in Kansas City, Mo., we heard agriculture leaders share insights on “Counting the Returns: Agriculture Reacts to the Election.”

Jay Truitt, Policy Solutions, moderated panel discussion with Dr. Bob Young, Chief Economist, American Farm Bureau Federation, Roger Johnson, President, National Farmers Union and Jon Doggett, Executive Vice President, National Corn Growers Association.

Key topics of discussion included prospects for the new Secretary of Agriculture, the future of trade including Trans Pacific Partnership and NAFTA, when we might see a new farm bill discussed, immigration and it’s impact on agriculture and what we could see during the Trump Administration’s first 100 days.

nafb16-35-jpgListen to the complete panel discussion here: Ag Reacts to Election

As a strong figure in the U.S. livestock and food industry when it comes to policy issues, Jay Truitt, sat down with me following the panel discussion to share his personal views on those same key issues central to the agricultural community.

Listen to my interview with Jay Truitt here: Interview with Jay Truitt

View and download photos from the event here: NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of NAFB Convention is sponsored by Coverage of NAFB Convention is sponsored by BASF
Ag Groups, Audio, NAFB, politics

Barry Nelson’s Final Final Party

Chuck Zimmerman

Barry Nelson Retirement PartyThe creative folks at Sage put together a great election night retirement party for long time John Deere employee Barry Nelson. There are many people in Kansas City this week for the multiple meetings taking place like the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. The ZimmComm Team is here too and we were able to bid a fond farewell to Barry, one of our favorite people in the agricultural marketing and communications industry.

Sage with Barry NelsonHere is the Sage team with Barry last night. Their office turned into a No Work Zone and lots of Barry friends showed up. It was a typical, successful Sage party.

For people who don’t know Barry, we call him the Magic Man because he does magic and he is very good at it. So of course he was able to pull out a pack of cards to entertain once again.

On a personal note, I consider Barry a good friend and a person who I’ve been blessed to know and work with on multiple John Deere marketing and promotion projects. I have lots of good memories that I’ll never forget because of Barry and will miss him out and about at industry events. We’ll stay in touch though.

Agencies, Agribusiness, John Deere, Public Relations

Changing of the Guard for @USFRA

Cindy Zimmerman

usfra-annual-16-chairsTuesday was also election day for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance board of directors – but fortunately without any drama.

Wisconsin farmer Nancy Kavazanjian officially ended her term as chairperson this week and Brad “Pig Farmer of the Year” Greenway, who represents the National Pork Board, is the new chair for the agricultural advocacy organization.

“It’s been an amazing couple of years with USFRA,” said Kavazanjian, who will continue to represent the United Soybean Board on the USFRA board. “This is the best of the best, the brains of agriculture.”

Kavazanjian is proud of the difference that USFRA has made in just six years and how the organization has started to get more assertive recently, such as challenging to Dannon on GMOs. “We believe in dialogue and we won’t go away from that, but we also realized we needed to be more assertive,” she said. “Sometimes we’re just too nice in agriculture!”

For his part, Greenway is looking forward to continuing taking the story of farming to the American public. “I’ve always been proud of what we do on our farm and how we care for our animals,” he said. “This is about transparency and consumers are truly interested in what we do on the farming and that’s an opportunity to get our story out.”

Listen to and share interviews with USFRA past and present chairs:
Interview with Nancy Kavazanjian, USFRA immediate past chair Interview with Brad Greenway, USFRA chair

USFRA 2016 Fall Board Meeting photos

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, USFRA

Zimfo Bytes

Lizzy Schultz

Zimfo Bytes

Zimfo Bytes

Political Drama at NAFB?

Cindy Zimmerman

NAFB LogoThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting is carrying on the 2016 trend for political drama.

At the end of September, the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) announced the unprecedented removal of the organization’s president-elect Tony St. James, citing “violations of the NAFB Commitment to Serve agreement.” Two weeks later, NAFB announced that Tom Steever, who has the distinction of being the longest serving president in recent NAFB history, was appointed to take the role of Vice President until the end of the year, even though the website says Steever is president-elect and Tom Cassidy is still vice president.

tony-st-jamesSt. James sent a letter to NAFB members this week to provide his side of the story to members who elected him to the office of NAFB VP two years ago and president-elect last year. (pdf link to letter)

St. James says in this letter that a phone call he received from NAFB President Brian Winnekins on September 8th asking for his resignation due to a non-sexual harassment complaint “was the first indication that there was a problem.”

