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Ag News Roundup – 9/2

September 2nd, 2011 by Anna Agnew

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Natural Disasters: #AgChat’s discussion this week centered around preparation and recovery techniques for droughts, floods, tornados and hurricanes. The online conversation was filled with tips about emergency disaster plans, insurance policies, animal safety and business continuity procedures.

Corn Commentary: The National Corn Grower’s Association (NCGA) blog features posts about crop conditions, biofuels, corn yields and commodity prices. Visit their website, like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter to keep up with the latest posts.

Ag Beat: Agri-Pulse offers weekly reports on agriculture and rural policy news – covering all sides of the food, fiber, fuel and feed industries and how new policy decisions will affect farmers and producers. Don’t miss a beat! Connect with Agri-Pulse on Twitter or Facebook.

Daily Dose of Dairy: The DairyLine daily broadcast features segments on futures reports, feed costs, harvest data and national crop news. Recently, the daily radio program also incorporated a “reproductive moment” series including heifer breeding advice, best practices and potential reproductive problems.

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Ag News Roundup – 8/19

August 19th, 2011 by Anna Agnew

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Mobile Technologies in Agriculture: This week’s #AgChat covered smartphones, tablets, device durability, app reviews and QR codes. Find #AgChat on Twitter to suggest future topics and see what’s in store for next week’s discussion.

The Voice of Agriculture: The American Farm Bureau Federation’s website is packed with information, news, legislative updates, podcasts and much more. Make sure to check out the AgBites newsroom videos as well as the FBlog, written by members of the national Young Farmers & Ranchers program.

Udderly Helpful: The National Mastitis Council (NMC) is a non-profit professional organization focused on reducing mastitis and improving milk quality through research about udder health, milking management and milk safety. Connect with the NMC on Twitter or LinkedIn to get the latest news, research and policy updates.

DairyCast: Subscribe or just listen in on these bi-weekly podcasts covering the latest dairy and agriculture news. Podcast topics include the effects of heat stress, creating a dairy herd management team, nutrition for maximum productivity, consumer relations and more.

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Ag News Roundup – 7/8/11

July 8th, 2011 by Anna Agnew

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Families: This week’s ag chat was centered around dealing with farm and ranch family relationships. Discussion ranged from handling difficult family conversations, managing the next generation, making working together as a family fun, and successful planning tools.

Watch Us Grow: To help consumers better understand family farms, Illinois Farm Families is providing an opportunity for moms to participate in their Family-to-Family Farm Tours. These tours will help the moms learn more about farming operations and how safe and healthy food is produced for their families. Check out their fully interactive website to sign up for the tours or to learn more about family farming.

Discover Your Social Web: The Ohio Farm Bureau has updated their social media guide, providing both beginners and advanced agvocates with the necessary tools to utilize social media to its full potential. Their short and user-friendly tutorials cover Facebook, Twitter and location-based social media.

Produce More, Conserve More: In their most recent blog post, Monsanto discussed the Gothenburg Learning Center – their 324-acre research farm located in Gothenburg, Neb. The learning center showcases how systems-based agriculture practices can work to improve conservation in all aspects of farming operations – including how farmers can improve their yields and reduce inputs while managing drought.

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Ag News Roundup – 6/24/11

June 24th, 2011 by Anna Agnew

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat  – Moms Know Best: Led by four social media marketing moms, the latest ag chat included a diverse range of discussion regarding farmers markets, food labels, modern ag practices, animal welfare and more.

“Ag”tually…: NBC 12 news in Virginia interviewed Chris and Jennie Simms on how they and other agriculture agvocates are using social media to spread the positive message of agriculture. Their family blog contains ag news, pictures, recipes and videos.

Agriculture’s Future Starts Today: The CropLife Ambassador Network works to educate and excite the next generation about agriculture by bringing free speakers to 4th through 6th grade classrooms to talk about modern American farming. Their website is loaded with great educational resources for moms, teachers and industry professionals.

Farm-N-Wife: This Midwestern farm wife is not only using social media to be the voice for agriculture, she is also using her blog to help other ag professionals use social media. Her blog includes a “featured farmer,” tips for taking flattering farm photos, video editing and uploading tools, farm stories, fun contests and more.

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Ag News Roundup – 6/10/11

June 10th, 2011 by Anna Agnew

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Blogging: Topics in this week’s ag chat included tips and tricks to running a successful blog. Discussion ranged from finding the time to blog, brainstorming interesting topics, how to effectively connect with readers, picking relevant keywords and designing the layout.

Virtual Dairy Farm: Attendees of the upcoming World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. this October will have the chance to visit eight dairy farms across the U.S. without ever leaving the building. These free 30-minute tours will cover general operation information, highlights of exceptional management practices and allow time for questions and discussion at the end.

