Domestic Fuel

The latest ZimmPoll results are in. So your answer to the question, “When will planting season start this year?” is as follows: 37 percent say later than average, 36 percent say at the five year average (late March) and 27 percent say sooner than average. I’m guessing that some of those “sooner” folks are already out in the field!

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How will Japan disaster affect US exports?” Our hearts go out to the people in Japan by the way. It is a disaster of monumental proportions. There are many organizations providing assistance and we hope you’ll support them. Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It looks like Facebook is the big dog in the social media world according to you. Our last ZimmPoll asked the question, “Which social network do you use the most.” A majority say Facebook, 64%, followed by Twitter, 16%, YouTube, 8%, Linkedin, 5%, Other, 5%, Classmates.com, 1%, Flickr, !% and MySpace, 0%. I can’t remember when I’ve checked my MySpace account either.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “When will planting season start this year?” It’s that time now that we’re in National Ag Week with spring just around the corner! Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It sure looks like we have a long way to go to help educate the general public on GMO’s! In answer to the question, “How much do you think the public understands about GMO crops?” an overwhelming 70 % say Majority know nothing. Wow. Only 22% or our readers say Some think they know. Only 4 % say People totally understand and 4 % say Most are well informed. This sure seems to suggest that there’s a real disconnect between consumers and science, at least in the minds of our readers. What do you think?

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What social network do you use most?” Let us know and thanks for participating!

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

I thought we’d have a little fun with our latest ZimmPoll just to see what people really think about the nature of what many of our readers do – agrimarketing. I got a lot of comments like “I’ve never considered that it isn’t.” However, I was curious if we’d have any no votes and we did!

So the question was, “Is agricultural marketing and communications a profession?” 89% say yes and 11% say no. If you voted no I’d love to know why. Feel free to post a comment here.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and we’d love your thoughts on a topic that is generating a lot of interest again lately. “How much do you think the public understands about GMO crops?” I would prefer to call it biotech or GM crops but most media seem to like the GMO designation. For example, look at a poll going on over at MSNBC Health that’s asking the question: “Do you believe genetically modified foods should be labeled?” What’s interesting is not the question and answers but the over 1,000 comments so far. Some are extremely vicious. Let’s know what you think and thanks for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been conducting the ZimmPoll for almost 3 months now! We’re always looking for question ideas so please feel free to use comments here to suggest one or just email me. These polls are all archived so that you can easily review them anytime by clicking on the ZimmPoll Category. Over time they will become a good historical resource and we can’t thank Rhea + Kaiser enough for helping make it possible.

In the last couple weeks we’ve been very involved in two of the main biofuels events of the year, the National Biodiesel Conference and National Ethanol Conference. Last week’s question was very timely and received the most activity of any ZimmPoll to date.

We asked the question, “Which biofuel feedstock do you think has best future?” This is a very important question that is hotly debated and the answer will have a major impact in the biofuels industry and agribusiness as well. So what did you say? Energy Crops (Switchgrass, etc.) received the most votes at 26% followed by, Waste Material 24%, Corn 23%, Other 13%, Woody Biomass 10% and Soybean 4%. I really would not have predicted these results. If you clicked on “Other” what was on your mind? Something yet to be discovered? Feel free to post your comments.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Is agricultural marketing and communications a profession?” Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

When it comes to smartphone platforms our audience is using a mix with iPhone/Android/Blackberry on top. According to our poll 32% say they use iPhone, 32% are using Android, 28 % are using Blackberry and way back we have 5% saying Other and only 3% saying Windows. Interesting and I think we’ll have to ask this question again later this year since there are going to be a lot of changes in mobile phone carrier systems and phones. So, does this surprise you? About what you expected?

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks a question we hope our Domestic Fuel readers will like, “What biofuel feedstock do you think has best future?” Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It looks like there's a very high expectation among our various audiences that commodity prices will go higher. You haven't sold all of last year's soybeans have you! We asked the question, "Will commodity prices be higher or lower a year from now?" Overwhelmingly, 70% said higher while 21% said about the same and only 9% lower.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, "What smartphone platform do you use" The Apple iPhone is now available from Verizon. I wonder if this will change things. Let us know and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked our farming readers about tillage practices with the question, “Which tillage practice do you employ on most of your farming operation.” It looks like No-Till is the winner with 24%, followed by Conventional at 21%, Other at 9% and Strip-Till at 6%.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Will commodity prices be higher or lower a year from now??” Let us know and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

We had the most results of any ZimmPoll so far with the question: “What does “sustainability” really mean to the public?” By a big margin, most say “A combination of factors” at 47%. That’s followed by “Farm managed for profit/growth,” 25%; “green,” 13%; “organic,” 10% and “local,” 5%. So I think it’s safe to say that sustainability is not understood to mean any one thing and probably within the ag community as well as the general public. For this reason I don’t see how we can expect people to agree on a definition much less use this word to create meaningful legislation. Your thoughts?

