AgVoice4Choice Urges Growers to ACT Now

Cindy Zimmerman

ag-voiceLast month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on the “Benefits of Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments to Soybean Production” concluding that “these seed treatments provide little or no overall benefits to soybean production in most situations.” Upon release of the report, a 60-day comment period was opened which concludes on December 22.

So far, the comment website reports just over 100 comments with the majority of those posted supporting the use of neonicontinoid seed treatments and asking EPA to review the data used to compile the report. Industry advocates for the use of neonics have created a website offering information and encouraging growers who use this important class of insecticides to make their voices heard.

AgVoice4Choice.com urges the agricultural community to ACT now –
Advocate for growers to have choices in production practices
Communicate the benefits of pest management
Tell EPA to review new information on seed treatments

A new study conducted by Ag Infomatics provides objective evidence of the benefits these products bring to modern pest management systems, which industry advocates can use to help make their case.

Agribusiness, Crop Protection, Farming, Insecticides, Soybean

Meet the New USFRA Faces: Darrell Glaser

John Davis

usfra-faces-darrellIn our series to educate you about this year’s selectees for the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance’s Faces of Farming and Ranching program, we introduce you to a man who wants to educate the public about modern agriculture and how America’s farmers are feeding the world.

“It’s very, very important as an industry that we help educate our consumer base about what we do on a daily basis,” Darrell Glaser, a farmer with 600,000 turkeys and 200 cows near Rogers, Texas, told Cindy during an interview. “For the most part, consumers have very little knowledge of how their food is treated or handled and what we do to actually raise the products we do. So as an industry, I felt it was important to tell our story. It really is a good story.”

Darrell added that while consumers might not know a lot about what America’s farmers are doing to feed the world, they do want to learn. As a contract grower for Cargill, he has conducted many tours of his turkey operation, something he and his wife, who works as a professor at Texas A&M, decided to integrate into the original Glaser family cow farm when they both left college. Each of those operations have a sustainability factor as products from one help the other.

Looking forward to the next year as he is part of USFRA’s Food Dialogues program held in different cities where many stakeholders are invited to the conversation, Darrell believes it will be a great experience.

“It’s going to be an exciting year, and we’re looking forward to helping educate people about what we do every day on the farm and ranch.”

Follow Darrell on Facebook here.

Listen to all of Cindy’s interview with Darrell here: New USFRA Faces of Farming and Ranching - Darrell Glaser

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, USFRA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

Zimfo Bytes

FARMLAND On Demand

Cindy Zimmerman

farmlandlogo4If you’re looking for a great movie to watch with the family over Thanksgiving – here is just the ticket. The feature film Farmland is now available for rent and purchase via On Demand platforms – providing more people with the opportunity to view the film from their own homes and digital devices. The film’s move to digital platforms takes place this month, following a successful four-week run on Hulu.com and Hulu Plus.

Farmland is available for digital download via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand, Sony PlayStation, Vudu.com, Xbox and YouTube. The cost to download and own the film ranges from $14.99 to $19.99 for high definition and $12.99 to $14.99 for standard definition format. Online rental will cost approximately $4.99 to $7.99 for high definition and $3.99 to $6.99 for standard definition format.

Farmland will also be available to traditional satellite and cable television subscribers via their respective Video-on-Demand or Pay-per-View platforms in December 2014. DirecTV and DISH subscribers will have access to Farmland through their Video-on-Demand or Pay-per-View channels beginning on December 2. The film is also being made available to companies that deliver Video-on-Demand (VOD) or Pay-per-View (PPV) content to ATT U-Verse, Verizon Fios, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. Viewers are encouraged to check their local VOD/PPV channels on their respective cable and satellite television providers for details.

It’s the perfect film to watch at a time when we are giving thanks for our bountiful supply of food in the United States – and the great people who produce it!

Farming, USFRA

Ayrstone Introduces AyrMesh Bridge

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 456How about an ethernet cable without the wires on your farm network? Yes, it’s possible. That is, with the Ayrstone Productivity AyrMesh Bridge!

Ayrmesh BridgeDuring the NAFB convention I spoke with company president Bill Moffitt about their newest product. The Bridge joins a growing family of products from Ayrstone like their AyrMesh Hub, Receiver and a Hub that mounts in your cab.

You AgNerds will want some specific information, so here it is:

The AyrMesh Bridge is a wireless 5 GHz. point-to-point bridge. It is transparent to the network, behaving just like an Ethernet cable, but without the wires. The Bridge consists of two radios, which are mounted facing each other, with clear line-of-sight between them. Just like an Ethernet cable, one radio is connected to your network, the other end is connected to a device you want connected to the network. They are connected to power supplies (provided) with Ethernet cables, and Ethernet ports on the power supplies serve as the ends of the virtual Ethernet cable. The radios can be up to 5 miles apart, although the throughput (data speed) of the link will be reduced as the distance between the radios increases. Throughput at a few hundred yards may be as high as 30 Mbps; at 5 miles it will be about 6 Mbps (with no interference and clear line-of-sight). NOTE: The AyrMesh Bridge does not use or provide WiFi – it uses a special narrow-band signal in the 5 GHz band which may interfere or be interfered with by 5 GHz WiFi signals (802.11a, dual-band n, or ac).

Have you got all that? If not, listen to this week’s program to hear Bill explain things: New AyrMesh Bridge

You can find a press release here.

2014 NAFB Convention Photos

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

The ZimmCast

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Audio, Internet, ZimmCast

AAEA Finest Images Calendar on Sale

Chuck Zimmerman

AAEA CalendarHere’s a holiday gift idea that benefits the American Agricultural Editors Association Professional Improvement Foundation. It’s a desk calendar that features some of the finest photos from the AAEA Photo Awards program.

