Earlier on this blog we wrote about our trip to Memphis and John’s memorable performance as the Honorary Duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis during the hotel’s famous Duck March. Well, we now have exclusive video of the event, posted here for the first time. Enjoy the world premiere of this fowl-length feature:

As the email accompanying this video said, “A good rhythm section is hard to find.” This appears to be a Hungarian video, according the the YouTube file information. Old tractors still have a place in this world. The band isn’t bad, either.

“Dedicated to the American Farmer.” That’s the heart of The Machine Shed restaurants located throughout the Midwest. One of the leading hospitality brands in the central U.S., The Machine Shed’s flagship property in Des Moines recently planted a small demonstration plot of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds corn. The corn stand will be a great visual addition to The Machine Shed’s visitor path, circling a scenic pond surrounded by classic farm tractors, landscaping and other “adornments” from life on the land. The Machine Shed hosts thousands of restaurant patrons every week, many from small towns and rural areas.

As you can see, Cat Wood-Penton, executive team member at the Machine Shed who is planting the seeds, took Latham’s planting instructions to heart: 30-inch rows, seeds planted 6 inches apart, 1.5″ to 2″ deep. It was a windy day that day, so the audio is a little muffled, but should still work.

We look forward to big, brilliant corn emerging this summer, showing people how Latham seeds perform.

As we launch the new Latham Hi-Tech Seeds company, a little nostalgia recounting our roots might be in order. The attached clip of our Grandma Evelyn Latham, 92, wife of our founder, the late Willard Latham, was captured several weeks ago. Here she talks about the work ethic of Willard as he was building his Latham Seed Co. from scratch back in the late 1940s. In this clip, Evelyn talks about Willard’s frustration having toiled to build an elevator, only to have the state inspectors come by and tell him it was not built high enough. The only recourse: tear it down and start all over. Which he did. It’s a great example of the perseverance needed in building a company.

 This “Today Show” piece on Twitter is a nice summary for those are still trying to figure out all the fuss about Twitter. The Twitter nation has been getting a lot of attention lately. It is really easy to get a Twitter account created and your first “tweets” started.  I would also think that farmers tweeting from their combines or from the barn or feedlot would be a lot more interesting that most people’s tweets, which are usually done from their desk or their home, focused on riveting topics such as cleaning the sink or trying to figure out which socks to wear. Twitter may go down as one of the greatest communication tools ever devised, or one of the biggest twops (that’s short for Twitter flop).

Click here if the embedded video from NBC doesnt’ appear below. 

When a video sponsored by the National Science Foundation is produced, you might not expect this. It’s a simple, entertaining look at how new gene marking and implantation processes work. Gene marking is the technology now used to bring new seed traits to market with amazing speed. Give it a look!

OK, so maybe this isn’t as advanced as the biotechnology in our Latham seed brands. But if you’ve ever wanted to play the role of a bug trying to survive, you can do it right here.  Click below to start your game of Bug on a Wire.

It’s not quite YieldGard, Agrisure or CystX, but this will give you something to do while waiting for the snow to melt and planting season to arrive.

Bill Latham of Latham Seeds was interviewed by SeedWorld, a major agricultural and commercial seed media company. Bill shared his thoughts on a variety of topics, from students entering the seed business to shifts in the demand for and roles of genetics and traits.

Click here to take a look at one of the interview installments.

To view the entire six-part series, Giant Views of the Seed Industry, click here.

Bill may have giant views, but Latham Seeds and Latham-Hi-Tech Hybrids are committed to being anything but giants. We just want to keep doing what we’re doing: being a trusted, independent, innovative partner with Midwestern farmers every day, every year.

For any of us who aren’t teenage techies or 20-something social networking geeks, the world of Facebook or Myspace may be something we’ve thought about but may have been a bit too intimidated or leery to try.

But think of it this way: If more than 70 million people like you and me are using Facebook every day, and more than 100,000 people are creating a new Facebook page every day, it can’t be THAT imposing. It’s now the world’s largest photo sharing service, with 4.1 billion photos residing on people’s Facebook pages.

A Today Show segment this morning walks you through the process on how to make a Facebook page. Kathie Lee Gifford is the student. Give it a view and see if it doesn’t show you how simple it really is.