Famous Idaho Potato Tour on the Road

Chuck Zimmerman April 28, 2015

The Big Idaho Potato on wheels and Tater Team is back on the road. Track it’s progress here. This is its fourth cross-country tour with a new mission to help local charities across the U.S. In a five-month period, the truck will visit 60 cities, travel 22,087 miles and help dozens of charities better serve their communities.

“The Truck has always had a charitable component to it,” explained Frank Muir, President & CEO, Idaho Potato Commission (IPC). “However the 2015 tour is going to be a little more personal. We’ll be working with different charities in each market and helping them in ways that are tailored specifically to them. We already know that the truck brings smiles to people wherever it goes but now it’s also helping people and that feels pretty good.”

The Big Idaho® Potato weighs more than 6 tons (the equivalent of 32,346 medium-sized Idaho® potatoes). After being seen by hundreds of millions of Americans, the most frequently asked question is, “Is it real?” We’ll never tell…but if it is, the Big Idaho® Potato:

Would make 30,325 servings of mashed potatoes… pass the gravy!
Could make more than 1.4 million (1,455,570) French fries!

Listen to some soundbites from Frank Muir, President & CEO, Idaho Potato Commission, about this year’s tour: Frank Muir Remarks

Ag Groups, Potato

TekWear in Elite 8 for TAG Business Launch Competition

Chuck Zimmerman April 28, 2015

Congratulations to AgNerd Extraordinaire Bruce Rasa, TekWear. According to his FB feed his company has placed in the elite 8 of a major Georgia-based business launch competition.

Team TekWear has been selected as an ‘Elite 8’ finalist for the TAG Business Launch Competition. The contest began this spring with more than 100+ companies. TAG (Technology Association of Georgia) is a world-class membership organization and an economic engine that supports 2,000+ member companies across the state of Georgia.

The TAG Business Launch Competition Finals are on May 11th In Atlanta. Click here to register if you are interested in attending. The audience members have the opportunity to participate in text voting for your favorite startup. Audience votes will help determine the final four and ultimately the winner, who will receive the $50,000 cash prize, $350,000 in suite of services, and a spot a Venture Atlanta. This year’s eight finalists represent a range of startups in a variety of industries, from agriculture to aerospace.

The annual competition is hosted by the Technology Association of Georgia to help support new companies in Georgia’s strategic high-tech clusters. In the next three to five years, projections show technology companies will invest more than $1 billion in Georgia.

Watch the video to learn more about Bruce’s company.

Agribusiness, Technology

Scarlett Johansson in Feeding America PSA

Chuck Zimmerman April 28, 2015

Two celebrity activists have lent their voice to the need to feed hungry children in America – Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner. Feeding America teamed up with them and the Ad Council on this project. You can see a Johansson psa below.

“My family grew up relying on public assistance to help provide meals for our family,” said Scarlett Johansson. “Child hunger in America is a real and often overlooked problem, but one that together, we can fix. It is my hope that by joining with Feeding America, our awareness of this issue will lead to a solution.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), one in five children in America – nearly 16 million children – struggle with hunger. Although food insecurity is harmful to people of all ages, it can be particularly devastating for children because of the potential for long term consequences. Research has shown that good nutrition has implications for a child’s future physical and mental health, academic achievement and economic productivity.

Food, Video

McCormick Company Plays Together Well with sandbox

Chuck Zimmerman April 28, 2015

McCormick Company recently announced becoming part of the sandbox agency. According to Mark Perrin, President of McCormick and a principal with sandbox, the agencies that make up sandbox “play together well.”

I spoke with Mark about this new relationship. sandbox is a full service advertising agency established through the combination of complementary entrepreneurial firms that share the “play together well” ethos of collaboration, bringing highly specialized talent to their clients. Headquartered in Chicago, sandbox services clients from eight office locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Also joining sandbox are ONE Advertising and Underline Communications. With these additions, sandbox will comprise 337 employees with a substantial presence in eight U.S. and Canadian cities: Chicago, Kansas City, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Amarillo and Indianapolis. Chicago-based GA communications became the first agency to join sandbox in 2014.

