Zimfo Bytes

Lizzy Schultz

Zimfo Bytes

  • Woodruff Sweitzer (WS) has announced the hires of Ron Simmons and Mary Wheeler to the company’s traffic and content departments, as well as the promotions of Justina Frost, Vincent Townsend and Shelby Mertz to new positions in the account services department.
  • Issues Ink Media has named Aqueena Clennett as a new Account Manager and has named Janet Kanters as the managing editor for Spud Smart and the Alberta Seed Guide.
  • The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has awarded a total of $10,000 in grants to 10 middle-school science classrooms nationwide, as well as 10 after-school programs serving middle school-age students. The recognized schools will each receive $500 to pilot a new Maker Kit challenge.
Zimfo Bytes

DBA Launches Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance

Lizzy Schultz

DSC03578 A diverse group of partners came together this afternoon at Endres Berryridge Farm in Waunakee, Wisconsin for the official launch of the Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance (DSSA), a collaborative sustainability campaign featuring representatives from every facet of the dairy community, including farmers, processors, retailers, government agencies, universities, and dairy and trade non-profits.

The alliance seeks to engage individuals from across the dairy industry together in a holistic, collaborative effort to position Wisconsin and the Midwest as a global leader in dairy sustainability and to improve the sustainability of the dairy supply chain.

DSSA will deploy through two teams: Milkshed and Farm Enterprise. The Milkshed team includes all members of the dairy supply chain within a watershed or specific area, including farms, service providers, processors, and transportation and logistics companies. The Farm Enterprise Team will consist of individual farming enterprises seeking to partner with DSSA in an effort to enhance their successes and improve their sustainability efforts.

The campaign kicked off today in conjunction with the Yahara Pride Field Day through a panel discussion of DSSA collaborators.

Speakers included:

Tim Trotter, Executive Director, Dairy Business Association
Steve Richter, Director of Conservation Programs, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin Field Office
Jeff Endres, Chair, Yahara Pride Farms, Inc.
Karen Scanlon, Vice President, Sustainability, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy
John Umhoefer, Executive Director, Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association
Steve Peterson, SLP, LLC, Formerly of General Mills

Listen to the full announcement here:
Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance Presser

View and download photos from the event here: Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance Photo Album

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Dairy, Sustainability

First-Hand from Bayer Showcase Plot Tour

Kelly Marshall

bayer-showcase-illinois-103-edited Denis Kopp is a grower from central Illinois with a problem any other grower in the Midwest can relate to. His corn and soybean farm is fighting against weeds.

“Well, this time of year I think everyone in the Midwest would agree, at least in central Illinois, the biggest problem is water hemp. In August you start to see the weeds popping up, so we’re looking for a better program to help control this particular problem,” Kopp told AgWired’s Jamie Johansen.

That’s why Kopp traveled to Bayer‘s Showcase Plot tour, to get a better idea of the program offered there. He also wanted to take a close-up look a few other new products, like a pre-emerge for weed control. The Showcase offered a great opportunity to see it first hand.

Listen to Jamie’s full interview here: Interview with Denis Kopp, grower

Bayer Showcase Days Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

AgExplorer.com Helps Students Find Careers

Kelly Marshall

AgExplorer.comThe National FFA Organization, Discovery Education and AgCareers.com are working together to prepare the next generation for careers in agriculture.  Collectively they have created a website, AgExplorer.com, that offers comprehensive career resources that allow students to explore a wide range of job choices.

“We’re excited to introduce this transformational resource that will allow students to explore the 235 unique careers in agriculture,” said Joshua Bledsoe, chief operating officer of the National FFA Organization. “FFA is uniquely positioned to provide the foundation of the talent pipeline for the agricultural industry. In addition to engaging our students and supporting our teachers, AgExplorer.com will help us tell our story and the story of agriculture to the world. Together, we can all strengthen the future of agriculture.”

In the next five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the industry of agriculture will have more than 60,000 job openings annually, and an estimated 22,500 of those openings will not have highly skilled graduates to fill them. In 2015, AgCareers.com hosted nearly 78,000 job postings in the U.S. alone. AgExplorer is the tool students can use to explore this industry and see what career is the best fit for them.

FFA and AgCareers.com began by working with industry leaders to identify 235 unduplicated careers within the field and then developed a profile for each one.  The careers are linked to two- and four-year colleges and universities that offer some type of agriculture degree.  Additionally AgCareers.com validates a salary using their Compensation Benchmark Review tool; a service that will be continue to be monitored as part of the project.

