IDEAg Fests Coming up in August

Cindy Zimmerman July 31, 2014

The IDEAg Minnesota Farmfest and IDEAg Dakotafest are both coming up in the month of August and both offer new and improved media facilities.

Farmfest is scheduled for Aug. 5-7, at the Gilfillan Estate in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, and Dakotafest is Aug. 19-21, at Schlaffman Farm in Mitchell, South Dakota. They are two of the IDEAg branded farm shows that were part of the American Farm Bureau Federation acquisition of Cygnus Business Media’s agricultural events and publications about this time last year.

New at the shows this year is the Farm Bureau Financial Services Media Center to serve as the central meeting place for local and national press attending the trade shows. Hospitality, Internet access and a designated area for on-camera interviews will be available.

“Having Farm Bureau Financial Services as the presenting sponsor of our media center, with its essential outreach to the ag community, is an honor for us,” said Raymond Bianchi, senior director, expositions and events, for the American Farm Bureau Federation and IDEAg Group.

IDEAg Minnesota Farmfest is its 33rd year, featuring more than 500 companies and three days of networking, educational sessions and political forums. IDEAg Dakotafest is the premier agriculture event in the Northern Plains with more than 500 exhibitors, educational opportunities supported by South Dakota State University, livestock demonstrations and farming technology demonstrations over three full days.

AFBF, Farm Shows, Media

GROWMARK Names New Vice President for Agronomy

Cindy Zimmerman July 31, 2014

GROWMARK has announced the appointment of Mark Orr as Vice President of Agronomy, succeeding Jim Spradlin who was recently named GROWMARK CEO-elect.

“Mark brings proven leadership experience and an excellent understanding of retail agronomy marketing and operations to this role,” Spradlin said. Orr began his career in the GROWMARK System career in 1990 at Schuyler-Brown FS. He served as controller for Western FS and then Ag-Land FS. Mark served as general manager of both Piatt County Service Company and Ag View FS. He was named Central Region vice president in October 2013.

GROWMARK just announced last month that Spradlin was chosen by the board of directors to replace CEO Jeff Solberg who is retiring in September.

GROWMARK

New Holland Ag Journalist Contest

Chuck Zimmerman July 31, 2014

This is for you ag journalists out there. It’s a reminder that New Holland, one of our AMS coverage sponsors, is going to give a way a trip to Italy in 2015 to one lucky winner. All you have to do is take a creative picture using your little New Holland tractor or a creative selfie using your New Holland cap and tweet it with the hashtag, #Time2Shine and include @NHAgriculture. That gets you entered. The winner will be drawn on or near August 2nd.

Chris Ballantine attended the Ag Media Summit and I hope you got to meet this member of the marketing/communications team. Listen to him explain what you’ve got to do to win a trip to the Expo Milano 2015.

You can listen to my interview with Chris here: Interview with Chris Ballantine

Here’s some information about Expo Milano 2015:

Expo Milano 2015 is a non-commercial Universal Exposition with some very unique and innovative features. Not only is it an exhibition but also a process, one of active participation among a large number of players around the theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. It is sustainable, technological, thematic and focused on its visitors. Open from May 1 to October 31, 2015, the Expo will host over 130 participants. Running for 184 days, this giant exhibition site, covering one million square meters, is expected to welcome over 20 million visitors.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, New Holland

FMC Anthem Singing Contest Nears Finalists

Chuck Zimmerman July 31, 2014

On August 4th FMC will announce the four finalists for their Stand & Be Heard Anthem Singing Contest. At the Ag Media Summit, our sponsor, FMC, was in the InfoExpo. I stopped and visited Paul Redhage for an update.

Paul loves interacting with all the students that have entered this contest which is in its third year. He says they had 225 entries this year. As we speak the group, which had been narrowed down to 20, is now being judged to create a final four. Those four will get to go to Nashville for a studio recording session and then new voting will determine the final winner. Listen in to my interview with Paul to get a complete update.

You can listen to my interview with Paul here: Interview with Paul Redhage

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, Audio, FMC

Where Do You Prefer to Get Your Farm News?

Jamie Johansen July 31, 2014

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How can technology make farming even better?”

We all seem to have a different opinion on what type of farming technology would be the most beneficial. Right now I am leaning towards weather control. It would be nice to simply click a button when we need some rain. I still believe that is a little farfetched. However, I know we will all be seeing drones and robots in our near future.

Here are the poll results:

Remote control tractors – 15%
Drone crop management – 22%
Robot livestock feeders – 19%
Remote crop & livestock sensors – 15%
Weather control – 15%
Can’t imagine it yet – 7%
Other – 7%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, I prefer to get my farm news from:

In this day and age we can get news at the drop of the hat. It is pretty much everywhere we look. But we all have our preferred source for the latest news in the agriculture community. Let us know where you prefer to get your farming news.

ZimmPoll

The Tunnel Walk

Melissa Sandfort July 31, 2014

Today Aunt Jeanette writes:

If you are a Nebraska football fan, or even if you aren’t, you probably have heard of the Nebraska Cornhusker Tunnel Walk. It really is quite an amazing sight – seeing the “sea of red” and everyone pumped for a Husker football game.

Well, Dan and I now have our own personal little tunnel walk. Whichever direction we decide to walk in the mornings – north or south, east or west – we are surrounded by beautiful, tall cornfields on both sides of the road. At first I felt kind of claustrophobic, but as the corn kept getting taller and taller, then began to tassel, I appreciated the coolness those towering, dark green plants provided.