Each founding member shares in the sandbox ethos of collaboration; a “play together in the sandbox” philosophy that has been the driving force behind the brand and is the vision of two veteran agency executives who have spent their entire careers in the advertising and marketing industry – John Hilbrich and Mark Anthony.

Learn more about what this deal means to McCormick Company in this week’s program: McCormick Joins sandbox

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

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Locally owned, globally strong.

Agencies, Audio, ZimmCast

First Doan Award Presented

Cindy Zimmerman April 28, 2015

Doan winner Michelle Rook, with Sen. Pat Roberts and Sara Wyant, Agri-Pulse

The very first Doan award honoring Excellence in Reporting Agriculture was presented at Washington Watch this week to Michelle Rook, managing farm director at WNAX in Yankton, SD.

The Doan is named after Stewart Doan, a farm broadcaster and senior editor at Agri-Pulse, who passed away suddenly in May 2012. He was known for his passion for politics and determination for delivering breaking farm and rural policy news. The Doan was presented by the NAFB Foundation, through a gift from Agri-Pulse Communications. “It’s extremely fitting that this award for excellence in agricultural reporting is named The Doan,” said Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant. “Stewart Doan was one of the most persistent and dedicated journalists I have ever known. He wanted to get the story first but also make sure it was done right in order to better inform our audience.”

Michelle’s winning entry titled “Rail Crisis Costs Northwestern Corn Belt Farmers” outlines the crisis, the cost and some solutions – along with the railroads’ response. A Certificate of Merit was also awarded to Susan Littlefield, farm director at KZEN, Columbus, NE for her entry titled “Behind the Chutes”, a special report on the rodeo cowboy and their role during the rodeo.

Happy to see the “globe” resurrected for this award. I still have mine from 1990, one of the last years they did that.

During his visit with the NAFB members to present the award, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) answered a few questions on a wide range of topics, including the budget, tax code, crop insurance, Cuba, and TPA. Sen. Roberts takes questions from farm broadcasters

Agri-Pulse, Audio, Media, NAFB

Chicken Litter – A Hot Commodity

Jamie Johansen April 28, 2015

Jenny Rhodes, Extension Educator for University of Maryland in Queen Anne’s County and local poultry farmer, was asked to attend the 2015 Chicken Media Summit to talk about chicken manure. For her first 10 years in extension, Jenny wrote nutrient management plans. These plans are state mandated and any farmer meeting it’s requirements must have one for their operation.

“In the plan, we estimate the amount of manure on their farm and then work in a prescription approach. We test the soil, we test the manure, we know what nutrients the crop is going to take in and we write the farmer a prescription for that.”

Jenny sat on the myths and facts panel during the event and busted the myth that chicken litter is a waste product and farms are major sources of pollution. In fact, we heard from a local farmer that he wanted to buy chicken manure and couldn’t even find it. The hot commodity is an excellent source of fertilizer for all crops and these nutrient management plans aid farmers in knowing the exact amounts needed for an individual field.

“We are family farmers and we all want the same thing. We all want clean water and safe food.”

Learn more about nutrient management plans in my complete interview with Jenny here: Interview with Jenny Rhodes, University of Maryland Extension

Find photos from the event here: 2015 Chicken Media Summit Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Chicken Media Summit, Fertilizer, Poultry

GROWMARK Crop Update

Cindy Zimmerman April 28, 2015

Another 10% of the nation’s corn crop was planted last week, bringing the total now a couple of points ahead of last year but still behind the five year average.

According to the latest progress report from USDA, farmers now have 19% of the corn crop in the ground and two percent has emerged, most of it in non-Corn Belt states.

