ZimmCast

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Abe Hughes when he worked for New Holland and now he has just been appointed to worldwide general manager for Trimble’s Agriculture Division within the Resources and Utilities segment. So congratulations Abe! Abe has only been on the job a little while but I bothered him for a phone interview for this week's ZimmCast.

“I see Trimble’s innovation in precision agriculture, global presence, Vantage distribution network and OEM customers as key assets in Trimble’s success,” said Abe Hughes. “I’m excited to work with the Trimble team and our channel partners to drive the next phase of growth for the business.”

When you listen to our conversation you'll hear that excitement in Abe's voice. We discussed the recent acquisition announcement by Trimble of Müller-Elektronik to extend its precision agriculture capabilities from the vehicle to the implement. Abe explains what that means and from my perspective it is a pretty major step by Trimble. You'll learn more about what's going on with Trimble if you take a listen to the program.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

The Legendary Buffalo Chip near Sturgis, SD is packed again for the 2017 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The Chip now has a permanent self serve fuel dispenser which pumps a 93 octane E10 blend which Rod “Woody” Woodruff, owner of The Chip, describes as jet fuel for motorcycles. During the event the dispenser is the site of Free Fuel Happy Hours, 1-4pm, Tuesday – Thursday.

For several years now the Renewable Fuels Association has been a sponsor at The Chip and has used this free giveaway of fuel to bikers as an educational and promotional opportunity. In this week’s program I not only talk with Woody as he pulled up to be first in line to fill his tank but also Robert White with RFA. They talk about the opportunity and what it means to everyone involved.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

During the 2017 Ag Media Summit we had the regular changing of the gavel for both the American Agricultural Editors Association as well as the Livestock Publications Council. I spoke with both of the new presidents for these organizations after their respective board meetings.

In this week's program I start out with Julie Deering, new president of the AAEA. Julie talks about the recent unveiling of a new logo and website for AAEA which is an outcome of organizational strategic planning.

The new AAEA- The Ag Communicators Network website is now live!

Here you will find a new and improved, easy to use, platform responsive website that includes all you need to know about AAEA. We invite you to visit the site and familiarize yourself with our new menu items, social media links, partners, and more.

We will continue to update and review this new website. Historic information on ageditors.com can still be accessed for a limited time and will be downloaded and archived thereafter.

We hope you enjoy the new website and welcome all feedback and concerns.

Listen to the program to hear more from Julie about the coming year for AAEA.

After talking with Julie I share my conversation with Cindy Cunningham, new president of the Livestock Publications Council. Cindy says the "basis of the LPC is working to build professionalism and build networking and build relationships among ag communicators."

Cindy says that a challenge moving forward is the changing way people are getting information and making sure members are able to communicate in ways their audience wants.

List in for more about the outlook for the new year for LPC.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

In this week's program I visit with Rob McClelland, FLM Harvest, about the merger/acquisition between FLM+ and Harvest and what it will mean to their customers and capabilities.

From the announcement:

The coming together of the firms is the culmination of two unique teams and success stories over the past decade. FLM+ and Harvest have been among the fastest-growing and most successful agencies in the food and agriculture space in recent years. Combined, the new organization will have more than 80 team members in operating locations from coast to coast.

“We have watched and admired the growth and business strategy of Harvest for some time,” said Rob McClelland, president/CEO of FLM Harvest. “This acquisition will help us realize a long-standing goal to fully build out a farmer-driven food practice, and have more depth and expertise in reaching consumers to tell the story of food, agriculture and environmental sciences.”

FLM+, a hybrid strategic consulting, marketing and communications company, specializes in agriculture and life/environmental sciences to improve the lives and health of plants, animals, people and communities. The FLM+ team focuses on setting strategies, aligning teams, framing opinions and creating demand.

In this week's episode of the ZimmCast I talk with Mary Hagan, Vice President of Communications, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

Although Mary didn't imagine a career working in agricultural communications she has become a farm lover after the opportunity to work for NCGA came about. Mary's background has suited her well to work on some of the challenges facing corn growers as you will hear her discuss in the program.

A topic that came up which is very near and dear to my heart right involves the word, measurement. This important concept should be pretty easy when you consider how many statistics are created by the digital data involved in today's communications channels. However, making sense of it, especially to measure return on investment, success, or even to figure out what your audience is thinking and what is really important to them is a big challenge. Mary talks about some ways NCGA is dealing with this issue.

I also like a few anecdotes Mary brings up about the work of some of the state affiliate organizations to NCGA. They are doing very valuable work on their own and Mary sees trying to foster good internal communications with them as a very important element of the work she does.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

A new week, a new ZimmCast episode, with Bethany Shively, Director of Communications, American Seed Trade Association (ASTA).

Cindy spoke with Bethany at the recent ASTA annual meeting. First up in the discussion is the Better Seed, Better Life program, an educational communications effort.

Another project they talk about is one involving the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival with an exhibit that focuses on the seed.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

Starting now I'll be doing a series of podcasts with the communications directors of farm organizations. I thought it would be interesting and hopefully entertaining to talk with the people who are helping communicate their organization's message to various audiences, which includes their own members. I hope they will share some of the methods they are employing to get the job done too.

So, I'm going to start with Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media for the National Grain and Feed Association. Here is who they are.

The National Grain and Feed Association, founded in 1896, is a broad-based, non-profit trade association that represents and provides services for grain, feed and related commercial businesses.Its activities focus on enhancing the growth and economic performance of U.S. agriculture.

Sarah and I talked about how important digital and social media has become and how she sees NGFA using these tools more frequently to accomplish part of the organization's new strategic plan.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

In this week's program, Chuck talks with Chip Whalen, Commodity & Ingredient Hedging (CIH). The topic is uncertainty requiring flexibility. Think about how commodity prices are affected by weather, trade, exchange rates and more competition. There are more factors too.

So, how do farmers manage risk with the uncertainty we're seeing in the trade today? That's where Chip's expertise in the education and research area for CIH comes in handy. Farmers are becoming more and more sophisticated when it comes to working with new solutions to protect their prices and margins. So we talk about tools like using options instead of the cash market. With a volatile market is it possible to actually take advantage of it? Yes, it is possible and Chip will explain.

We hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

Dr. Jay H. Lehr is senior fellow and science director of The Heartland Institute and Chuck's guest in this week's program.  They discuss the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement and just how much science there is on climate change and its causes, especially as it relates to agriculture.