Planting your Social Media Seeds 

Social media and agriculture are gaining ground. As few as 10 years ago, social media was unheard of among ranchers, farmers and the agricultural community. Today, it is used for communication among farmers everywhere and as a way of obtaining news about the industry. Approximately 99% of ranchers and farmers have Internet access and use it – three-fours of this percentage have a Facebook account. Technology has advanced and social medial is connecting people with ideas and methods that benefit farming and agriculture. 

So, in what way is the combination of social media and agriculture providing a valuable asset for farmers and ranchers? Here are a few of the ways: 

• Providing a variety of networks and communities that respond swiftly to requests for information as well as emergency issues
• The ability to learn from other ranchers, farmers and agricultural associates and share information
• Educating those who are not in the farming business
• Allowing the sharing of positive information by agriculturalists
• Marketing of ranch and farm products
• Consumer interaction and communication
• Broadening the scope of farmers on a local level

Ranchers and farmers can now connect with people that they never would have had the chance to connect with in the past. This helps them to learn from others. Ideas about improving farm operations can be shared. It can also help them to find solutions to problems that they are experiencing.The following are the top 10 Twitter sites to follow for helpful information about agriculture:  

1. AgChat Foundation – Board of Directors
2. AgChat Foundation – The Advisory Board
3. Row Crop Farmers
4. Ag Media List
5. Folks from ACFC10
6. Advocate List
7. Ag Media Summit
8. Ag Media list
9. Ag Bloggers
10. Ag Women

Facebook is getting in on the social media and agricultural venues as well. They are using the sites for sharing news on the industry and as a selling tool for their products. Here are two that are becoming well-known on Facebook. 

• Ohio Farmers Feed US
• Three Sisters Garden

As social media and agriculture become more popular, I believe more and more people will be using the sites in a countless ways to improve their farming businesses.

How to Stay in the Feed

Farmers are turning to new agriculture and social media tools for information, sharing ideas with each other and even the products they need. The best part – the apps can be used anywhere – even when the farmers are in the field. All it takes is a smart phone.  Android, Blackberry and iPhones are becoming as important as the farming equipment that is being taken into the fields.

Providing information about the weather, soil management or sharing news with other farmers, the new agricultural and social media tools are being developed by a number of companies. Agri ImaGIS Technologies in Fargo, North Dakota is a family owned business that has developed software for smart phones and iPads. Basically turning the tractor into a business on wheels, users can buy and sell items using the apps or they can use them for problem solving. Resulting in an increase in productivity as well as providing information for a variety of needs, the apps are bringing farms into the world of technology.

Currently there are a number of agriculture and social media apps available and many are free to download. For example, Common Diseases of Farm Animal is one. This app contains information on disease among farm animals – parasitic, surgical and infectious diseases – as well as determining the age of animals. This is available for the Android.

Another agriculture and social media app that is available for iPhone and Android users  is the NPIPM Soybean Guide. This is a free app that provides information on options for managing insect and arthropod pests that can affect soybeans being grown in Kansa, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Currently a majority of the agricultural and social media apps that are available are Windows-based; however, this is an expanding field and applications are being developed frequently. Agriculture is rapidly joining the digital information age. Many fourth and fifth generation farmers have grown up in the digital age and computers and technology are tools that can provide a wealth of information.