I had an opportunity last week to visit with GROWMARK Insect and Plant Disease Technical Manager Tim Laatsch to talk about how conditions are looking this season around Illinois.

“It’s sort of a tale of two cities,” said Laatsch. “The southern third of Illinois has been extremely wet with almost no field activity occurring. Those conditions gradually improve as you go northward.”

Laatsch says corn planting in Illinois jumped from near zero to 15% the week ending April 19, and farmers more than doubled that last week. One percent of the corn is emerged in Illinois and Laatsch says some of that early emerged corn was greeted with freezing temps last week. “The bigger problem is corn that has not yet emerged, it’s subject to any number of problems when soil conditions are wet and now turned cool,” he said.

Laatsch has spent the past few weeks scouting wheat fields in Illinois where just two percent of the crop is headed, compared to 16% for the five year average. “What we’re seeing is conditions setting up favorably for disease development in the wheat crop,” he said. “If conditions remain somewhat wet and humid and temperatures start warming up, we could see some moderate to severe foliar disease pressure develop.” Meanwhile, he is seeing little insect pressure in wheat at this point.

Tim has more observations in this interview: Interview with Tim Laatsch, GROWMARK

Audio, Corn, GROWMARK, Wheat

Anniversary of Bayer Bee Care Center

Chuck Zimmerman April 27, 2015

Bayer CropScience celebrated the first anniversary of their North American Bee Care Center located in RTP, NC. The center is open for public tours and today there was a lot of touring going on. Thanks to Jeff Donald for a photo. Wish we could have been there.

After some lunch time remarks for the media to update them on key successes from the first year the afternoon was dedicated to self-guided tours. The Bayer Bee Care Center unifies Bayer’s efforts to understand, research, promote and communicate on bee health.

Bayer’s Jim Blome and Becky Langer were joined by Dr. Richard Reich, agricultural services assistant commissioner, North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, who spoke of the importance of the Center’s work, public-private partnerships and the importance of agriculture to the North Carolina economy. You can listen to some remarks from them here: Bee Care Center Remarks

At the celebration, Bayer announced a new initiative focused on finding solutions to improve the health of honey bee colonies in the U.S. – Healthy Hives 2020. As part of the initiative, Bayer will partner with stakeholders and experts on bee health and establish an advisory council to discuss strategies to improve honey bee health by the year 2020. The first meeting of members of the inaugural council will take place June 2-3, 2015 at the Bee Care Center.

Agribusiness, Bayer, Bees

NCGA Staff Changes

Cindy Zimmerman April 27, 2015

The National Corn Growers Association has made some staff changes designed to emphasize market development and sustainability.

For one, NCGA will begin an immediate search for a Vice President of Market Development, who will be responsible for managing marketing initiatives to build demand for ethanol, livestock feed, biobased products and food uses of corn.

In addition, NCGA announced that Fred Stemme is being promoted to Vice President of Marketing and Operations as he takes over new management responsibilities. Paul Bertels will continue to serve the organization as Vice President of Production and Sustainability, and Vice President of Administration Rodger Mansfield is stepping down after 19 years of service to the organization.

“Looking to the future and continued productivity increases from our corn farmers, we need to be looking for new markets to create sustainable opportunities for today’s farm families,” said NCGA CEO Chris Novak. “Sustainable corn production is a major priority for food chain partners and consumers.”

The announced changes went into effect immediately and details regarding the new Vice President of Market Development position will be available soon.

Corn, NCGA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes April 27, 2015

Steve Sweitzer, Woodruff Sweitzer chief creative officer and agency principal, will retire effective April 22.
Swanson Russell has named Megan Carroll to associate interactive producer in its Lincoln office.
On May 19, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s AgBiotech Initiative is again convening ag biotech entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and technology scouts for the third Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase in Research Triangle Park.
The Georgia Peanut Commission attended the Georgia School Nutrition Association annual conference held April 9-11 in Athens, Georgia.

Zimfo Bytes

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