This morning I couldn’t help but think back to last summer when hail storms caused our corn fields to be shredded back to nothing and the remaining brown stalks were about knee high, if that. No tears today, though. I have learned to file those sad memories in a place in my brain where I store those kinds of things. Fortunately, it isn’t a very big file and I don’t access it often.

Instead of pondering the outcome of a Nebraska football game, Dan and I will continue our own little tunnel walks, watch the corn grow and mature, and hope for a bountiful harvest this year.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Ag Media Summit Concludes

Chuck Zimmerman July 30, 2014

The 2014 Ag Media Summit has come and gone. But not here on AgWired. Sara and I will have lots more to post including our interviews from the InfoExpo trade show.

The Chair for the AMS this year is Jennifer Carrico, Associate Editor, Midwest Ag Journal. We sat down during AMS to talk about this year’s program and what is different and new. You can get a really good description of what you missed if you couldn’t make it.

Our program closed with a party that featured Howl 2-Go, or I’d rather call it Howl at the Moon Mobile. Basically, the dueling pianos come to you and they came to our hotel. There was the usual audience interaction. Like this man. Can you identify him? He was called up to help with the lyrics to a song.

You can listen to my interview with Jennifer here: Interview with Jennifer Carrico

There are lots of photos for you to share and enjoy.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

ACN, Ag Media Summit, Audio, LPC

PrecisionAg Legacy Awards

Cindy Zimmerman July 30, 2014

There were two PrecisionAg Institute Legacy award winners recognized this year at the InfoAg 2014 Conference in St. Louis.

Dr. Scott Shearer, Professor and Chair of the Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University, was recognized for his work in spectral and spatial image processing in agriculture and controls and methodologies for metering and distribution of inputs in grain crop production systems. His current research activities include autonomous multi-vehicle field production systems and unmanned aerial systems for remote sensing.

The second recipient was Dr. Joe Tevis, Topcon Precision Agriculture, who holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Iowa State University. He began his career in precision agriculture as a Post Doctoral Research appointment at Texas A&M University studying the spatial distribution and management of agronomic variables in cotton. Tevis joined Topcon Precision Agriculture as Director, Agronomic Products and Services in 2011. He also represents Topcon in two data standards groups, including AgGateway where he serves as chair of the SPADE project.

I had the chance to talk with Joe about where precision ag is today and where he hoped it would be, as well as the AgGateway SPADE project. Interview with Joe Tevis, Topcon

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Audio, Precision Agriculture

BASF Helping Fight Corn Leaf Blight

Leah Guffey July 30, 2014

Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) has been reported in numerous fields across the U.S. Corn Belt. If the disease isn’t controlled, it will continue to spread and decrease corn crop yields.

AJ Woodyard, BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist, says conditions have been perfect this summer for NCLB. “It’s actually a disease that enjoys cooler temperatures,” Woodyard said. “It also likes free, available water, heavy dews, overcast days, and really that’s been the story of our summer.” He says they’ve actually seen infections occurring prior to tasseling, which is very unusual.

Woodyard says BASF is committed to helping corn growers fight back against this troublesome disease. “At this point in the season it’s really critical to get out there, do some scouting, and if you have any infection occurring, even later in the year, manage it with Headline AMP,” he said. “It’s got two active ingredients that are excellent on Northern Corn Leaf Blight.”

Learn more in this interview with AJ – Interview with AJ Woodyard, Technical Crop Productions Specialist, BASF

Audio, BASF, Corn, Crop Protection

Meredith Promoted to VP of Communications & Membership

Jamie Johansen July 30, 2014

The Animal Agriculture Alliance is pleased to announce the promotion of Emily Meredith to Vice President of Communications and Membership. In this position, Emily will assume a greater management role over the communications and membership outreach strategies for the Alliance, with direct management of the Alliance’s Membership and Marketing Manager, Special Projects Manager and internship program.

Emily joined the Alliance in December 2012 as the Director of Communications and quickly took on the challenge of wearing multiple hats. Given that the primary role of the Animal Agriculture Alliance centers on communications, many of the Alliance’s programs and initiatives require coordination of communications efforts among broader stakeholder groups in order to provide a unified voice for animal agriculture.

“Emily accepted that challenge immediately and has made many valuable contributions advancing the Alliance, as well as the broader animal agriculture community,” said Kay Johnson Smith, Alliance President and CEO. “Emily has demonstrated her leadership skills, the ability to strategically multi-task and provide a passionate and smart voice for animal agriculture over and over in her short tenure with the Alliance.”

Emily has led many coalition efforts, including agriculture’s proactive response to the re-release of the Pew Commission Report. She managed a major overhaul of the Alliance’s website, creating the redesign almost single-handedly. She developed the program and marketing plan for the Alliance’s 2014 Stakeholders Summit “Cracking the Millennial Code,” leading to the Alliance’s best-attended and most successful event to date. Emily has also provided a powerful voice for animal agriculture in national media venues including CNN, NPR and The Daly Show with Jon Stewart. And in addition to the regular blogs she authors for Meatingplace.com, Pork Network, Progressive Cattleman and Progressive Dairyman, Emily is a sought after speaker by industry and government organizations for their various conferences and events.

Last year, Emily was recognized among the inaugural recipients of Vance Publishing’s prestigious “40 Under 40 Award”, and most recently led the way for the Alliance to receive a Merit Award in the “Tactics Division – Collateral/Literature” by the Agricultural Relations Council.

Prior to joining the Alliance, Emily worked in the communications division of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the office of the New York State Attorney General. She earned her J.D., with a concentration in food and drug law, from Seton Hall University in Newark, New Jersey, and her B.A. in International Affairs, Journalism and Mass Communication from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Animal Agriculture

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