Paulsen Marketing On the Road Blog

Judgement Days

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 15:27:55 CDT

Guest blogging today is Bryan Bjerke, public relations director.

“The least amount of judging we can do, the better off we are.” Michael J. Fox

That’s easy for Michael J. Fox to say. He’s never been a PR judge for Best of NAMA. I had the privilege of judging some of the PR entries for this year’s Best of NAMA competition in Kansas City last week. I wondered just what I would be doing, what I’d be asked to judge. And, of course, I was curious about what I would see and how I would react.

I should have known it was going to be serious work when I came into the hall where the advertising and PR entries were laid out. The PR tables had one big difference from the advertising tables: Chairs. I quickly realized that I would have to sit down and do a lot of reading. And there was.

But over the two days I was involved, I realized that all that reading was not a chore at all. There were so many interesting, provocative, enlightened approaches to telling agriculture’s story. I found myself wondering if I would be able to finish my job, because I was having a great time soaking in the information and the way it was presented.

I also realized that in all the good work, there were also good works. Companies and organizations were helping promote causes for the good of the industry. And while that’s not necessarily unique to agriculture and agribusiness, I think it is one of our strengths: that we spend almost as much time lifting up as we do promoting and publicizing.

So I came back from Kansas City with tired eyes, but renewed hope about the future of our business. Judging by that outcome, I’d have to say I was the winner.

Don�t Be Scared

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 10:18:02 CDT

Guest blogging today is Katie Levitt, creative director.

Halloween is a big deal at Paulsen. Most everyone dresses up and parties down – except for yours truly. I’m one of the perennially non-costumed fun haters. And it all comes down to fear.

As a kid, Halloween scared me to death. As an adult, it stresses me out. I never quite manage a cool costume or party or even a decent set of porch decorations.

Basically I let fear of failure stop me from enjoying the day.

What’s your Halloween? In marketing, there’s plenty to make us feel intimidated. Maybe it’s approving some “out there” creative work. Pitching an idea you think everyone will laugh at. Hiring someone new. Taking on a big, hairy beast of an undefined project. Writing the company blog post. (See what I did there?)

Shudder. It’s a scary workplace world out there. My internal motivational speaker says be brave, you got this, learn from failure and celebrate success. After all a little fear can be good – especially for creative work. It gets you out there on the edge in stand-out-and-make-a-difference land. Not a bad place for marketers to be, right?

So here’s the point of this post: Don’t be scared to be a little scared. Status quo never improved anything. What did you do to push past your comfort zone today?

Full disclosure: I’m still not dressing up for Halloween.

Paulsen Halloween 2012. Katie Levitt is not in this photo, naturally.

Blizzard Claims Thousands of Livestock

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:56:25 CDT

Guest blogging today is Danita Tegethoff, client services manager.

One week ago, a nasty weather system hit our state. Mother Nature released her fury in the form of snow, wind, rain and tornadoes depending on your geographic location. However, western South Dakota took the brunt of the punishment with driving rains followed by a blizzard for the record books. Never has a snowstorm of this magnitude arrived quite so early as October 4. Snowfall totals ranging from 2-4 feet fell, accompanied by 60-70 mph winds. Roads closed, many people lost power and nearly any outdoor activity ceased.

Feeling fortunate to live on the east side of the state and only deal with cool temps and some intermittent rainfall, my initial thoughts when hearing about the blizzard were that a lot of weekend plans were probably ruined, and the combines would be taking a break for a few days. My dad and two brothers farm in central South Dakota, and I knew they were racing to get as many soybeans out as possible before the rain came. What didn’t occur to me was that the early storm meant livestock were still grazing in summer pastures and scattered far and wide out west. Over the weekend, reports started filtering in about thousands of head of cattle, horses and sheep that had died in the blizzard. Once ranchers could dig out of their yards to go check on their livestock, they were met with a heartbreaking scene. Cattle and horses lay dead in snowbanks, caught in fence lines or buried in gullies. Their winter coats had not grown in yet to protect them from the fierce winds, rain and snow. Most were in summer grazing areas that don’t offer as much protection. Many drifted miles from their pastures and mixed with neighboring herds.

Surely the economic impact from this storm will be astronomical. Feeder calves were mere weeks away from being sold in a market that is seeing some of its highest prices ever for feeders. Not only did producers lose breeding cows, but also the unborn babies that would have been next years crop. Horse breeders lost stallions and mares that provide income. Sheep farmers suffered the same fate. Many producers will struggle to recover from the financial losses. But I don’t doubt that right now, nearly all of them are fighting the emotional impact more than anything.