During the conversation he mentioned a possible conflict of interest violation and prior instances of behavior but with no details and no opportunity for me to respond. Since the charge was vague I did not resign but did ask for a written account of the accusation/allegation(s) being considered. Prior to this call, I had never been addressed personally by any President regarding my behavior and/or conduct.

St. James further maintains that he was “denied repeated requests for written accusation/allegation(s)” and not allowed an opportunity to defend himself or attempt conflict-resolution. As a result, St. James says the board’s actions have put NAFB “in a compromising situation” because NAFB is incorporated in the state of Tennessee and therefore operates under Tennessee State Code which “specifically prohibits the removal of a Board Member by any group other than the group who elected the individual.”

The NAFB board and officer elections will be held on Thursday afternoon. Max Armstrong and Gary Truitt will contend to be elected as 2017 NAFB president – without having served on the board immediately prior, which is again unprecedented. In his election profile on the NAFB website, Truitt says, “The organization is facing a crisis; the normally routine succession of leadership has been disrupted.”

It may not be a crisis, but it is a distraction that has already been the talk of the hallways here at the Westin in Kansas City. The reason why we are laying out this information here is because we are a trade publication for this industry and this is news. We are not trying to take sides or make anyone look bad. We are simply trying to report the facts as we understand them. If this is important to you and you want more than the rumor mill, we encourage you to read Tony’s whole letter, read the NAFB Commitment to Serve agreement, take a look at NAFB policy regarding Non-Performance by board members (article IV, part 7), and ask questions.

NAFB

ARC Develops New Internship Program

Lizzy Schultz

ARC WebinarThe Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) is creating a unique new collaborative internship program with an ARC member organization for the summer of 2017. ARC will coordinate the internship program and selection under this arrangement, and the member organization collaborating with ARC will host the intern.

The internship will be worth $5,000, with $1,000 of the total $5,000 payment to the intern to be used for the expenses related to the intern’s attendance at the annual professional development meeting of ARC held June 20 through 22 in Sacramento, CA.

The 10-12 week internship will begin in May of 2017. The intern spend 80% of their time on host organization projects. The remaining 20% will be spent supporting and attending the ARC annual meeting.

The application deadline is Dec. 12, and the host organization will be chosen by Dec. 31.

Student applications will open Feb. 1, 2017, and the student will be selected in April. The intern will be chosen by a representative of the host organization, along with a representative of Gardner & Gardner Communications and one board representative. These people will be part of a Futures Committee within ARC.

More information is available here. Click on the Contest and Awards Section at the top of the home page.

Agribusiness

AgHires is Redesigned

Chuck Zimmerman

AgHiresLooking for a job in agriculture? Got a job you need to fill? Then the redesigned AgHires job board and recruiting platform might be for you. The new site offers a more robust user experience whether you’re posting a job, searching for a job or just exploring the world of agriculture.

AgHires new website will keep candidates engaged using a more sophisticated searching algorithm, job alerts, job recommendations, news, blogs, and more. Job seekers will be able to apply to jobs with ease by uploading their resume, filling out a career profile, and/or applying on the employer’s website. They’ll also be able to use a virtual career assistant called “The Tracklet™” which will streamline the job search and application process by auto-populating online job application forms in a single click across the web. All activities will be managed in a central location in their account on AgHires.

Lori Culler, Founder of AgHires added, “Our new site will allow us to be entirely mobile friendly from end to end which includes the ability for job seekers and employers to manager their accounts from any device. With evolving technology our new model will allow us to adapt to change and meet new needs as they appear to better serve our job seeker and employer users”

Uncategorized

Illinois Ag Media Platform Adds New Digital News Manager

Jamie Johansen

screen-shot-2016-11-08-at-7-21-14-amJeff Brown has been named Digital News Manager for the Illinois-based FarmWeekNow.com, FarmWeek and RFD Radio Network. Brown will help lead a team of eight journalists providing content across some of Illinois’ leading platforms, providing news and information to Illinois farmers and other rural Illinoisans.

