Indiana Grain Company, LLC

Posted: 03/06/11

By: tomgrisafi

Two years ago I found myself seated at the governor's ballroom at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Virgina as USDA Chief Tom Vilsack addressed the opportunities and challenges facing US agriculture in the years ahead.

Throughout the presentation, I found myself routinely referring back to my iPhone, not only to keep tabs on the market and manage positions through my T4 Mobile, but also to monitor my growing Twitter stream. Few in attendance that day would likely have believed that just two years later, it would be Vilsack talking about social media as farmers and traders now look to social media for the latest real-time news and insights that impact our respective industries.

According to comments made by Secretary Vilsack last week, the USDA is "trying to increase our outreach and use social networking." But while the USDA may be slightly behind the curve when it comes to Twitter, a growing contingency of US farmers aren't. It's something we see on a daily basis at Indiana Grain, as our twitter stream lights up with comments and observations from the trusted ag professionals we've come to know since early in 2009.

Incredibly, the American Farm Bureau’s 2010 Young Farmers and Ranchers Survey shows that nearly 98 percent of farmers and ranchers between the ages of 18 to 35 now have access to and use the Internet. That sobering fact certainly clears up a common misconception. Nearly 10 percent of those farmers actively use social media and Twitter in particular. Over time, that percentage seems poised to explode exponentially.

As we've seen at Indiana Grain, farmers have every bit as much to gain from the use of Twitter as traders do. The most simplistic and obvious reason farmers like Twitter is because it provides quick, responsive networks and communities pertinent to farm use and other important emerging issues. But the business advantage for farmers is that Titter puts them into direct contact with their target audience, whether it be other farmers, consumers, business suppliers or customers. Another advantage of social media for ag producers is that they can select and narrow their market using those social media tools. It can allow a producer to technologically be at two places at one time.

Sitting back and watching as the USDA finally embraces with open arms the power of social media, it is fascinating to consider what the coming years will bring as contemporary 21st century farming grows closer than ever to the social media platforms that are uniting us all.