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This is the place where smart people and breakthrough ideas converge. It’s not about showing off our work. It’s about what’s going on around all of us and collectively sharing that knowledge to help drive your success.

Entries in agriculture (27)

Friday
Aug132010

"I don’t know a lot about cows, but I know I like cheeseburgers…"


Ron Dayne, former Wisconsin Badger and Heisman Trophy winner, got the crowd’s attention with that line Wednesday night at the Governor’s Red, White & Blue Ribbon Livestock Auction.

Since I attended this year’s auction, I thought it would be fun to give you a look at what the evening entailed, as well as some history about the program.

The Governor’s Auction, held every year at the Wisconsin State Fair, gives Wisconsin youth an opportunity to showcase high quality 4-H or FFA projects. More than 600 state fair junior exhibitors compete with their swine, sheep and beef market animals for a spot in the auction.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Jul262010

Smartphone apps relative for agriculturalists too 


Smartphones have been a standard part of the business professional’s day-to-day life for close to a decade. The need to be connected and available at all times led to the trend’s rapid adoption.

In the agriculture world it’s no different. It has always been important to be connected, whether by CB radios, to let someone know the cows were out, the bag phone, which became a staple in most farmers’ trucks, or the many generations of cell phones. Instant communication is a mainstay for those in production agriculture and many mobile developers are taking notice.

A very tech and social media savvy farmer and dairy producer in California posted a great blog discussing the apps on his phone that are the most prevalent in his day-to-day life, Top 10 Android apps for Farmers (iPhone too).

In his blog, Dino Giacomazzi discusses apps that provide information most farmers and producers would find beneficial. For example, he uses an app that acts as a level for planter calibration and another app provides target dates for quick math when it comes to planting decisions. He also takes advantage of map and weather apps.

With the increase of competition in the smartphone market users have more options than ever before. This is important with those in production agriculture because not every service provider covers the areas where farmers and producers are located.

Many farmers and producers are open to mobile marketing and are ready and waiting for new technologies to ease their daily duties and increase communication possibilities. The big question is what’s next?

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Friday
Jul232010

Remembering Secretary Rod Nilsestuen

2009 Wisconsin State Fair, Cheryl O’Brien (left) with Sec. Nilsestuen (center) among others.


This is not first blog post that I envisioned writing here at Bader Rutter (I just started here at the end of June). But it is one I feel compelled to write.

 

Wednesday night, the agriculture industry lost a dear friend, Rod Nilsestuen. He served as the Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) here in Wisconsin since his appointment in 2003. Nilsestuen drowned in Lake Superior near Marquette, Mich. A statement from his family indicated he had gone swimming after a hard day’s work volunteering with his church group on a Habitat for Humanity project. Nilsestuen was 62.

During his tenure as secretary, Nilsestuen’s leadership led to more diversification and growth throughout Wisconsin agriculture. I believe he was such an accomplished leader because of his upbringing, not only on a farm but in cooperation. Before Nilsestuen accepted the appointment to DATCP, he worked for more than 20 years in cooperatives including serving as president and CEO of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives to get people to work together to accomplish goals.

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Monday
Jul192010

Dairy promotion not limited to June

BR’er Cheryl O’Brien (center) serving as Alice in Dairyland.


While June Dairy Month has come and gone, the celebration of America’s dairy industry continues on for many of our associates.

For those of us who grew up in the dairy industry, promoting it is a passion for us. It’s something that’s second nature.

Growing up on a small Pennsylvania dairy farm, portraying a positive image for the dairy industry is one small way in which I can give back to what it’s given me. This includes the responsibility learned from daily farm chores, before and after school, or the satisfaction that comes from a day’s hard work of unloading wagons of hay in 90+ degree heat. It taught me perseverance while trying to train a stubborn Brown Swiss calf for show and the value of setting goals and working like crazy to reach them.

Promoting the dairy industry is about preserving it for our kids, so they can have the same life shaping experiences that we did. It’s why in early June, spending a couple hours on the State Capital steps talking about cows with consumers at Cows on the Concourse was a fun way to spend a Saturday.

It’s also why one of our newer associates spent her last year promoting it as Wisconsin’s 62nd Alice in Dairyland.

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Wednesday
Jul072010

After Hours: Three keys to marketing dairy cattle


During the day, I practice PR on behalf of the dairy portion of the Pfizer Animal Health business. On nights and weekends, I like to spend my time working with a group of Brown Swiss dairy cattle owned by my wife and two younger brothers which we call Brothers Three Brown Swiss.