Brown previously worked for St. Louis-based Osborn Barr, where he managed content-marketing platforms for agricultural clients. He has also worked for Prairie Farms, the New Haven Register and the Alton Telegraph. Brown holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.

The media outlet is also in the hunt for an Advertising Sales Manager. This person will be responsible for planning, organizing and implementing the advertising and sponsorship programs for all of our communications platforms including FarmWeek® (73K weekly), FarmWeekNow.com (site, mobile app, e-newsletter), and the RFD Radio Network® (85 stations).

FarmWeekNow.com provides timely ag news, markets, weather and commentary 24/7 through its website, mobile app, and daily electronic newsletter. With a circulation of more than 70,000, FarmWeek is the most widely read agricultural weekly in Illinois. A survey of Illinois farmers this year by Ag Media Research shows the RFD Radio Network represents the most popular ag radio network in Illinois, growing its listenership by 13 percent in the last two years with a farmer-audience three times greater than its closest competitor.

Agribusiness, Marketing, Media

Deere Encourages ADAPT Adoption

Kelly Marshall

aggateway-adaptOne focus of last week’s Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City was AgGateway‘s new ADAPT Toolkit. John Deere was a leader in creating the ADAPT program, and they’re making sure the software developers at the conference have the information they need to put it to use.

Deere has developed their own plug-in for the system and tested it in the U.S. and Europe and it is working well. Deere’s Chip Donahue says now they’re moving ahead with plans to make sure the toolkit is implemented.

“We’ve got work to do,” Donahue says. “We did get to this point, but now we’ve got to move forward because it’s been a bunch of point sources and now people want integrated systems and that’s what our vision is and we’re helping deliver that.”

Develop with Deere is helping shape that vision with the connections and learning experiences offered. Another year or two and who knows what we’ll be seeing as a result?

Learn more about John Deere’s role in ADAPT in Chuck’s interview with Donahue: Interview with Chip Donahue, John Deere

Photos from this year’s conference can be found here: Develop with Deere Photo Album

Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture, Technology

Trimble Ag Software Announced

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 529Trimble is holding a large customer event in Las Vegas this week – Trimble Dimensions. It is the site for a big announcement – Trimble Ag Software. This new farm data management platform combines their products Connected Farm™, Farm Works Software® and Agri-Data® solutions. This all-in-one tool offers customers a complete desktop, web-based and mobile-enabled agricultural software solution that simplifies farm data management to drive productivity, profitability and sustainability for farmers, crop advisors, ag retailers and food processors. I spoke with Ben Allen, Trimble, about today’s announcement to learn more.

Trimble Ag SoftwareAmid the current shift toward precision agriculture practices, farmers are also running into hurdles with technology integration. When farmers mix precision ag hardware and software with third-party vendors, the results can lead to lost time due to data re-entry, USB data transfer or multiple support entities. To combat these barriers, Trimble Ag Software seamlessly integrates with its hardware solutions as well as with other third-party manufacturers using Trimble’s API. By using one technology platform, supported by a global Trimble Vantage™ distribution network, farm data can now flow wirelessly across the entire farm and to trusted advisors. This provides timely crop input recommendations and eliminates data re-entry, saving time and reducing potential errors.

“In the consumer smartphone market, people are looking for hardware and software that works well together and makes life easier—the same is true for farmers,” said Benjamin Allen, enterprise solutions manager for Trimble’s Agriculture Division. “Agricultural technology can be very complex and farmers are adopting solutions that ease data transfer and provide enhanced mobile functionality.”

Trimble Ag Software doesn’t just solve problems for farmers. Over the last decade, Trimble has advanced its integrated agricultural technology strategy to provide solutions that touch nearly every aspect of the agriculture supply chain.

  • Crop advisors are using Trimble Ag Software to manage their farm customers’ data, leading to better input recommendations and solid metrics in real time that allow for quick adjustments and higher yields.
  • Ag retailers are using Trimble Ag Software to track leads, manage performance and empower their sales agronomists to better serve farm customers.
  • Food processors are turning to Trimble Ag Software to track data at different processing stages, meet regulatory requirements and manage the growing volume of grower data.

You can listen to my conversation with Ben in this week’s program here: ZimmCast with Ben Allen, Trimble Enterprise Solutions Lead, Agriculture

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

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Audio, Precision Agriculture, ZimmCast