AgMinute for Jan. 18, 2012

Randy and Karlene Hardy, who farm 2,800 acres in Oakley, have been named growers of the year by the Potato Growers of Idaho. They were to receive their award Jan. 18 at the Pocatello Red Lion Hotel following a fundraising auction to benefit the Idaho Potato Industry Political Action Committee. Dirk Parkinson, of St. Anthony, was chosen as this year’s seed grower of the year.

Randy Hardy is a former U.S. Potato Board chairman, and Karlene Hardy is a current board member of the group.

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Trio feted at logging conference

Three timber industry stalwarts were given awards at the 62nd Sierra Cascade Logging Conference this week in Northern California.

The Logger of the Year is Harold Kiper, 83, the owner of Kiper and Kiper Logging in Squaw Valley, Calif. He has been a contract logger in the central Sierras for almost 60 years, and is "still going strong," say conference organizers. He and his wife, Mary, have been married for more than 60 years and have two sons and nine grandchildren.

The Roy Derek Berridge Award goes to Sherry L. Crawford of Seiad Valley, the owner and office manager of a logging company since 1979. She's had numerous school and civic leadership positions through the years and has been a member of the USDA's Resource Advisory Council since 2001. She's been married 44 years and has four children, 21 grandchildren and two adoptees coming.

The John Jarrett Award recipient is Buzz Eades, a lifelong logger and past president of the logging conference who is now its Logging Sports Show co-chairman. He and his wife, Murial, just returned from China, where their son is a missionary.

Congratulations to Harold, Sherry and Buzz.

FFA celebrates 80th with pride — and promise for the future

Oregon FFA executive secretary Mike Stebbins and Oregon FFA state president Sheryden Root accept the Excellence in Education award presented to the state FFA organization by Oregon director of agriculture Katy Coba during the Ag Progress Awards Dinner in Pendleton on March 18.

Chances are, if you’re involved in agriculture or have attended an agricultural event, you’ve seen the familiar blue jackets, or perhaps interacted with or been helped by a member of the National FFA Organization.

Across the country, along with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, there are 7,358 chapters and almost 501,000 members in the organization that is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
Their motto since 1928 has been “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, and living to serve.”

There is a good chance that FFA members will continue to serve agriculture, even long after they are no longer members.

In Pendleton this week, the state annual meeting gave enthusiastic members a chance to demonstrate their speaking skills, agricultural production and marketing knowledge, and their science projects to help agriculture in the future.

Members shared how they work on their parents’ farms, doing such hands-on things as developing grass seed varieties and eliminating exotic weeds, and breeding and raising sheep and cattle for sale. But they also showed their work on science experiments, such as extracting oil from the invasive weed Scotch broom and turning it into biofuel.

Known as Future Farmers of America until 1988, FFA has continued to grow and adapt to the changing times and challenges.

This was one of the reasons the state FFA was honored just a few days earlier by the Oregon Department of Agriculture with an Ag Progress Award.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture noted, when the Excellence in Education Award was presented, that FFA has “more contemporary ag programs (that) are now capturing the attention of students, including greenhouse and nursery operations, landscape management, and agri-business. These new fields reflect the diversity of Oregon agriculture and forestry, and have resulted in an increase in the number of students involved in Oregon FFA following years of decline.”

“Any student in grades 7 to 12 who is enrolled in an agriculture course at a public school may join FFA,” explains national FFA literature. While many people might assume FFA is mostly rural teenagers, that’s not the case. More than 70 percent of its membership “are from rural non-farm, urban and suburban areas,” according to FFA’s website.

However, the organization remains a strong influence on the goals it has focused: to develop leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education.

While each week the kids learn about agriculture in classrooms, meetings and even attending agricultural shows, the success of FFA has a lot to do with the passion and involvement of the members, their advisors and the agribusiness community that has helped support the program for so many decades.

It has become a win-win for all sides. The agribusinesses have been able to influence and hire bright, talented, well-educated, confident and eager FFA members to help the industry for the future. Most importantly, these teenagers have shown how passionate they can be about agriculture — whether or not they will remain in it after they graduate.

In the West, there are many agricultural business leaders that proudly share they have been involved in the past with FFA, or currently have children that are FFA members, and they are praise the influence of the organization.

Oregon FFA state president Sheryden Root, when she accepted the ODA award from director of agriculture Katy Coba on March 18 in Pendleton, talked about how she and state officers traveled around the state this past year to “every single FFA chapter” — an impressive accomplishment, with the 104 chapters scattered around the state serving more than 4,600 members.

