There’s some new qualitative research available on the National Association of Farm Broadcasters website. A lot of research is being done these days by various media entities as groups try to figure out what’s really going on and how it’s going to affect their future. You can look at some slides from the research here. The survey was on Class 1+ farmers only and only in 12 midwest states. I wish it could have covered the whole country and included regional breakouts. But if wishes were . . . The research was conducted by Ag Media Research. It would be interesting to see all the cross tabs because the slides raise almost more questions than they answer.

It looks like younger people are becoming more involved in what’s going on at the farm. If I read the data right there are more people under the age of 40 making decisions than over the age of 40! I also thought it was interesting that they asked about listening to audio on the internet. The study says that “only” 20 percent say they listen to audio off the internet. I’d like to know what that percentage was 5 years ago! I’d also like to know what the percentages are by age group. My guess without more data is that the number is rising and with an increase in younger people making decisions on the farm it will continue to grow. Probably the percentage is higher in the younger age groups than the older.

Another interesting bit of information concerns internet access. According to the results over three fourths of farmers have access with almost 25% saying they have high speed. I’m sure that’s up significantly in the last couple years. With all USDA has been doing to promote and fund rural high speed access I’m sure it’s going to continue to grow. The graphic shows that over 13% say they have it but don’t use it. What it doesn’t say is who’s answering that question and what about all the other people in the household since the study makes a point of showing the increase in the number of people in farm households.

I am glad to see that farmers still consider farm radio very important! The majority listen to more than one radio station and with the young farmers over 40 percent listen to 3 to 6 stations in a day! This is a significant difference from the older farmers and I wonder what the cause is. Not mentioned at all is satellite radio and whether any of the stations listened to are satellite versus regular broadcast. The fact is that radio continues to be an effective vehicle to reach farmers because of its portability and the information needs of farmers only continues to grow.

By the way, registration is also now available online for the fall NAFB Convention.