Since we made the change in our AgWired Mobile service this week by working with Joel Jaeger at Commodity Update I thought I’d get him on the phone to find out how things are going in the text messaging world and discuss these new media communications platforms we’ve been developing.
There is a growing amount of data from public sources like USDA-NASS to private (Nicholson Kovac, Successful Farming) that shows how fast the adoption of web based social and new media and mobile phone technology is among farmers. This means that companies and their ad agencies are scrambling to take advantage of the low cost investment in mechanisms that let them communicate directly with their customers and members. I’m betting that agribusiness still shows a lower rate of social media adoption than the general public but that gap is narrowing in my opinion. According to a post on Mashable, 2/3 of marketers now use social media in some capacity. The few who still aren’t don’t cite that they see a lack of value in social media but rather that they don’t know where to begin or how to measure effectiveness. This according to a story on eMarketer. Ahh, that measurable effectiveness thing. I just wonder how marketers measure the effectiveness of any campaign, including ones that use traditional media options. Do you know? I don’t believe that “impressions” necessarily means anything. I’d rather know how much product I sold as a result of my marketing investment. How are you measuring that? Are you measuring that?
So, listen to my conversation with Joel as we kind of ramble along about these subjects and bring up some anecdotes from our own experiences.
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If you’re going to the Farm Progress Show and you have never participated in 
That was my take away from a meeting I attended this week in Washington, IA to gather some audio, photos and video for our friends at 
But genetics can only do so much and the rest is up to the producer. Cliff Jones with PIC’s tech services says they work with producers to help them achieve the maximum genetic potential from their animals with the proper care and he gave the producers in Washington an abbreviated version of PIC’s Farm Managers Boot Camp that they sponsor. “The key focus point is just to pay attention to the pigs,” Cliff says. 
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• Create a backup of your spring information.
We’re making a major change to our 
The Gateway NAMA board met yesterday for some program/membership planning. I’m waiting on a summary of what we accomplished to help with member communications. I can tell you that we’ve been pretty inactive but with some fresh talent in leadership hopefully we’ll change that around this coming year. We’re looking at a mix of fun and educational sessions that will be of interest to all members.
Do you understand things like indirect land use when it comes to regulations via departments like the EPA due to the RFS? Me either. And I’ve sat in on conferences and discussions and interviews on the subject for a while now. That’s because an issue like indirect land use involves predicting the future based on certain assumptions that may or may not be valid, especially if they’re based on out of date data and information. So that’s part of what the NCGA is dealing with at their