Telling the agriculture story in the social media age

Keeping Up

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn.

Chances are you’ve at least heard of these terms. They are all part of the rapidly growing social media network – the set of free online tools that allow the building of relationships between individuals sharing interests, information and ideas.

But why should farmers and ranchers care? Why should producers take the time to log on to social media? It’s pretty simple: social networking sites offer the opportunity to reach millions of people with just a few clicks. These are tools that aren’t just for teenagers or the tech savvy anymore. Social media has become mainstream – a place where the agriculture voice is not always heard.

“Social media offers us the ability to reach the 99 percent of the population that isn’t in production agriculture,” said Debbie Borg, chairman of the Nebraska Soybean Association who farms with her family near Allen, Neb. “When people understand why we do what we do, they are okay with it. But if they don’t know, then all they hear is the other side.”

Borg joined Twitter in March 2009 (user name @iamafarmer2) she’s on Facebook and has a blog (www.ouragstory.blogspot.com). She Tweets about the daily happenings on the farm to followers from around the country.

“The consumer is so removed from the farmer that there is a growing awareness of wanting to know more about their food,” Borg said. “It’s become very obvious that we in agriculture must start talking with those outside our neighborhoods. Social media is a great way to reach more people with things we do on the farm everyday. If I can educate just one person a day, that’s one more person who knows the truth.”

It might start with educating just one person, but the numbers and breadth of social media are impressive and still growing.

Facebook, the popular social networking Web site, allows friends, classmates, colleagues and others to connect and share photos, messages and information about their lives with people in their network. It has more than 350 million users, and if it were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world, according to Nielsen Co.

The newcomer in social networks, Twitter, is a cross between text messaging and blogging, where users are prompted to answer the question, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. The site has grown 200 percent in the past year and estimates more than 26 million users in 2010.

Video sharing Web site YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world and uploads 13 hours of video every minute of every day.

All of these networks and others can be linked together and even carried with you on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Driod to keep you constantly connected and updated.

“Social media allows us the opportunity to tell our story from the comfort of our own operations instead of having to leave our businesses and travel to speak to the public,” said Lincolnville, Kan., rancher, Kim Harms. “In essence, social media outlets allow us to invite the public into our lives, homes, families and businesses to see the truth – not just hear others opinions.”

Fruitful Plains

A mouth watering look at Kansas grown produce.

For someMidwest farmers agriculture is not about amber waves of grain, but rather the fruitful plains.

Nestled near the Kansas River just east of Topeka is a fruit farm with roots deeper than the apple trees they grow. The sole survivor of an area that once bustled with fruit and vegetable production, Rees Fruit Farm has more than 100 years of experience under their belt and is still going strong.

“As long as there have been Kansas farms, there have been Kansas orchards,” says Rex Rees who owns and operates the farm with his wife, Shannon. “It has its challenges but you just have to find a way to adapt.”

Their farm consists of roughly 5,000 fruit trees including 19 varieties of apples and 14 varieties of peaches. Cherries, grapes, tomatoes, asparagus, pumpkins, blackberries and a plethora of other fresh produce and goods can be found in the Rees Fruit Farm market.

The establishment is also home to award winning apple cider and the original Sweet Apple Cider Slush, a trademark of Rees Fruit Farm that continues to be a top seller.

How did the farm keep going through the years when other didn’t? Rex says it was a combination of things—including luck. “We’ve always had a retail market” he says. “We have a good location; close to the city but on a side that is less developed. The land isn’t so valuable that we can still afford to farm it.” Another key ingredient to success: satisfied customers. “We’re always trying new things to keep up with trends, and keep people coming back.”

Growing fruits and vegetables in the Midwest is not always easy. Like every farm, they must deal with what they’re dealt and in some years that means turbulent growing conditions. High temperatures, low temperatures, humidity, insects, disease; it’s not the most ideal place to grow—but it works.  “The thing about locally grown produce is that it doesn’t look like what you get at the grocery store, but the taste is so much better,” Rex says. “Our tomatoes may not be identical and flawless, but they taste delicious and that’s what matters most.”