“I am constantly searching for ways to better engage my students and expose them to diverse career pathways. AgExplorer gives me the tools to connect my students to real opportunities in the agricultural industry,” said Patti Grammens, a teacher at Lakeside Middle School in Georgia’s Forsyth County Schools. “AgExplorer will give all teachers, even those without agricultural experience, the resources to get students excited about careers they may have otherwise not considered. I am looking forward to using this program in my classroom this year.”

The site also offers nine videos, each featuring an agricultural pathway and explain how these careers are part of feeding the world.  The Career Finder is a tool that allows students to take an interactive assessment to match their interest with a possible career.

“Discovery Education is proud to partner with the National FFA Organization to offer classrooms nationwide an array of dynamic, digital resources that help connect real-world STEM applications to a variety of potential agricultural career paths,” said Lori McFarling, senior vice president of Discovery Education. “We are dedicated to preparing students to be college and career ready, and AgExplorer will help achieve this mission by connecting students’ interests and academic strengths to a broad array of promising careers in today’s rapidly growing agriculture industry.”

Ag Groups, AgCareers, Agribusiness, FFA

Trump Names Ag Advisory Committee

Cindy Zimmerman

trumppence16Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced an impressive list of more than 65 agricultural supporters to make up his new Agricultural Advisory Committee. The list includes Congressional agriculture committee leadership, state agriculture secretaries, governors and former governors of key agriculture states, and industry leaders of all stripes.

According to the Trump campaign, “the committee will provide pioneering new ideas to strengthen our nation’s agricultural industry as well as provide support to our rural communities. Mr. Trump understands the critical role our nation’s agricultural community plays in feeding not only our country, but the world, and how important these Americans are to powering our nation’s economy.”

Quoting the candidate, “The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities,” said Trump. “Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day. I’m very proud to stand with these men and women, and look forward to serving those who serve all Americans from the White House.”

Among the well-known names on the lengthy list: Former Agriculture Secretary John Block, Senate Ag Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), House Ag Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX), current governors Terry Branstad of Iowa Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Sam Brownback of Kansas, Former National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Steve Foglesong and Steve Wellman, former president of the American Soybean Association.

politics

The @JohnDeere Customer Solutions Plan

Chuck Zimmerman

©David J Gruber/David J Photography/St. Louis

©David J Gruber/David J Photography/St. Louis

During this year’s InfoAg Conference I met John Teeple, Director, Technology – Precision Ag Solutions, John Deere. John covers a lot of territory with his position.

I asked John how John Deere is working in the precision ag sector to help farmers become more efficient while planting, spraying and harvesting. He says they look at it from three angles. “John Deere has been about precision ag really since the beginning. You could argue that the self-scouring steel plow was a precision ag application compared to the non self-scouring plows that would have been in the horse-drawn world then.” He says the company has invested in precision technology as we know it today for a lot of years with auto guidance being a genesis for those efforts. Focusing on the farmer and their trusted partners, he says the company has invested heavily in recent years to build the infrastructure of connected machines and other IoT technology to enable customer machine and data connectivity. Additionally, the company is working with third party input providers to enable them to work with their customers to help them make better informed decisions. And of course John Deere is continuing to make investments in the best new technology for machines in the field.

Listen to my interview with John to learn more: Interview with John Teeple, John Deere

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak
Agribusiness, Audio, Info Ag, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

I AM @USFRA – Todd Frazier @DuPontPioneer

Cindy Zimmerman

i-am-usfra-webThe U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) is made up of nearly 100 industry affiliates and partners. The majority of the alliance is agricultural organizations who make up the affiliates, while a handful of agribusiness companies are industry partners who help USFRA with its goals to communication with and educate consumers about agriculture.

One of those industry partners is DuPont Pioneer, one of three companies with membership on the USFRA board and Global Marketing & Commercial Effectiveness Director Todd Frazier is the company’s representative. “DuPont Pioneer was one of the founding members of USFRA and I’ve been a board member for about three years,” said Frazier. “What really drew DuPont Pioneer into USFRA was all about the group wanting to build trust and transparency…and help non-agricultural people understand what farmers and ranchers are going through, how they run their businesses, and the challenges that they face.”

usfra-frazierThe industry partners are very critical to the success of USFRA’s goals, and Frazier encourages other agribusiness companies to explore that opportunity. “The mission of USFRA is to really get the voice of agriculture in places where we don’t have a voice,” he said. “When we work on behalf of USFRA, we’re really focused on farmers and ranchers and how we get that entire voice of agriculture out to consumers, so we kind of check all the competition and egos at the door.”