When you work with animals every day, they become a part of you and your family. It’s what makes a rancher bring a cold, wet newborn calf into the house to stick in the bathtub, and his wife to allow it. Growing up on a farm with cattle, I spent a fair share of my time helping with calving, vaccinating, sorting for pastures and weaning. The spring snowstorms during calving season were the worst as we searched for cows who had dropped their babies in the storm—no doubt in the farthest corner of the pasture! But spring storms are expected and farmers and ranchers are as prepared for it as they can be. Livestock is in close to the house with a shelterbelt or wall of bales for protection. Food and water is readily available. An early season storm like the one that occurred out west caught everyone off-guard. It was a tragic event that, unfortunately, is part of the risk of farming and ranching. But it doesn’t make their loss hurt any less.

The South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association and the South Dakota Sheep Growers Association have set up a Rancher Relief Fund to help those who lost livestock. If you would like to donate, visit www.giveblackhills.org and search “Rancher Relief Fund.”

Picture taken October 7, 2013 southwest of Faith, SD

Paulsen and Pioneer Field Trip

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 09:07:50 CDT

Guest blogging today is Mark Smither, VP, strategic director.

When Paulsen Marketing decides to take a field trip, we literally visit a field. In this case, it was a DuPont Pioneer test plot located off I-29 just north of Sioux Falls.

As part of our company’s continuing education efforts, we invited eighteen Paulsen employees to spend a morning with the Sioux River Ag/Pioneer Sales Agency in Dell Rapids, South Dakota. The purpose of the visit was to better understand how seed companies are working with local producers to achieve higher corn and soybean yields.

The day began with a presentation from Morgan Kontz from CommonGround. Her perspective as a farm wife and mother gave us a greater appreciation for family farmers and what it takes to grow and raise our food.

Bill Even, Commercial Unit Lead for DuPont Pioneer, helped us separate the facts from fiction when it comes to biotechnology and GMO foods.

After a quick tour of the Sioux River Ag facility, we headed out to the Pioneer test plot for a quick Agronomy 101 course. Kyle Christensen, a DuPont Pioneer Product Agronomist, explained some of the unique challenges associated with growing soybeans in this region.

The day concluded with a corn quiz where Paulsen employees had to identify six common corn problems, such as corn borer, drought stress and nitrogen deficiency.

We want to thank the good folks at DuPont Pioneer and the Sioux River Ag sales agency. We left the field with a greater admiration for producers—and the people who serve them. As soon as we got back to the office, we started making plans for another field trip in the spring.

View all the field trip photos.

Paulsen Marketing in the field.

Lee Larson and Scott Ostman waiting to test the moisture level of corn from their test plot.

Tour of the Sioux Valley Ag facility.

Passing a Test with Flying Colors

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:01:30 CDT

Guest blogging today is Bryan Bjerke, public relations director.

If you’ve traveled through crop country over the years, you have probably seen an aerial applicator on the job. It can be a startling site at first, as you see an airplane diving and swooping around while applying crop protection products to any number of crops. In order to make sure that all that diving and swooping is done effectively, aerial applicators fly in to airports and go through aerial application pattern testing. I had a chance to take part in one of these events at the Clark, South Dakota, airport, and shoot video of it for a Wheat Growers Update story.

These fly-in events help ag aviation pilots self-regulate the safety and performance of their airplanes. The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) created the Self-regulating Application and Flight Efficiency (S.A.F.E.) program to better control spray drift through professional application analysis.

It’s a volunteer program for pilots to have their aircraft professionally analyzed for spray pattern uniformity and droplet size.

The pilots made three passes over a string line, spraying a mixture of water and colored dye. The dye collects on the string and is analyzed for pattern uniformity. Test strips are also placed for one pass to measure the size of the droplets. The strips are also analyzed by the certified analysts, who provide the pilots with a detailed report.

According to the NAAA, there are approximately 1,350 aerial application businesses in the United States. Of those 1,350 businesses, 94 percent of the owners are also pilots. Such as John Otte of Dakota Aircare in Wagner, South Dakota. This is video of him making one of the passes required for pattern testing.

Aerial application is becoming more precise thanks to fly-ins like this one and the combination of technology and pilot skill. These pilots are using the best technology, including precision application equipment such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems), GIS (geographical information systems), flow controls, real time meteorological systems and precisely calibrated spray equipment to be able to fly the most accurate patterns they can.

But there still have to be pilots at the controls. And there’s a lot of precision in the flying they do, especially given the speeds they’re going and the challenges that the weather, power lines, hills, valleys and other obstacles can present during a days work. So the next time you come across one of these unique aircraft diving and swooping around a field or pasture, remember that there’s a lot of technology and science along with a lot of skill going on up there.