Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast.

In this episode I am going to share some audio from the recent Syngenta Media Summit 2024 that was held in the new crop protection facility in Greensboro, NC. I am grateful for the opportunity to be with a group of agricultural journalists and have personal time with Syngenta leadership. You’ll hear more about the new facility.

I have created a virtual newsroom on AgNewsWire that contains photos as well as interviews and other audio for ag media to use. I’ve picked out the welcome we had from Jeff Cecil, Head of North America Crop Protection Marketing, in the form of a one on one interview about advancing innovation for the US grower. After that you’ll hear closing comments from Vern Hawkins, Regional Director, North America President. He focused on advancing American agriculture. 

That’s the ZimmCast for now. Please let me know if you have ideas for a future podcast. Just email me at [email protected].

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

It’s time for the 2024 NAMA Fall Conference which will be held in Minneapolis, MN, October 14-16. The theme is “Fall Back” and you’ll hear why in my interview with Laura Rustmann, Director of Marketing and Sales, J.L. Farmakis, Inc. and Chair of the committee that is organizing the conference.

Cindy and I have enjoyed a few weeks without travel since the Farm Progress Show but things will get started again the beginning of October. I will not be able to attend the NAMA Fall Conference this year due to a conflict but we’re going to get a preview from Laura.

That’s the ZimmCast for now. Please let me know if you have ideas for a future podcast. Just email me at [email protected]. 

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

I’ve lost count of how many Farm Progress Shows I have attended but it’s a lot. This year in Boone, IA we had great weather and that’s not always the case. But it was also an opportunity to see friends as well as clients. I was only on site for Tuesday and half of Wednesday but I recorded 26 interviews that you can find on AgNewsWire in our virtual newsroom for the event.

So, speaking of clients and the fact that we’re always interested in what’s new in the world of agribusiness I’m going to share interviews with several companies. They include: Scott Nelson, Make Hay; Thad England, Groundwork Bioag; Craig Dick, Phospholutions; Scott Trbovich, Taranis and Steve Nicholson, Rabo AgriFinance. They’ll go in that order.

We post the ZimmCast on AgWired as the official podcast. We also post stories using other interviews as we have time so keep your eye out for them too.

That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

Although Cindy and I got a little break from the agriblogging highway things got busy again. In this episode I’m going to share a few interviews that have a focus on a new Farm Bill. What do you think? Is it still possible this year or will it be sometime in 2025? You will hear different thoughts from Ted McKinney, NASDA, Sonny Perdue, University of Georgia Chancellor, Representative Austin Scott, (R-GA) and Representative Frank Lucas, (R-OK).

After these interviews I’ll provide you with a preview of this year’s Ag Media Summit which will start August 3 through the 6th. This is the 25th AMS and it will be held in Kansas City, Missouri. I’ll be taking lots of photos so keep your eye out for them throughout the event and feel free to download and share.

That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

I’m getting a break from the agriblogging highway after last week’s AgGateway Mid-Year Meeting in Altoona, IA. Cindy and I have worked on our calendar through the end of the year and there are quite a few more places to be around the USA.

In this episode I have a conversation with Gardner Hatch, the new Executive Director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. We have known Gardner for a long time and he is a card carrying member of the ZimmComm Golden Mic Club. And was the recipient of one of the first Golden Mic Awards at the Agri-Marketing Conference. So, let’s get started.

Gardner talks about why he chose to make this career move and the NAFB 10 year strategic plans and priorities.

That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

Cindy and I celebrated our 20th anniversary of ZimmComm at the Agri-Marketing Conference in KC, MO. We got to see and talk to many of our friends and clients and talk about the “old” days and what we think is on the horizon. We’ve needed to make changes, go in different directions and learn new skills as so much has changed, most especially just before and through the pandemic years. We’re looking ahead to the future discussing some new ideas and making some changes once again. 

In the meantime, I’ll be on my annual retreat the end of the week and right on to Washington, DC for The Future of Food & Farming: The Modern Celebration of Ag on the National Mall, working with AEM. After that I’ll be on the road to the AgGateway Mid-Year Meeting in Des Moines, IA.

So, let’s dive in to this episode with Karl Harker, AWIS and Scot Benson, Nitrogen Pulse. These companies are cooperating on tools for farmers to better manage their nitrogen use, tied into weather data. You can learn more about it in our discussion.

That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and thank for listening.  

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

It’s almost time for the 2024 Agri-Marketing Conference that is put on by the National Agri-Marketing Association. ZimmComm will be there to celebrate our 20th anniversary in our Connection Point booth. We’ve got more to come on this when we get to the conference later this month.

In this episode I’m talking with Lori Kruger, Signal Theory, and Chair for the Agri-Marketing Conference committee. We’ll do a preview of what you’ll find. In case you haven’t registered it’s easy to go to the NAMA website and get it done.

So, that’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening.

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

I started in a career of agricultural communications back in 1983 and in all these years it is amazing how much has changed. Technology has played a major role and that includes the ability today to easily communicate about agriculture everywhere in the world. Having said this I’m going to have a conversation with Dr. Owen Roberts. He is a good friend and we first met being involved at events of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. 

Owen Roberts, Ed.D.

Lecturer and Director, Dr. Jim Evans Agricultural Communications Initiative; Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program; College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

He is also involved with a new initiative at the University of Illinois’s College of Agriculture. And that’s the subject of this podcast episode.

Plans have been made for a global center for food and agricultural communications and it is named after another good friend, Dr. James Evans. 

The James F. Evans Global Center for Food and Agricultural Communications

That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

Once again I learned all about what’s new in the world of agribusiness for Syngenta during the Commodity Classic which was just held in Houston, TX. So this episode will feature interviews I did in the Syngenta booth. 

Between Cindy and myself this was our 7th conference of the year. You can find virtual newsrooms from them all on AgNewsWire.com. In there are photos and lots of interviews.

So, these are some interview I picked out to provide a good selection of topics from Syngenta: Eric Boeck, Regional Director North America Seeds at Syngenta; Liz Hunt, Sustainable & Responsible Business Head, Syngenta; Jim Shertzer, Head of Branded Marketing, Syngenta North America Seeds; Matt Dolch and Jared Benson, NK corn and soybean product managers; Kramer Farney, Golden Harvest head of marketing

Next on the AgriBlogging Highway Cindy will be at the ACE DC Fly-in. I will be at the Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit and National Ag Day activities. Then we will both be at the Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City, MO with a booth in the Connection Point. We launched ZimmComm publicly at the 2004 Agri-Marketing Conference.

We are already celebrating 20 years since we created ZimmComm and “What a long, strange trip it's been.” BTW. I did see Grateful Dead live and in concert many, many years ago.

That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

A look at the Clean Fuels Conference and the National Ethanol Conference