Since we don’t milk cows, we rely on showing and merchandising our Brown Swiss to generate income and cash flow for our business.  One of the things I love about my job is being able to take the strategies and marketing recommendations we share with our clients every day and apply them to our own cattle marketing business.

In the video below, I share several keys to marketing our business that have proven successful in recent years.

 

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Wednesday
Apr072010

After Hours: Day job, night job

Raised on a ranch near Palmyra, Neb., I developed a passion for the beef industry. By day, I’m a vice president/group leader in Bader Rutter’s Lincoln, Neb., office, working hard for my client Pfizer Animal Health. By night and on the weekends, I am a fourth-generation rancher, helping to care for my family’s Angus-based cow/calf herd often using the very products I market.

I believe in working hard, playing hard and understanding my clients’ marketplace and products. The great thing about working at Bader Rutter — passionate people with those three attributes are everywhere.

This series tells the stories of how our associates fuel their passions, after hours.

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Thursday
Mar182010

If the jacket still fits …

It’s appropriate that National Ag Week fell this year at the same time we were fortunate enough to have two current members of the National FFA Officer’s Team, President Levy Randolph and Central Region Vice President Chase Rose, visit our Brookfield office.National FFA Central Region Vice President Chase Rose (left) and President Levy Randolf (right) offer encouragement as I try to fit into my FFA jacket from 1979.

As part of their year of service to the National FFA Organization they will travel more than 100,000 miles over 300 days to meet with the organization’s 500,000 members, government officials and corporate sponsors. They also had the opportunity to travel to Japan to study international trade and meet with government and agriculture officers there.

We are proud to be a sponsor of the National FFA Organization. We currently have more than 20 associates that were involved with FFA in high school or at the collegiate level, so we know first-hand how this organization prepares young men and women with skills that will be instrumental as they enter their careers.

Meeting Levy and Chase, and witnessing their enthusiasm and optimism for agriculture was refreshing. It reminded me of the great experiences I had as an FFA member and the need for me to “continue to wear my jacket” by supporting educational ag programs like this one.

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Monday
Mar152010

Teat Tweets: Cows join Twitterverse

In today’s technologically advanced culture, it’s no surprise that technology is appearing in full force on dairy farms. Just a few decades ago, the idea of robotic milkers and computerized feeding systems was unbelievable. So, who would have thought that in 2010 cows could have their very own Twitter account? Well, a herd of Canadian Holsteins are, in fact, tweeting daily. Yep, you read that correctly — cows are now tweeting.

The farm, located just southwest of Toronto, has a robotic milker in place that allows cows to be milked multiple times a day – on their own schedule. The cows are equipped with their own neck collars that are read every time they come in contact with the robotic milker, telling the farm manager how much milk they are giving, as well as how often they have been milked that day.  This is a normal procedure for robotic milking setups, but the unique thing about this farm is that every time the robot reads a cow’s neck collar, the cows tweet on their own Twitter accounts!

The project was launched in December 2009 by the University of Waterloo in Canada. The tweets are a reflection of typical daily occurrences on a dairy, but in an entertaining way to help educate consumers through social media on the technical and day-to-day events on a dairy farm. 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Mar152010

A salute to Ag Week

In celebration of National Ag Week, we wanted to showcase our associates’ deep-rooted love of agriculture. We hope you’ll enjoy this slideshow that tells the story of how the ag industry has shaped some of our associates’ lives, careers and work ethic.

We salute the hard-working farmers and all those who help them feed the world everyday, and we are proud to be a part of the process.

Happy Ag Week!

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Monday
Mar012010

World Ag Expo awe-inspiring 

I recently had the opportunity to attend World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., one of the world’s largest agricultural trade shows. It was fascinating to see, all in one location, the full breadth of the nation’s agricultural industry — from implements and milking equipment to animal health products and forage and nutrition.

With more than 1,500 agricultural exhibitors on 2.6 million sq. ft. of exhibition grounds and 100,000 attendees, it’s not surprising that several Bader Rutter associates attended the show on behalf of various clients, including Pfizer Animal Health, Dairy Management, Inc. ™, and Mycogen Seeds.
 
Click through the photo slide show below to see a few highlights from World Ag Expo 2010.

Wednesday
Feb242010

Social media evens the playing field

When Yellow Tail wine announced that it would contribute $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States, it learned just how many farmers and ranchers enjoy a glass of wine — and how many spend time online.