Consumers craving locally grown produce are seeking out fresh fruit stands and farmers markets like never before to have a taste. In 1987 (the first year markets were surveyed) Kansas was home to 26 farmers markets. Today that number has almost tripled to the current census of 80 markets statewide.

2009 Kansas Agriculture Outlook

Let’s Play A Game

“You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” These well known lyrics of Kenny Rogers, The Gambler don’t just apply to a game of cards anymore.

As producers look down the road to 2009 a lot of questions come to mind. Hold out for better prices or take the money and run? The stakes are high and the winnings are uncertain.

But every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser – it’s all in how you play your cards. Before laying your chips on the table, consider the inside advice of Kansas agriculture leaders.

Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, Adrian Polansky sees 2009 as a year with challenges that will push for sound decision making. “One area we really need to focus on is risk management,” Polansky said. “For production agriculture the volatility that we’ve seen on the input side whether it’s diesel fuel, fertilizer or other inputs; it appears that we are likely to continue to experience volatility. There will certainly be some market dynamics that we will have to pay attention to in order to be successful.”

Polansky also mentions the uncertainty that lies ahead with a new administration on the federal level. “There is certainly interest in some of the critical appointments, we also have much of the Farm Bill yet to be worked through and there are still many unanswered questions in regard to how the Farm Bill will be delivered, which is very significant to all producers.”

In terms of crop agriculture decisions, Polansky says that policy in terms of biofuels could have significant impact on potential profitability. “For agriculture and the rural economy it’s important that we work towards policy decisions to enhance biofuels and bio-refineries that have positive impact.”

King Cotton Slipping In Acreage

No longer walking in “High Cotton”

Cotton acreage in Mississippi is projected to plummet almost 50 percent from last year to a record-low level and agricultural experts say farmers will continue to turn away from the crop until market prices significantly improve.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest forecast predicts the state’s cotton acreage this year is 360,000 acres, down from 655,000 in 2007.

Louisiana’s cotton harvest is projected to fall to 285,000 acres in 2008, down from 330,000 in 2007, while the harvest in Arkansas is estimated to drop from 850,000 acres to 640,000 this year. Alabama’s cotton harvest is projected to fall from 385,000 acres in 2007 to 285,000 this year, and Tennessee is expected to see acreage drop from 510,000 in 2007 to 280,000 this year.

But before farmers get to planting next year’s crop, many of them are dealing with low harvests this year.

Farmers in Louisiana lost about half the crop there to damage from hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Crop losses were so severe that some cotton gins won’t open to process cotton this year, according to reports.

United States Department of Agriculture officials say that cotton acreage estimates are the lowest since 1983, according to reports.

Expected crop yield estimates for this year’s harvest in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Oklahoma have declined from earlier estimates.

It wasn’t all bad news though, because expected crop yield estimates were increased for California, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico and South Carolina.

Ag Career Resources

Let the hunt begin!

My quest to find a big kid job in “the real world” following my May 2009 graduation is officially underway. As I rummage through the internet looking for potential job opportunities I have come across a heap of Web sites that our devoted solely to ag job placement. I’ve compiled the list below in hopes that it can assist fellow job seekers.

The latest and dare I say greatest resource is www.agjobnetwork.com.

This site is “An interconnected energetic community of people that support each other by informing us about employment opportunities – and making recommendations about great trends in the agricultural workforce.”

Here you can join the community, create a profile, see a wide variety of agriculture jobs and even communicate with professionals and other job seekers! This site is continuously expanding and bursts with opportunities. Check it out!

Other useful site:

AgCareers.com

Ag1Source

AgriSeek

AgraPlacements

AgriScape

Hansen Agri-Placement

Landis Ag Consulting

Agri Careers Inc.

Happy Job Hunting To All!

