Tony’s Tractors

New media, social media, whatever. On August 6, I participated in the first Aggie Lance Social Media Tele-Seminar. Besides company President, Mark Jewell, I was joined by John Blue, Truffle Media Networks and Liza Markle, National FFA.

We had a lively discussion, talking about using new media in agricultural communications, including why you should be doing it now. You can download and listen to the Tele-Seminar with this link. (wma file) I’ve already discussed making these mp3’s btw.

Perhaps you’re still wondering if your company or organization should be getting involved in new media. One of our recommendations is to start participating yourself (Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, YouTube) to become personally familiar with it. I just saw some interesting new data on how Inc. 500 companies are making use of social media. Here’s a chart comparing their use in 2007 (green) with 2008 (blue). You can click on the image to see a bigger version of it.



Research Highlights:

The research suggests that companies that are using social media & new media technologies are growing faster than other companies.

The research was done by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. You can download the study, which I recommend.

Via Podcasting News.

The folks at Kruger Seeds were very involved in the Technology Showcase tour stop in Elkhart, IA. Their Regional Business Manager, Tim Elliott, was there to make sure things ran smoothly. Tim manages a group of district sales managers. He started off the event with safety instructions and a review of the education stations out on the farm.

I kept seeing Kruger Seeds caps and banners with the slogan, “University Champions” emblazened on them, so when I got a chance to talk with Tim, the first question I asked him was what it meant. He says that it’s their tag line. “The reason we chose that is, we spend a lot of effort in making sure we test all our products with third party testing.” Tim says they work with all the Universities in their territory.

I asked him what he thought the mood of the growers attending the field event was and the word he chose was, “excitement.” One of the things that growers were able to see that would get them excited is how well the plants were doing in the field demonstration plots. This particular farm has seen some tough weather conditions that has included high winds and hail. You could see some of the effects of that but you could also see that the plants were standing well and looked to be coming along just fine in spite of those conditions. This impressed a few of the farmers I spoke with. On the subject of stress mitigation, Tim says that new biotechnology is “tightening up the yield trend line and moving it upward.” This means less yield volatility year to year.

The tour stop was very well attended and Tim encourages growers to go to these events every year since the technology is changing so rapidly. He says that Kruger Seeds requires its dealers to attend.

You can listen to my interview with Tim here: Download audio file (monsanto-tech-showcase-elliott.mp3)

Monsanto Technology Showcase Photo Album

Popularity: 21% [?]

I just downloaded the WordPress app for the iPhone/touch and am creating my 1st post on it. This will come in handy live blogging meetings.

My Advanced Blogging presentation is about to begin in the Royal Palm West room. The chairs are starting to fill up. (sort of)

This post is just being done in the moments before we get started to provide a live demo for those wonderful souls who are here early to get a front row seat.

I’ll be doing some more demo posting probably so stay tuned here and on Twitter.

Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Agricultural Media Summit is sponsored by:
and

We’re seeing more and more ag companies utlizing new media tools in their communications efforts. Here’s one I just found out about. The picture is Kassie Billerbeck, an Iowa State Student, who has her own blog a new Dow AgroSciences website. She’s doing some fertilizing in her plot at the Farm Progress Show site.

Dow AgroSciences has launched a new Web site to promote its Ultimate Yield Tour at the 2008 Farm Progress Show. With weekly updates from the show site, podcasts and maps, www.UltimateYieldTour.com will offer up-to-date information to help growers get the most from the Dow AgroSciences exhibit at the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 26 to 28 in Boone, Iowa.

“Kassie’s Plot Blog” is one of the unique features of the Web site designed to help build anticipation for the show. Kassie Billerbeck, an Iowa State University student and agronomy intern for Dow AgroSciences, will maintain a blog with weekly updates and photos of show site activity and crop status.AgroSciences, will maintain a blog with weekly updates and photos of show site activity and crop status.

Internet? No one’s ever going to use that! Blogs? Fad, not going anywhere.

Four years ago I heard that a lot. Rob Cook and I talk about it in this week’s ZimmCast.

Well, here’s another blog just to show you another example of how the platform can be used. This time it’s Missouri Agriculture’s Lunch & Learn Series.

The goal of Missouri Agriculture’s Lunch and Learn Series is to spread knowledge about Missouri agriculture and the impact livestock and crops have on our rural economies. This series also highlights the important connection between livestock and row crops, as well as the relationship between the growing biofuels industry and the state’s animal agriculture industry.

Road blogging for pets and parasites is what the Companion Animal Parasite Council is doing this week. The folks at BCS Communications are figuring out this thing called new media.

The CAPC parasitologists and veterinarians are traveling the country this summer between July 24 and August 6 to bring you the latest information on protecting your pets and family from parasites, vector-borne diseases and zoonotic risks.

Popularity: 55% [?]

While we’re still celebrating iPhone 3G release day I thought I’d point out something that may make it a more desirable choice for agribloggers. If you’re a WordPress user like me then there will be an application which allows you to post directly from your iPhone.

The WordPress for iPhone App is nearly ready to go. It supports WordPress.com blogs as well as self-hosted WordPress.org blogs running version 2.5.1 or newer.

While we wait, here is a brief video showing the App in action. (It’s high quality, so may take a moment to kick off.)

Popularity: 28% [?]

The technology behind farm machinery, such as tractors and sprayers, is continually becoming more streamlined with advances in computer and software innovation. So, why not livestock? MobileDemand is a rugged tablet PC manufacturer based out of Idaho and they’ve just put the power of the PC in the hands of the field staff at Wendell, Idaho’s Box Canyon Dairy.

MobileDemand says its partnership with ProfitSource enables dairy farms to bring both wireless computing and specialized DairyQuest software into the cattle pens, streamlining operations, saving time, and reducing error.

I spoke with MobileDemand CEO Matt Miller about how he found the agriculture industry to be optimal match for the rugged PC company. You can listen to my interview with Matt here.

Download audio file (06-08-miller-matt.mp3)

MobileDemand also offers a video summary of its case study with Box Canyon Dairy. The video further illustrates how the tablet PC and DairyQuest Software have helped one dairy farm increase efficiency in both the breeding and health monitoring of its 8,000 cows. You can watch the video here:

Popularity: 33% [?]

While I’m on the subject of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, I realized that I’ve neglected to mention their newly designed member website.

I think it’s a great example of how a “blog” can be your primary website. EPIC staff, (occasionally, Cindy and myself), easily and frequently update the website with fresh information that their members want and need to know. Members can subscribe to it and there are plenty of pages of information that are also updated easily and frequently. It’s another ZimmComm New Media blog project that we’re pretty proud of. Elizabeth Hilpipre, EPIC staff, is becoming a master blogger and loves her new iMac btw.