Within 24 hours of the announcement on Jan. 14, hundreds of farmers and ranchers took to the Yellow Tail Facebook page to express their discontent. In fact, the “Yellow Fail” Facebook page now has more than 3,000 fans. In an attempt to control the damage, Yellow Tail later announced that its donation would be targeted to animal rescue efforts only.

Regardless of the industry, it’s an activist tactic to portray an organization as “speaking for the masses.” This pretense is no longer sustainable in a social-media era where individuals are in control. Consumers’ voices can be amplified through cheap and easy means like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Take this example of a California dairy farmer that uses all these resources to comment on government, non-profit organizations and his own industry.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Feb012010

Is retro marketing a fit for agri-business?

Think back to your childhood: the sounds, the smells, the sights. Did you brush your teeth with Crest toothpaste? Eat Honeycombs for breakfast? When you think back, are you in a simpler world? A safe place filled with warmth and consistency?

If so, you might buy into one of the recession’s latest trends: retro marketing. Retro marketing is the technique of using “throw back” advertising and marketing tactics to elicit childhood memories and drive sales. How, you ask? Retro marketing slogans and art trigger thoughts of “the good old days” before the recession, when the world was less complex and more stable. By purchasing the product, a consumer subconsciously travels back in time and is, for a moment, comforted by the familiar.

Giants like Pepsi, General Mills and McDonald’s are taking part in the phenomenon, reverting to vintage logos, sepia tones and 70’s taglines. However, this tactic holds promise outside the general consumer market — particularly in agri-marketing.

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Friday
Jan292010

The preservation of agriculture

A recent article in Forbes discussed the scrutiny and finger-pointing from, as the author termed them, “urban aesthetes and green activists” at the American agricultural industry, and their hope to “impose their own Utopian vision of agriculture.”

As anyone in the agricultural industry knows, the consumer is often several layers removed from the real agricultural industry, including the many family farmers who are passionate for their land and animals. And many of the general population, unfortunately, may also be naïve to the need for large-scale agriculture to help feed the world’s growing population — the author cites that “over the next 40 years the world will be adding some 3 billion people.”

This article helps demonstrate that the American agricultural industry will continue to feed the world through the successful melding of large-scale corporate farms and small-scale family-owned operations. However, much work is needed to advocate for the preservation of agriculture. 

Thursday
Jan212010

Who will speak for the agriculture industry?

I recently had the opportunity to attend a new agricultural conference in Orlando called AG CONNECT Expo. This trade show gave producers, manufacturers and industry experts from around the world the chance to gather and share information and ideas. Check out the photos from the show. One session I attended was a panel discussion on communications in agriculture, which of course piqued my interest.

A great deal of the discussion revolved around the increasing amount of misinformation being shared about modern agriculture. It was determined that one of the root causes for this trend is the fact that the American consumer is getting further and further removed from any connections to the farm.

During the session, a story was relayed on how Lynn Henderson, publisher of
Agri-Marketing, was in line for lunch when a conversation started with an attendee from a different event being held at the conference center. When Lynn explained he was attending AG CONNECT Expo with several thousand ag producers the person responded, “I’ve never met a farmer before.”

As an industry, this presents a huge communications challenge, especially when you take these factors into consideration:

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Jan052010

Growing more than crops and calves

Laurie’s grandpa, Bob Peterson, watches over the family farm

For many dairy farmers in Wisconsin and across the country, 2010 couldn’t come soon enough, as the New Year brings hope of better milk prices and balance sheets. A recent article in Dairy Herd Management reflected on the dairy industry’s roller coaster ride in 2009, as well as lessons learned by six dairy farmers nationwide.

The article made me wonder what lessons my parents and brother learned last year managing their 350-acre, 100-head dairy farm in west central Wisconsin. They had a tough year, but are somehow weathering the storm and making it through.

During my trip home for the holidays, my 85-year-old grandfather stopped by for his morning coffee and daily discussion of the farm happenings. He reminded me that it is important to remember the family heritage, hard work and dedication that make our farm what it is today, and, hopefully, what will keep it operating for generations to come.

Persevering through hard times
My dad, like dairy farmers everywhere, forges into each day — snow, sleet, wind or hail — knowing that the farm, the cows and the fields are his legacy, pride and business. He takes with him the lessons learned, experiences had and memories made over the last several decades, and applies them to the financial struggles, sick calves and frozen pipes facing him today.

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