Beyond the usual sounds of mooing and milking machines, the dairy industry has been making a lot of noise lately when it comes to positively sharing its story with consumers and media.
Now more than ever, it is important for everyone who touches the industry, from farmers and agribusiness professionals to nutritionists and veterinarians, to pitch in by writing op-eds for local newspapers, describing their work to friends and family, organizing meetings and more. These “agvocates” (agriculture advocates) help consumers better make the “farm to fork” connection and promote the importance of dairy to the economy, healthy diets and our farming culture.
One popular communications tool is social media, which encompasses online communications ranging from blogs to Twitter. When it comes to using social media to promote agriculture, the dairy industry is especially active. In fact, many online leaders credit dairy producers who utilize Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs as leading the way for the online agriculture community.
Online agvocacy efforts are ramped up even more than usual in June to celebrate National Dairy Month, as dairy enthusiasts share industry statistics, weather conditions in the field, information for consumers and positive stories from the farm. Even cows have joined in on the fun, tweeting live updates from their milking machines with a little help from radio frequency ID tags.
There are many resources available online to help people in the dairy industry monitor, share and participate in social media:
• Get started: More than 1,200 dairy producers, nutritionists, veterinarians and students are part of the Dairy Checkoff program myDairy, which houses information and tools to use social media to share positive dairy stories with consumers. To access the site, e-mail myDairy@rosedmi.com for more information.
• Follow along: Twitter, which allows users to share updates and links in 140 characters or less, is an easy way to follow real-time online conversations. Relevant tweets are tagged with hashtags such as #ag, #dairy, #JuneDairyMonth and #ThankAFarmer. Simply type these phrases in at www.search.twitter.com to read what dairy producers around the world are tweeting straight from the farm.
• Join in: One of the most influential groups working to promote agvocacy online is the AgChat Foundation, an offshoot of the popular weekly #AgChat Twitter conversation. Set up to educate and equip farmers with the skill sets needed to effectively engage on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media services, the Foundation is working to spread awareness, award technology scholarships and host educational workshops.
The AgChat Foundation’s first venture into social media training will kick off at its Agvocacy 2.0 Conference, slated for the end of August at the Dairy Management, Inc. facilities in Chicago. Dairymen and women, students, and others involved in the industry are invited to apply for the conference, where attendees will share their own successes and challenges, learn about new technologies, and network with agriculturalists from around the country.
The conference will be limited to 50 qualified applicants, but NutriDense Silage is excited to partner with the AgChat Foundation to send a dairy representative to the conference. We recently kicked off the NutriDense Silage Web Moo.0 contest for dairy producers, students, and agribusiness men and women to share how they use social media to promote the dairy industry. Through a YouTube video, Flickr photo slideshow, blog post or 500-words or less essay, we want to see how people in the dairy industry are using social media to support their efforts in the field, spread the word about the benefits of dairy products or help consumers better connect with dairy farmers. Click here for more information and to enter.
Happy National Dairy Month! Please do your part to spread the word about the positive aspects of dairying and its critical role in the world’s economy and food supply.
Greg Jones is the NutriDense Silage product manager for BASF Plant Science. You can contact him at gregory.jones@basf.com.
Tags: AgChat Foundation, agvocacy, Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference, corn silage, dairy feed, dairy nutritiond, Facebook, Flickr, NutriDense, NutriDense Silage Web Moo.0 Contest, Twitter, YouTube
