Serious Thoughts from a Funny Guy

Cindy Zimmerman July 28, 2014

Damian Mason is a seriously funny guy.

Chuck interviewed him twice last year – at the NAMA conference and then again at the O.H. Kruse event – but the first time I have seen him was over the weekend at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, and I suspect it won’t be the last. He is making a name for himself as “Agriculture’s Professional Funny Man” and has a growing client list of agricultural companies and organizations. If you haven’t seen him yet, you probably will soon and you won’t be disappointed.

“I’m a farm boy and a farm owner, I have an agricultural economics degree, raised on a dairy farm,” Damian said after his SPGC luncheon keynote sponsored by BASF. “I make people laugh and I talk about industry issues.”

Weaving his thoughts about serious agricultural issues within his comedy, Damian hammered home the importance of communicating with the fragment of our population that knows nothing about food production. He suggests that agriculture learn from the National Rifle Association and be more aggressive in defending our industry. “They are emotional, they are patriotic and they also talk about self-interest,” said Damian.

He also contends that using the argument for cheap food is ineffective. “It’s not really a selling point to at least the upper half (of the population),” Damian said. “If they cared about cheap food why would they spend $12 billion dollars on plastic bottles of water … food is an emotional decision in the United States, not a sustenance and physical decision.”

Listen to more serious thoughts from this funny guy in my interview here – and watch one of his YouTube clips below to see one of the bits he did talking about farmers.
Interview with Damian Mason, Agriculture’s Professional Funny Man

You can also learn more about Damian, find out how to book him at an event, and buy some of his cool stuff like “Agriculture – Because Starvation Sucks” t-shirts – at DamianMason.com.

2014 SPGC photo album

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, Peanuts, SPGC, Video

GROWMARK Picks AgIntegrated for Info Platform

Cindy Zimmerman July 28, 2014

GROWMARK has teamed up with AgIntegrated (AGI) for the development of FS Advanced Information Services (FS AIS), a suite of tools to “connect data, analysis, insight, and application into one complete user experience for advanced field optimization.”

AgIntegrated is an independent provider of ag information management consulting and technologies based in Pennsylvania and President Duane Reese says they are excited to be working with GROWMARK.

“GROWMARK shares our vision of a modern, connected system that enables the best of today’s technologies from across the industry, while maintaining a close eye on usability and future information needs,” said Reese. “I am particularly thrilled that FS AIS will be using a majority of our Onsite platform for their data movement, processing, and storage needs”

GROWMARK manager of Agronomy Information Services Sid Parks explains their goals for FS AIS. “The basic product is to provide a tool to our members that allows them the ability to have field boundaries to store data like soil tests, as-applied maps, yield maps, all sorts of data being collected,” said Parks, noting that precision farming really started for GROWMARK some 20 years ago. “We wanted something that could provide a suite of tools in one place that allows access to multiple types of data … and further have that spatial data be able to talk to our accounting systems so we can have an integrated solution there.”

Parks says they already have beta versions of the software being tested and they hope to have it finished by the fall. Interview with Sid Parks, GROWMARK

Audio, data, GROWMARK, Technology

Gators Revved up in Indianapolis

Chuck Zimmerman July 27, 2014

How about them Gators? They found me. Not sure how. I was kind of hard to spot.

However, University of Florida ACT students did find me during the Ag Media Summit Famous Welcome Party. We did a little Gator Chomp and had a great conversation. That’s part of what AMS is all about.

I took a few photos during the reception while handing out ZimmComm swag from my Uf gym bag. It got lighter and lighter and then was finally empty. It is great seeing so many friends here. I hear that we have a record crowd at AMS this year. If you can’t be here then keep checking back and we’ll give you a look at all the activity we can.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Ag Media Summit

Talking with Forrest Lucas

Chuck Zimmerman July 27, 2014

Have 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, Animal Activists, Audio

Arkansas Congressman and Former Farm Broadcaster

Cindy Zimmerman July 26, 2014

In 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 July 26, 2014

Peanut 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 July 25, 2014

Dr. 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

Agribusiness, Audio, Food, Precision Agriculture

Tecomate Enters Strategic Alliance With Pinnacle Ag Holdings

Chuck Zimmerman July 25, 2014

Let’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.

I’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.

“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

Locally owned, globally strong.

Agribusiness, Audio, Hunting, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes July 25, 2014

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 July 25, 2014

July 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

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