Root talked about what she met: “A truly amazing group of students that are excited about agriculture, that are ready to make a difference in the industry.”

In Oregon, as well as the other Western states, indeed the agriculture industry will benefit from the difference this next generation will make from their involvement in FFA.

(More online: To see more on the FFA annual meeting in Pendleton, including a photo gallery, see coverage in www.eastoregonian.com). For more on national FFA, see www.ffa.org)

Reaching out to customers in different ways

When it comes to companies trying to sell a product, it can be tough.

There’s a lot of competition as companies try to figure out the best way to reach their target. They might try radio, television, newspapers, magazines, the internet or direct mail campaigns.

While newspapers depend on advertising to help customers reach their target audience, the question always is how many people are seeing the ad — or better yet — reading the ad and responding to it?

Classifieds are often the most popular, and customers let newspapers know they are pleased with the results they get. But what about the larger ads, especially if it’s the same ad displayed over and over?

According to Ted Haller of The Jordan Group who was a speaker at the Ag Media Summit in Kentucky recently, that is the big question. Is an ad reread? If the same ad is seen in more than one magazine, people probably won’t read it again, he said.

So the question becomes how many ads does a company need to run, in how many publications, to reach the target audience? And how often does that ad need to change so it captures the eye of the consumer? Haller said agencies often tell companies they should have continuity in their ads to get customers, but he stressed a new ad will attract more people to read the ads.

When farmers receive so many publications in their mailboxes these days, it’s even more important to catch their eye to read an ad rather than skip the same ad in several publications over a period of time.

Using one of the workshop attendees as a test target, Haller handed a farm magazine ad to the guy to read. It took 10 seconds to finish the ad. Haller said on average, an ad takes about 15 seconds. So how many ads need to be run in how many magazines before they’re seen?

Haller recommended people buy a media mix: use the different advertising methods out there to try to reach a target audience, and don’t rely on the same ads for extended periods and especially not in one type of media. He provided the positive and negative aspects of all type of media, as well as stressed how pricey it can be, especially using broadcast media to run the ads.

Ultimately, companies don’t want just exposure to customers, they want target customers to react positively to the ads.

As for newspapers who wait to talk to agencies that represent companies and pitch their advertising packages available, Haller was blunt: he said 50 to 75 percent of the media mix is predetermined by the agencies before they even talk to the media representative. The decisions are already made by bias, budget concerns, personal preferences, etc.

For this reason, it’s more important for media companies to be more prepared and have their mix of options ready: show how the target audience will be effectively reached.

With all the competition, perhaps it is even more notable that an Oregon business has earned itself a prestigious award from the American Advertising Federation recently for a direct marketing campaign.

Truitt Bros., Inc., a manufacturer in the shelf-stable foods industry since 1973, received recognition for the work it did with an agency. The agency NOBLE received a Gold ADDY Award for national creative excellence for a promotion it did for Truitt that was simple but effective.

NOBLE created “a unique 3-D mailer introducing customers to Truitt Bros. Pembrook Southern-style Green Beans. The attention-grabbing piece promotes the fresher taste, firmer texture, and brighter color of the product, while incorporating the company’s corporate sustainability message,” said an article on Truitt’s website about the award.

Most fascinating was the simplicity of what NOBLE and Truitt joined up to do: the 3-D mailer was simply a box with two cans inside, connected with a piece of string like kids used to do to create a simple communication tool. The accompanying letter in the mailer encouraged potential buyers to give Truitt a call about their green beans.

The win was remarkable for several reasons: there are 60,000 entries annually in this contest, making it the world’s largest advertising competition; secondly it has several levels of judging, including local, regional and national; thirdly, it is administered by the advertising industry; and fourthly, it’s rare that a foodservice agency and manufacturer would win this award “in a contest dominated by consumer companies and campaigns,” as executive vice-president Tim Blade explained in a press release.

Would the mailer have worked with anyone who saw it? No.

But in this case it accomplished catching the attention of its target audience for probably more than 10 seconds.

Truitt Bros. Inc.
NOBLE
The Jordan Group
Ag Media Summit
Ted Haller
advertising
newspapers
ADDY awards
media
agriculture
oregon

Dairy princesses deserve a toast

SALEM, Ore. — Watching the Oregon Dairy Princess-Ambassador coronation banquet on Saturday night, I admired how well the competitors from various counties had prepared for this event. They were charming, confident, courteous and knowledgeable. Each reflected how passionate and proud she was to represent and promote the dairy industry.