Ag Talk Online Forum

Talk The Ag Talk

“A place were intelligent people meet,” is how one New Ag Talk user describes this on-line agriculture forum. Producers, researchers, business people and anyone with a question, concern, thought or suggestion for anything in production agriculture can say what is on their mind. Featured categories include crops, livestock, markets, precision equipment, computers and a multitude of hot button and slightly random topics in the open forum. This bustling site is free to use, but does accept donations to keep operating.

Users can create a profile, post and respond to other posts from production agriculture people from around the country and even the world.

Even if you don’t want to post yourself I highly encourage checking out the site to see what the Ag Talk is all about.

http://newagtalk.com/

Send it on down the line

Mounds Of Once Golden Grain Remain On The Ground

Grain elevators around the country are surrounded by mounds, piles and bunkers full of grain still waiting to be shipped out by rail, and a surprisingly large harvest this fall is expected to test the system even further. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that farmers will produce the second-largest corn crop and fourth-largest soybean crop in history.

Some agribusiness groups worry that the bottlenecks could hurt the United States’ standing as a world food provider as other nations, such as Brazil and Argentina, compete for a lucrative share of the market.

The following is a story by the Associate Press about this exporting bottleneck.

Consumers Favor Biodiesel In Survey Results

Survey Shows Consumers Back Farmers and Biodiesel

A recent nationwide survey conducted by the United Soybean Board (USB) and soybean checkoff revealed that U.S. consumers strongly back U.S. soybean farmers and biodiesel.The “National Agriculture Image Survey” indicated 82% of consumers agree foreign oil-producing countries and the high cost of fuel impacting farming and processing, packaging, storing and shipping food are to blame for food price increases, not U.S. farmers.

Other key findings show:

• 77% of consumers favor the use of biodiesel as a source of energy that can meet our needs in the next 5-10 years.
• 74% of consumers were more favorable toward biodiesel after hearing it benefits the environment.
• 70% of consumers were more favorable toward biodiesel after hearing it’s a new green industry that creates jobs.
• 89% of consumers expressed a favorable image of U.S. farmers. Only 7% responded unfavorably and the other 4 % had no opinion.

“Bet The Farm”

“Bet The Farm” Online Game

Want to put your farming knowledge and decision making skills to the test? (Or if you just happen to have some spare time). Check out the educational “Bet The Farm” game.

In the game you are the farmer who makes the decisions about what to raise, how to mange it and how to market the bounty of your land. The goal is to be profitable in spite of the unpredictable weather, market prices and other uncontrollable events.

Give it a try.

Bet The Farm

What’s Driving Food Prices? (not only ethanol)

Ag Economists Analyze High Commodity And Food Prices

In case you haven’t heard, food prices are going up. Go ahead… protest, panic, point fingers. It’s that evil ethanol industry that’s doing this afterall, how dare they use corn to make fuel, taking away from the supply and making the grocery bill go up.

Recent studies of Purdue University ag economists show that in fact the food prices are drven by a combination of factors… not only ethanol. High oil prices, the weak dollar, world production and consumption trends all add a little ‘push’ to the price. But that’s a side of the story less often mentioned.

The following is a excerpt from the press release from Purdue University about the findings:

— In a Farm Foundation commissioned report, the Purdue economists – Phil Abbott, Chris Hurt and Wally Tyner – highlight key factors gleaned from examining 25 recent studies plus their own analysis. Their conclusion: a complex combination of factors is fueling agricultural commodity price increases and rising food costs.

 Tyner, an expert on energy and policy issues, said the price of oil is an important factor that has increased the demand for biofuels. “About $3 of the corn price increase is due to the higher oil price and $1 to the ethanol subsidy,” he said.

 As high oil prices spur demand for biofuels, the increased corn production stimulates demand for fertilizer, diesel, propane and other agricultural inputs. Prices for these inputs have also risen due to the “demand pull” from more corn being produced and subsequently the “cost push” due to the fact that petroleum products are key ingredients in many of these inputs.