Talking with Forrest Lucas

Chuck Zimmerman

Forrest LucasHave you heard of Protect The Harvest? Probably. How about hearing from the founder?

Last night at the Ag Media Summit special reception I met Forrest Lucas, Lucas Oil (l). We were in the Lucas Oil Stadium here in Indianapolis. Also with him were Steele Shippy, Director of Political Operations for Protect The Harvest (r) and Dave Hageman, Victory Enterprises (c). We sat down for a chat and talked about the need for an organization like Protect The Harvest and the work they do. Forrest is very passionate about this subject and has put his money where his belief is. He invites other agribusinesses to join in and support the cause!

You can listen to my interview with them here: Interview with Forrest Lucas

I am collecting photos from throughout this year’s Ag Media Summit for your viewing and sharing pleasure:
Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by
Ag Media Summit coverage is sponsored by FMCAg Media Summit coverage is sponsored by New Holland
Ag Media Summit, Animal Activists, Audio

Arkansas Congressman and Former Farm Broadcaster

Cindy Zimmerman

spgc14-crawfordIn keeping with a fine tradition of bringing outstanding farm state lawmakers to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, this year we were honored to hear from Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, a member of the House Agriculture Committee and a former farm broadcaster.

“In fact, we started a network back in ’06 and it has grown to about 53-54 stations in a five state area,” said Crawford, who was also a good friend of the late, great Stewart Doan from the great state of Arkansas.

Crawford talked with peanut growers about the struggles in getting a farm bill finally passed this year and his belief that it should be called the USDA Re-Authorization Bill, like other agencies like the Department of Defense, for example. “This would, I think, help us to communicate more efficiently just exactly what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s semantics is what it is, because the reality is that 80% of this authorization is nutrition.”

Crawford also discussed his concerns with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, particularly its ambiguity. “The ‘significant nexus’ being utilized as their determining factor of whether a body of water is going to be regulated,” said Crawford, noting that is a subjective determination and it’s not clear who will make that determination.

Hear my interview with Rep. Crawford and his address below and you can also watch the video of our interview below:

Rep Rick Crawford speaks to SPGC
Interview with Rep. Rick Crawford

2014 SPGC photo album

Audio, Peanuts, SPGC, Video

Record Crowd for Peanut Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

Southern Peanut Growers ConferencePeanut growers are in attendance in record numbers at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. This morning is the final part of the program with formal presentations. Then things get social with a golf tournament prior to this evening closing banquet.

I’m leaving Cindy to finish things up on the SPGC Conference Blog while I go catch a flight to Indianapolis for the Ag Media Summit. Cindy will do a turn around at home this weekend before heading to St. Louis tomorrow for the InfoAg Conference. Yep, busy week coming up and we’ll have a lot to share.

2014 Southern Peanut Grower Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Peanuts, SPGC

Opening Keynote at Intl. Conf. on Precision Agriculture

Jamie Johansen

Dr. Margaret OliverDr. Margaret Oliver was the opening keynote speaker at this week’s International Conference on Precision Agriculture. She is Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Soil Science (2011–present) and was Co-Editor of Precision Agriculture with John Stafford for six years until the end of 2010, but remains on the Editorial Board. On hand for ZimmComm was Sabrina Hill, AgNet West. Sabrina captured some presentations and interviews we’ll be sharing this week.

Welcoming everyone to the opening plenary session was Dr. John Stafford, President, International Society of Precision Agriculture. You can listen to his welcoming remarks here: Dr. John Stafford Welcome Remarks

Dr. Oliver spoke on the topic of “Precision Agriculture, Food Security and Geostatistics.” Her talk had two sections. The first linked precision agriculture to food security. The second got more specific dealing with the relationship of geostatistics to precision agriculture. If you’re a true agnerd using precision agriculture hardware and software you’ll like this topic.

You can listen to Dr. Oliver’s talk here: Dr. Margaret Oliver Keynote

We’d like to thank Sabrina for her help this week and the sponsor of our coverage of the ICPA, SST Software!

Coverage of the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by
International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by SST Software
Agribusiness, Audio, Food, Precision Agriculture

Tecomate Enters Strategic Alliance With Pinnacle Ag Holdings

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 447Let’s talk food plots. You know what those are right? You sure do if you enjoy hunting. I do and want to try some good seed for the Crystal Pig Hunt Club food plots!

In this week’s program we’re going to learn about the just announced alliance between Tecomate Wildlife Systems and Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings. Tecomate excels at modern food plot management with Tecomate Seed products and Pinnacle is an agricultural distribution business you might know best under the Sanders brand.

TecomateI’m going to share a conversation with Gaines Slade, VP of Operations for Tecomate. The alliance is opening up new distribution channels for the company via all the Pinnacle retail outlets. Here’s what Tecomate President David Morris has to say about the deal

“This is a game changer for Tecomate and the wildlife food plot industry,” said Tecomate President, David Morris. “Pinnacle, best known for its flagship southern brand, Sanders, brings vast production, logistics and distribution resources to the table. No other company can match their vertical integration, in seed, fertilizer and chemicals. Our continued longstanding partnership with Barenbrug, USA for premium and proprietary forage seed, together with the unsurpassed strength of Pinnacle in the cereal and commodity seed market, will allow Tecomate to offer targeted, competitively priced wildlife seed products of every type to meet every need – from that of the casual food plotter to the most serious game manager planting hundreds of acres of year-round plots. Our relationship with Pinnacle also facilitates the possibility for Tecomate-branded fertilizer and herbicides aimed at meeting the specific requirements of the wildlife food plot market.”