Through the generosity of the foundation, every renewing AAEA member will get one calendar for 2015. But help AAEA’s foundation raise money for its member and youth programs and provide professional development with each month’s calendar you purchase. These award-winning photos feature the photographer on the back of the month, describing the situation and technique used to capture the image.

Calendars are just $15 each and include shipping. For bulk orders of 100 or more, the cost is just $12 plus shipping. And you can customize the calendar with your company logo.

Click here to order your calendars, or call the AAEA office for details at 952/758-6502.

ACN

Take a Ranch Risk on Your Mobile Device

Chuck Zimmerman

CME Risk RanchHere’s a risky game for your iOS or Android device – Risk Ranch. The game is brought to you by Commodity Carnival 2014, a project of the CME Group and 4-H.

Welcome to the first and most exciting agriculture based learning application for children of all ages! Risk Ranch is a fun and fast-paced, single-player game with engaging, real-life content, challenging you to take on the role of a modern day farmer and bring your steer to market. Avoid risks, allocate your coins wisely and purchase Futures to protect your investment…It’s up to you to safely raise your steer and make a profit in a totally new world! As you progress throughout the game, you’ll have a chance to play through all four seasons while learning about the real-time risks that affect the value of your steer.

Based on CME Group and 4–H’s Commodity Carnival board game, players will experience real life agricultural risks and will need to make strategic decisions in order to win the blue ribbon!

Risk Ranch is available on the web, in the Apple App Store and through the Android Market.

Apps

IFAJ Member Survey Results

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ SurveyThe just-released results of an International Federation of Agricultural Journalists member survey should be of interest to members of all ag communications organizations. You can find a pdf of the full results here. I think you might find questions and responses about social media of special interest. The survey, completed by 127 members, was designed to offer guidance to the federation going forward. Professional development was of high interest for members.

Its four sections included questions related to current activities, future activities, current communication tools and an open-ended section asking how IFAJ can become more relevant to executives and their guilds.

The responses show 46 per cent of respondents agreed that current professional development activities are valuable. Twenty-six per cent agreed somewhat. Respondents added that current IFAJ professional development activities are valuable as they bring worldwide colleagues together, including the international congress that provides international learning opportunities.
Related to future activities, 86 per cent said they would value regional press tours and exchange visits to learn and write about agriculture in another country. Respondents provided feedback that some possible future activities might include a membership database, a debate about the role of the journalists and communicators in IFAJ, more exchange meetings, focus on major issues including climate change, education, new technologies, solar power, or scholarship support for young journalists to study in other countries.

ACN, IFAJ, Media

Philip Brasher Joins Agri-Pulse

Cindy Zimmerman

agri-pulse-brasherOne of the most respected names in agricultural journalism is joining the staff of Agri-Pulse.

Agri-Pulse has announed the appointment of Philip Brasher as a senior editor, based in Washington, D.C., effective December 1.

“We are very excited to have a talented veteran journalist like Phil join us full-time in Washington,” said Sara Wyant, Agri-Pulse Editor and Publisher. “Phil is one of the most knowledgeable food and agriculture policy journalists in the nation. He will help us continue to expand our Capitol Hill coverage, drawing upon expertise and relationships built in a career on Capitol Hill spanning two-and-a-half decades.”

Brasher most recently served as editor of “CQ on Agriculture and Food” for CQ Roll Call, a unit of The Economist Group. He has reported on food and agriculture policy for more than 15 years, also working for The Associated Press, The Des Moines Register and Gannett. In 2009, Brasher’s project funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting looked into prospects for biotechnology in Africa. He has served as a key reporter on award-winning projects examining the future of biofuels, the impact of climate change on agriculture and the environmental and economic effects of changing land ownership patterns.

Follow Brasher and the Agri-Pulse team on Twitter @PhilipBrasher and @AgriPulse
About Agri-Pulse Communications Inc.

Agri-Pulse, Media

Meet the New USFRA Faces: Carla Wardin

John Davis

usfra-faces-carlaEarlier this month, we told you about the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA®) announcing the winners of its second class of the Faces of Farming and Ranching program. Now, we’d like you to meet each of the five selectees, starting with Carla Wardin of Michigan, who along with her husband Kris, both sixth-generation farmers, are the sole owners of Evergreen Dairy.

“I am so thrilled and so honored to be selected, because I really love the chance to represent the industry,” she told our Taylor Truckey during an interview. “I’m really looking forward to having meaningful conversations with consumers on the national level.”

Carla’s path to this latest position to help shift conversations about food production and set the record straight about how farmers feed the nation came through social media. Beginning with tours of the family dairy farms, she expanded who could hear the story when she launched her own blog, “Truth or Dairy,” also promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

“I really love being able to share, and I really love that people want to read about a dairy farm in the Midwest,” she said.

Carla admitted that while having friends online (and some of those ONLY online) might seem a little different than traditional friendships, she believes they can still make some great connections and relationships.

Moving forward, Carla will be part of USFRA’s Food Dialogues program held in different cities where many stakeholders are invited to the conversation.

You can follow Carla here:

Truth or Dairy Blog
Carla’s Facebook page
Evergreen Dairy Facebook page
Twitter
Carla’s Farm Video

Listen to all of Taylor’s interview with Carla here: New USFRA Faces of Farming and Ranching - Carla Wardin

Ag Groups, Animal Agriculture, Audio, Dairy, USFRA