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May 24, 2013  

Hello ZimmComm Fans:

We're wishing you a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend and want to thank all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in military service to our country.

This week ZimmComm summer intern Maggie Seiler, KSU, went on-location to start agriblogging the Alltech International Symposium.  Maggie is off to an impressive start!  She'll be working with Cindy next at the American Seed Trade Association Annual Convention in Nashville.  You can find Chuck and Maggie's Alltech photos here.

During the Alltech Symposium Chuck had his first photo upload of the week interrupted by the Flickr changeover to their new design.  We're curious what you think about the new look.  It has bigger thumbnails and now allows us to upload photos at full resolution.  This means when you choose to download the original version of any of our photos you'll be getting the "master" of the .jpg file!  We get lots of requests for photo masters and now you can easily download them direct from our Flickr sets.  BTW.  We've got almost 92,000 photos in there with almost 4.4 million views to date!  We love taking and sharing photos!

With all the farm bill activity in Congress this past week, our latest ZimmPoll asked "What's your opinion of committee farm bill?" From the results, most think it's better than nothing.

 

Our poll results: 18% said Better Than Nothing and Other, 14% said Hits Nutrition Too Hard and Bad For Everyone, nine percent said Senate Better Than House, Bad For Farmers, Will Help Conservation and Great For Everyone, and nobody said House Better Than Senate. Poll results are all over the charts this week with mixed reviews and disagreement with particular sections of the farm bill.  

 

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, "Is agriculture doing a bad job of marketing?" Marketing is key to a successful business or industry. The public often gets a bad taste for agriculture after "issues" hit the media. Do we cover our tracks and market the good along with the benefits to agriculture, not to mention the must haves of it? Let us know.

Here are some interviews and other audio files you might have missed this week:



Now for some news from the ZimmComm News Network:



 AgWired  AgWired     

An Alltech Marketing Forum

We're all about marketing here on AgWired. That's why "The Marketing Forum, Branding at its Best" session at the 2013 Alltech International Symposium caught my eye. This session dealt with subjects like transparency, different cultures and protecting the brand. MORE
 

ZimmCast 


Study Shows Internet Increases Small Farm Income 

GROWMARK and FS are excited to make it easier than ever to make connections on social media.
According to research conducted by Aditya Khanal & Ashok Mishra, both with the Department of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness at Louisiana State University, the internet has added $2,000+ annual gross farm income to small farms.  MORE

North and South American Corn Growers Unite 

As most agricultural eyes were on progress of the farm bill last week in Congress, some very prominent farmers were in another nation's capitol below the equator signing a new agreement to create an alliance between North and South American corn growers. MORE
DomesticFuel  Domestic Fuel 

DF Cast: Creating, Not Extracting, Sugars for Biofuels

One of the big issues that continues to dog the biofuels business, especially ethanol production, is the use of food crops as fuel sources. While many have made the case that the crops can provide both food AND fuel (consider the dried distillers grains from ethanol production, for example), a New Jersey-based company thinks it has a way to remove the food part from the debate altogether. MORE

DFcast  

EMCORE Wins NASA Solar Contract  


EMCORE Corporation
has been awarded a contract by ATK to design and manufacture solar panels for NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) planned for launch in 2015. The solar panels include EMCORE's most advanced XTJ triple-junction solar cells, and will power a satellite that will carry the GPIM payload. ATK will integrate the EMCORE's solar panels into its heritage-designed solar arrays for final flight configuration for the GPIM satellite. 
MORE

Investors Interested in Fossil Fuel-Free Portfolios  

According to a recent survey conducted by SRI, 65 percent of retail investors and 53 percent of institutional investors are currently expressing interest in fossil fuel-free portfolios in reaction to climate change. More than 2,000 SRI industry professionals took the First Affirmative Financial Network's Fossil Fuels Divestment Survey in anticipation of the 24th annual SRI Conference taking place October 28-30 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  MORE 
 
 
 Precision Pays

Field Staff for Ag Leader Machine Guidance Support 

Ag Leader's Machine Guidance Support Supervisor, Jordan Dittmer, wants you to meet their field support techs. MORE 

Energy-Efficient Agriculture Irrigation

AgGateway and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) are co-sponsoring the launch of a cross-industry collaboration project that will help growers better manage water and energy use by integrating weather, soil moisture, soil type, crop and other relevant data coming from a wide range of hardware and software programs. MORE

Syngenta Takes Crop Research to a New Level

Syngenta has unveiled its new crop research facility at the company's RTP Innovation Center, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The $72 million, Green Globes Certified, Advanced Crop Lab allows company researchers to simulate any agricultural climate and precisely measure plant inputs. MORE  

 

       

Rural Interests Concerned About Losing Local TV

A number of agricultural and conservation organizations are urging the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to research the impact that impending spectrum incentive auctions could have on television translator service and low power television service in rural areas. MORE
  
2013 Alltech International Symposium

The Alltech 29th Annual International Symposium picked up where the 2012 Symposium concluded. And that is with the pledge for continuous innovation meeting the agricultural challenge of feeding a growing global population. Chuck and our new summer intern Maggie Seiler were there to cover it. MORE
 
 Rep. Peterson Farm Bill Comments

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN) held a telephone press conference on Friday to discuss the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013, passed by the committee last week on a vote of 36 to 10. MORE


WDDMark 
 World Dairy Diary  

   

  

Dairies to See More Opportunities to Turn Waste to Energy 

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture extends the deadline on a program that could see more farmers, especially those in the dairy industry, turning livestock waste into energy. The deadline to submit for funds under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and Dairy Industry Memorandum of Understanding has been extended to to May 31, 2013. During a teleconference moderated by Jerry Bingold from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, the USDA's Energy Policy Advisor for Rural Development Todd Campbell said this is a top priority of his agency. MORE 


Dairy Council to Grant $100,000 to Fight Hunger

 

The National Dairy Council, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Feeding America last year formed a partnership to help alleviate hunger through an increased focus on nutrition. Today, they reaffirmed that promise by announcing a $100,000 grant program designed to support nutrition education and increase access to dairy and other nutrient-rich foods. MORE  

Holstein Names Seven Herds of Excellence  

  

Congratulations to the seven newest award recipients of the Holstein Association USA 2013 Herd of Excellence! MORE 
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