They memorized long fact-filled speeches, wore gorgeous long gowns, answered questions spontaneously, and kept their dignity intact and smiles on their faces as long as they could — even when they might have made any mistakes while in the spotlight in front of an audience of mostly strangers.

Their lives flashed before them on the screen: videos showed these women as they grew up from little girls on farms and dairies in the state. We saw their classmates, families, farm animals: we saw these women as they played sports, posed with their siblings, and saw them change from farm girls doing chores at home one moment to being escorted in heels to the stage in Salem, Ore. while dressed in formal wear.




Whether they won or lost, these women usually shared how much they had matured during the time they competed for this title. They learned about themselves as well as picked up skills preparing them for this position.

Shannon Henderson, of Tillamook County, earned the honor of being the next dairy princess-ambassador. In an interview later, she talked about how in the next year she will gain new realms of responsibility and learn “ to be ladylike in front of all these people.” She said that a charm class had already taught her and the others “how to sit, talk, walk, eat, sleep and be ladylike at the same time.”



I have this image of Michael Caine teaching Sandra Bullock how to be ladylike in the movie Miss Congeniality and I think … he was lucky. She was an easy one, compared to me.

Anyone who can make a transformation from working on the farm to being totally comfortable, confident and a coronation contender earns my respect any day.

For any of us who grew up on a farm or still toil on one, we all know how big of a challenge it can be sometimes to be ladylike and maybe even glamorous.

After pushing around stubborn cows in a stall to coax them to accept their calves, mucking around with heavy hay bales for steers and heifers in the muddy feedlot, picking rocks in a dusty field, shoveling itchy grain in and out of trucks and bins, picking berries with stained hands, weeding and digging and pulling and doing everything else our gardens and fields needed, well … sometimes I wondered whether I could ever truly learn to be ladylike. I think I’ve given up that goal in this lifetime.

But I raise a glass of milk to toast all those who competed this year in their respective counties and states to be the next dairy princess.

Oregon Department of Agriculture honors industry leaders

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is celebrating its 75th birthday, but it was people in the state's agriculture industry that got the presents tonight.

The event, held in conjuction with National Agriculture Week, was the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Ag Progress Awards Dinner. Even Gov. Ted Kulongoski made an appearance long enough to present opening remarks at the event.

Kulongoski, who is facing a slate of challengers, even from his own Democratic Party, in his re-election bid this year, praised the agriculture industry for its contributions to the state. Kulongoski spoke about agriculture's economic impact to the overall state economy, but also how Oregon farm and ranch families contribute to the social fabric of the state with their committment to hard work and community.

Kulongoski did not bring up his re-election bid in his public remarks at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Ore., but he did make note of several achievement in the ag sector during his administration and made a pitch asking for the support of the industry leaders in attendance to keep working with him to build the state's infrastructure and economy.

The department and its director, Katy Coba, also received a gift from one of the honorees. Tomio Ao of Japan, who the department credits with being the key figure in establishing Oregon's seafood export industry with Japan, was one of the award recipients for individual contribution to agriculture in the state. After Coba presented Ao with his plaque, Ao gave Coba an ornate banner honoring the Department of Agriculture's 75th anniversary.

Others honored for individual contribution to agriculture were Dalton Strauss, a Central Point, Ore., cattle rancher, and Dave and Rita Doerfler of Silverton, Ore., for their work with various ag committees, organizations and events in the state.

Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods of Milwaukie, Ore., which produces whole grain foods distributed in the U.S. and Canada, was honored as high-valued products producer.

Sabroso Inc. of Medford, a fruit processor that makes fruit purees, concentrates and other ingredients for national and international food companies, was honored as processor of the year.

Yule Tree Farms of Aurora was honored for leadership in conservation for its work to control erosion and improve water quality.

The Agribusiness Council of Oregon was honored for excellence in education for its Keeping Ag Viable campaign.

Check out the Capital Press website for photos from the event.

I also realized that if I ever decide to get serious about this whole blogging thing, I may have to invest in some sort of wireless device so I can post whenever, and wherever, I go. There really is no escaping the wonders of technology for distribution of information, as Oregon State University President Ed Ray demonstrated at the event. Ray kept some in the audience up to date on the scores from the NCAA basketball tournament, which were delivered to his BlackBerry wireless device.

And here I had to drive all the way home to make a post.

Agriculture
Oregon Department of Agriculture
Gov. Ted Kulongoski
Katy Coba
Awards