Hello ZimmComm Fans:
We want to congratulate our Jamie Johansen and husband Kevin for the arrival of their first child, Harper James Johansen, 7 lb., 14 oz., 21 inches! She is a beautiful baby and you know we love babies. Jamie has a very good reason to be getting a break from the agriblogging highway. You can still expect to see her in the future though.
This week Chuck is on the road to the 2014 MapShots Customer Conference. He’s in AgNerd paradise talking data, cloud, integration, precision and more.
The ZimmComm Team has been working all week on preparations for several events coming up on the schedule. These include next week’s National Farm Machinery Show and Boehringer Ingelheim event. Following that will be the National Ethanol Conference and then Commodity Classic. We’ve got them covered!
In our latest ZimmPoll – “Could drones (UAV’s) serve a purpose on your operation?” – well over half of the voters this week said that drones could in fact serve a purpose on their operation. Price is still a factor and may be the reason that some operations would not use them yet. We’re going to see a lot more about this new technology since predictions have been made that eighty percent of the multi-million dollar market will be for agricultural use.
Our poll results:
?Yes, if affordable – 50%
?No – 18%
?Yes, at any price – 14%
?No, worried about privacy – 14%
?What are they? – 5%
Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What’s best in the new farm bill?”
The Senate finally passed its version of a conference bill Jan. 29, and now the farm bill goes to President Obama’s desk. As you can read on Senator Debbie Stabenow’s website “This isn’t your father’s Farm Bill. It is a bill for our future that grows our agriculture economy, helps provide greater access to healthy Michigan-grown foods, preserves our land and water, and cuts unnecessary spending. The Farm Bill is a rare example of a major bipartisan jobs bill and a bipartisan deficit reduction bill,” Chairwoman Stabenow said. Have you had the chance to review the new bill? Let us know what you think is the best part.
Here are some interviews/audio from this week you might have missed:
Tim Taylor, MapShots, on 2014 Customer Conference
Thad Simons, Novus International, talks about IFAMA
Coalition for Safe Affordable Food conf. call announcement
Kaleb Lindquist, Ag Leader Technology, talks about AgFiniti
Sec. of Ag Tom Vilsack, on what USDA will do first when Farm Bill is signed
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