Frazier appreciates many of the programs which have been developed by USFRA over the past five years, such as the FARMLAND movie and its associated educational tools. “We really expanded a lot of the footage in the documentary into smaller sections that we provided to colleges and high schools for agricultural programs and food conversations in general,” he said.

Learn more in my interview with Todd here: Interview with Todd Frazier, DuPont Pioneer

usfra-banner

Agribusiness, Audio, Pioneer, USFRA

The 2016 #AgCatalyst is Looking for Your Registration

Chuck Zimmerman

AgCatalystIt is the third annual AgCatalyst, an event coordinated by AdFarm. This year the theme is “AgCatalyst 2016: Finding the best possible path to our customers’ hearts, minds, smartphones and back.” Registration is now open. Early bird pricing ends September 15th.

This value-packed two-day event is about fostering insight and igniting discussions around new opportunities to reach and engage with farmers in our modern consumer-empowered landscape. Attendees can look forward to hearing from top experts in the field, applying their learning in breakout sessions, and networking with the brightest minds in social media, marketing, public relations, agriculture and food communication.

“This year’s AgCatalyst promises to deliver bold insights and fresh thinking to help communicators embrace the new world of consumer awareness around food and farming,” says Roger Reierson, CEO of AdFarm, host of the annual event. “Attendees will learn how to engage, educate, connect and build positive relationships all the way from the field to the consumer – and back again.”

Keynote speakers featured at this year’s conference include Joe Schwartz, director of McGill University’s office for science and society, and Jay Baer, author of Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers and Mathew Sweezey, principal of marketing insights at Salesforce.com and author of Marketing Automation for Dummies.

Agencies

Bayer’s Credenz Has All the Options

Kelly Marshall

bayer-showcase-illinois-69-editedNick Weidenbenner is more than just an agronomist with Bayer.  He’s also an expert on the Credenz soybean line.  At the Bayer Showcase Plot Tours Jamie Johansen spoke with him about the options Credenz provides to growers.

Introduced in 2014, the idea was to offer farmers more choices, underlined by Bayer’s four pillars; tailored genetics, herbicide tolerance, state of the art breeding and on going innovation.  Credenz offers these smart genetics, Weidenbenner says, and demonstrates Bayer’s commitment to the industry.

The LibertyLink system is part of the Credenz success as well.  LibertyLink has proven itself with top customer satisfaction.  Better weed control helps growers achieve the 2.1 bushel/acre yield advantage over the competitor, although Credenz offers varieties for both systems to ensure growers have what they need.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of positive feed back,” Weidenbenner reports.  “There is a lot of excitement around LibertyLink and having a national brand to kind of carry with that flag, and really coming to market with some stellar varieties has been a lot of help to launch a top brand.”

Learn more about Credenz in Jamie’s interview here: Interview with Nick Weidenbenner, Bayer

View and download photos from the event here: Bayer Showcase Days Photo Album


Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Soybean

Is Ag Still Relevant at State Fairs?

Jamie Johansen

zp-nh1Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What will play the biggest role in the future of agriculture?”

During the 2016 InfoAg Conference, Jack Uldrich, acclaimed global futurist, speaker and best-selling author, shared thoughts on what the world may look like in just a few short years. Collaboration rose to the top and shows we need to keep all of the above in mind when talking about the future of agricultural technology.

Here are the poll results:

  • Big data – 18%
  • Social media – 0%
  • Robotics – 7%
  • Biotech – 17%
  • Nanotech – 3%
  • Artificial intelligence – 7%
  • Renewable energy – 13%
  • Precision tech – 14%
  • Collaboration – 21%

Our new ZimmPoll is live and asks the question, Is agriculture still relevant at state fairs?

State fairs are taking place across the country and were originally started with agriculture in mind. But fewer and fewer state fairs have focused their efforts on agriculture. With a growing population more discounted to agriculture than every before, shouldn’t our state fairs be agriculture centered? Is agriculture still relevant at state fairs? Let us know your thoughts.

ZimmPoll