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question of our farm readers, “Which tillage practice do you employ on most of your farming operation?” Let us know and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

The results are in for the latest ZimmPoll. The question: “What do you think about the number of farm groups?” Our readers are not shy about letting us know their opinions and we appreciate that. The results: 33% say there are too many, 28% say the more the merrier, 25% say some are not needed but most are and 14% say there are just enough for everyone to have a voice. What do you think? Got a different answer? One thing is for sure. When it comes to energy and policy agriculture is right in the middle of it and various farm groups provide farmers with a voice to represent them on the issues.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What does “sustainability” really mean to the public? This ought to be interesting. Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It should be an interesting year in the biofuels debate. The response to our latest poll shows some pretty divided results which might make it interesting to see how Congress handles things after hearing from their constituents. In answer to the question “What do you think will happen with biofuels policy this year?” Our results are that 38% say there will be another one year extension of the tax incentive, 22% say there will be new incentives for infrastructure, 20% say there will be no federal biofuels incentives, 14% say there will be a multiple year extension and 6% chose other. If you chose other then feel free to comment with what you think will happen.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What do you think about the number of farm groups? Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What do you think will have the biggest influence on ag in 2011?” Here are the results. Most respondents (40%) think weather patterns will have the biggest influence. Other responses include: general U.S. economy (24%); new Republican leadership in House (13%); farm bill (10%); other (10%) and company consolidation (3%). So if you selected other as an answer or have another choice to answer this please submit it in comments.

The new poll is now live and should be of special interest to Domestic Fuel readers. The question is, “What do you think will happen with biofuels policy this year?” The lame duck session of Congress passed a one year extension of the ethanol and biodiesel tax credits. How do you think this will fare with a new Congress? We look forward to your responses.

Remember, you can submit your questions for us to pose and add your feedback anytime by using the comment feature.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

It looks like agriculture has a ways to go to change public perceptions according to our latest ZimmPoll. In answer to the question, “Do you think the general consumer perception of agriculture changed in 2010?” 43% say “No it didn’t really change,” while 30% say “Yes, it got worse,” and 27% said “Yes, it improved.” Where do you fall in those categories? That’s 73% of our respondents who think it didn’t change or got worse. Sounds like we really do need some campaigns to reach out to consumers doesn’t it?

The new poll is now live and the question is, “What do you think will have the biggest influence on ag in 2011?” There are no doubt many factors that will have an influence. We’ve picked a couple. When I post the results next week you can add any others you’d like to the discussion.

Remember, you can submit your questions for us to pose and add your feedback anytime by using the comment feature.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

Here are the results of our latest ZimmPoll. In answer to the question, “Do you participate in social media?” the majority say they do. According to the numbers, 53% say yes and they post regularly, 28% say yes but they rarely create their own posts, 27% say no and they never will and only 1% say no but plan to start participating soon. Thanks to all our poll takers. Quite a few more did in our second week!

It is possible, as has been pointed out to me, that our results might be skewed slightly since so much of this particular poll question is being seen by those who already participate in social media. I can see that. However, we have a lot of website visitors who I’m sure are not yet social media savvy. If you’re not then I recommend you get started. For motivation, you might consider getting on Twitter and participating in the weekly BioChat session each Wed. at 7pm ET. It will start back up after a holiday break in January.

The new poll is now live and the question is, “Do you think the general consumer perception of agriculture changed in 2010?” This should resonate since the whole topic of consumer perception of farming is so top of mind right now. In fact, it has given rise to new agricultural organization efforts like the USFRA and of course it is one of the goals of the AgChat Foundation to help consumers better understand where their food comes from and who is producing it and how. Can’t wait to see the results from this one!

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

The results of the first ZimmPoll are in. The question was “How do you think agricultural interests will fare in the new Farm Bill?” We thought we’d give you an easy one to start. The results were pretty well mixed with “Too early to tell” getting the most votes. You can add your comments about the question or the results using the comment feature at the top of the post. Feel free to let us know what you think.

Our first poll had participation from 5 countries including 25 states in the U.S. The top ten states with participants were IL, CA, VA, IN, NJ, TX, KS, MO, NY and SD. Thanks to all of you.


The new poll is now live and the question is, “Do you participate in social media?” Social media consists of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, podcasts and a whole variety of other services. Let us know by taking the poll and next week we’ll post the results and you can add your comments add feedback at that time. Feel free to suggest questions for our poll anytime too.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.