Brush Up on the Basics: The National Corn Grower’s Association will feature a webinar on June 16 that will provide a social media and agriculture recap as well as review the basics of blog commenting, Facebook and Twitter. The webinar will cover best practices, case studies and some of the top ag social media sites.

The Future of Food: The Prince of Wales recently visited Washington D.C. to discuss the agriculture industry at the Future of Food conference. Monsanto’s recent blog post details the conversations and what the future holds for the agriculture and food industries.

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Ag News Roundup – 5/27/11

May 27th, 2011 by Courtney Beck

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Open Questions about Agriculture, Farming and Ranching: This week’s #AgChat was an open-ended discussion. Participants discussed a diverse list of topics including the pros and cons of land preservation policies, health insurance options for farms, trusted sources for information and how the current weather is affecting farming practices and decision-making.

Farmgate: Stu Ellis, formerly with the University of Illinois Extension, is the editor of the Farmgate blog, where he discusses a variety of farming and agriculture-related topics including crop and animal sciences, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering and agricultural policy.

The Kindness of Strangers: In the latest Monsanto blog post, the FFA chapter from Monmouth, Ill. was showcased for their extraordinary use of their $2,500 grant from Monsanto.

Turning a New Leaf: Halifax County Agriculture in Virginia is turning to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to connect with producers and consumers. Read why they decided to make this important step.

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Ag News Roundup – 5/13/11

May 13th, 2011 by Courtney Beck

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat – Farm Policy and 2012 Farm Bill: Topics in this week’s #AgChat included how to revamp/replace existing programs that don’t work without risking loss of funding altogether, the role of Extension in ag research, core ag policies that need to change, and direct payments/price supports vs. margin insurance in today’s environment.

Atwitter With Twitter: Trevor Herrle-Braun, a farmer in Canada, shares why he uses Twitter to connect with his customers directly – bridging the gap between rural and urban.

United We Eat: Miss the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s Stakeholder Summit last week? Catch up by reading the Tweets as recorded by Truffle Media on the summit’s theme “United We Eat: Securing Animal Agriculture’s Future.”

Food Demand Rises: According to Monsanto, an increasing demand for food means that farmers worldwide will need to use a variety of agricultural practices – including agronomics, breeding and biotechnology – to reach that goal.

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Ag News Roundup – 4/29/11

April 29th, 2011 by Courtney Beck

What’s new in social media? In this blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat  - New Tech Tips and Tricks: Topics in this week’s ag chat included favorite Twitter tools, recommended ag-related apps for smartphones, tech-related conferences and tablet vs. laptop discussions.

Life on a Dairy Farm: The Dairy Mom, written by Brenda Hastings, is about life on her family’s dairy farm in northeastern Ohio. Her blog includes information on animal care, dairy facts, ag tips and more!

Earth Day Recap: A recent Monsanto blog explores how Earth Day has grown in importance and presence over the years.

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Ag News Roundup — 4/15/11

April 15th, 2011 by Courtney Beck

What’s the buzz in social media? In this new blog feature, we’re rounding up the latest social media news that’s impacting the agriculture industry.

#AgChat  - International Trade: Participants in this week’s #AgChat discussed how free trade agreements affect family farmers, the elimination of farm subsidies and international agricultural trade success stories.

Diving into Social Media: Emily Webel has a blog called Confessions of a Farm Wife. She talks about life on the farm and blogs her way through all of the seasons!

How Much Technology is Too Much?: How do others balance social media, face-to-face conversation and working on the farm? When does it get to be too much?

Facebook is Big Dog in Social Networking: According to AgWired, Facebook is the big dog in the social media world, followed by Twitter and YouTube.

Food in the News: Food is a hot topic in the news lately, and the most recent Monsanto blog post covers remarks by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack about what the U.S. government’s role should be in agriculture.

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Can Social Media Have a Tangible Impact on Agriculture?

April 7th, 2011 by Courtney Beck

On the heels of South by Southwest’s panel entitled “How Farmers Get Serious Business Done With Mobile”, we’re taking a look at how the expansion of social media has affected the agriculture business.

According to a recent Forbes article, farmers are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to share everything from crop reports to weather conditions.

But what does social media have to do with the bottom line of farming?

It turns out Twitter may have the power to impact the price of corn as well, according to a recent story by CNBC.

CNBC reports that it’s not just the producers that are part of the conversation.

“A lot of time farmers are talking to other farmers and I’m sitting there listening,” says Thomas Elwood, aka @cornbroker, who trades corn and other grains on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. ‘Twitter is kind of like a big coffee house,’ he said.

To grains traders looking for any kind of edge in the markets, Twitter has become a game-changer. Whereas agricultural brokers and traders once spent hours conducting telephone surveys with farmers or embarking on so-called windshield surveys, in which they drove down Interstate 80 during harvest season to eyeball crops, they can now gather real-time updates on planting intentions and yields on Twitter.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up and see where social media can take your business.

And when you do, don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter!

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