And here’s what Tommy Jumper, Pinnacle’s VP had to say.

Pinnacle Ag Holdings“We are extremely excited to join forces with Tecomate and combine our individual strengths for mutual success in the agricultural input and wildlife markets,” said Tommy Jumper, Pinnacle’s Vice President of Seed Strategy and Procurement. “By name and reputation in our respective industries, Pinnacle and Tecomate have long known a great deal about one another and recently determined that the time was right to work as a team to further enhance the product and service offerings we bring to our valued customers. Together, we hope to build a business that is exponentially more significant than either of us has previously enjoyed, and one that further benefits our loyal customer base.”

Listen in to this week’s program to learn more about what this alliance means and the value and importance of well-managed foot plots here: Tecomate and Pinnacle


Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by
The ZimmCast podcast is sponsored by GROWMARK
Locally owned, globally strong.
Agribusiness, Audio, Hunting, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • Wheat Growers has hired Mike Fillaus as the agronomy sales manager for the cooperative’s southern trade area.
  • Syngenta announced plans to broaden and scale up its PLENE® platform of integrated sugar cane solutions.
  • The American Farm Bureau Federation together with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Global Social Enterprise Initiative and the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative’s StartupHoyas announced the Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge.
  • Great American Wheat Harvest documentary filmmaker Conrad Weaver of ConjoStudios, LLC, announced the current and NEW theaters to see the film.
Zimfo Bytes

Ag Leader at InfoAg Conference

Melissa Sandfort

Insights WeeklyJuly 29-31, growers, crop consultants and other industry representatives will be able to find Ag Leader experts at the InfoAg Conference at Union Station in St. Louis, Mo. On Thursday at 10 a.m., Luke James, Ag Leader Software Sales Manager, will be presenting a session on AgFiniti, Ag Leader’s new cloud-based platform. The event is free to all attendees.

Listen to James as he gives an overview of the learning session.

Listen to James explain

Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.

Ag Leader, Agribusiness

Southern Peanut Growers Blogging

Chuck Zimmerman

Grilled PBJ SundaeHello from Panama City Beach, FL. This is the location of the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. Cindy and I are on the scene.

Things started out as usual with Mr. Peanut, Tyron Spearman, grilling PBJ’s (with grape jelly). There was also a make your own ice cream sundae bar. According to Mr. Peanut, a young man told him that the grilled PBJ’s were very good dipped in melted ice cream. Hmm. Sounds like it’s time for grilled PBJ toppings for vanilla ice cream. Cindy and I had ’em and they are awesome.

Over the next couple days we’ll be SPGC blogging. This is our 7th year! Whoo Hoo! Thank you Southern Peanut Farmers Federation (FL/GA/AL/MS)! Follow along on the SPGC Blog. BTW, the conference Twitter hashtag is #2014SPGC.

Here is where you can find photos: 2014 Southern Peanut Grower Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Peanuts, SPGC

Can Farming Become More Techie?

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What are your thoughts on cellulosic ethanol?”

As the possibility of cellulosic ethanol grows it looks like popularity will as well. We may be far from buying it at the pump, but people still seem to be excited about the technological innovation.

Here are the poll results:

  • Innovation making it happen – 43.2%
  • Very important renewable fuel – 21.6%
  • Still years away from commercial market – 27%
  • Will never work – 2.7%
  • What the heck is it? – 5.4%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, How can technology make farming even better?

We’ve been covering lots of precision farming conferences this summer, from the recent Precision Aerial Ag Show in Illinois, to this week’s International Conference on Precision Ag in California, to next week’s InfoAg Expo in St. Louis. Sometimes it seems like farming can’t get any more technological – but can it? What would you like to see on the farm that has yet to become commercially available?

ZimmPoll

Meet the Grandparents

Melissa Sandfort

IMG_5642I took the first “AgWalk” on June 22, 2010. Since then, we’ve walked 246 times. I honestly can’t believe I’ve found that much to write about, but just like the weather, every day changes and is a new day with something new to share with our readers. As most of you know, my Aunt Jeanette has joined in the fun and it truly has become a family affair.

But I got to thinking the other day that as many stories as we’ve told about my grandparents, I’m not sure you’ve ever seen them. That happens with my work, especially since my office is out of my home. I speak with people on the phone, conduct interviews and “meet” them via email, but never see their faces. You’ve heard my grandparents’ voices but here they are for you to meet! This photo was taken soon after my daughter was born, just about exactly two years ago.

I hope in June four years from now, I’m giving you yet another update on my grandparents, and that I’m still sharing their stories. And I hope you have come to enjoy and cherish our stories, our history and my family.

Until we walk again …

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