Posts Tagged ‘Agriculture’

15 Things I Learned About California Agriculture

By Josh Lysne, December 21, 2010
The AdFarm Crew

The AdFarm Crew

Some colleagues and I were in Fresno California for a social media training session with 71 fantastic farmers on December 13th. The next day, we got the opportunity to travel around the farmland around Fresno and learn about some of the crops grown in the area.

Our tour guide for the day was Mandy Critchley, a farmer and fellow marketer in the Fresno area. She lined up a jam packed day of farm tours that…well…blew my mind. On our tour, we visited SunWest Fruit Company, Sun-Sweet Growers, Mandy’s Blueberry farm, Summerhill Dairy, Bari Olive Oil and Double E Farms.

To say the day was educational is an understatement. It’s amazing what you can learn about farming and farming practices when you take some time to talk to a farmer about it. They are so inspirationally passionate about what they do. Truly an inspiring day.

15 Things I Learned About California Agriculture

• Fresh California Cura Cura oranges are a slice of heaven.
• Oranges can stay on the tree for months without going bad.
• Dried on vine or DOV raisins have no additives or coatings. (Sun-Maid)
• Goats getting milked 2 times per day only produce 3-4 gallons of milk per day.
• Goat milk is very similar to breast milk.
• While it has lactose, goat milk has a different form of lactose which is typically ok for people that normally can’t have milk. (see your doctor first )
• Different goats have a different milk makeup. Saanens have high milk volume, Nubian has high butter fat.
• One acre of California olives produces 30-42 gallons of extra virgin olive oil.
• Olives for extra virgin olive oil must be processed within 24 hours of picking.
• Only 1% of the olive oil consumed in the United States is grown in California. (and it is fantastic)
• Canopy control for almonds is important. More light, more almonds.
• The way you canopy grapes is very different for raisin grapes, table grapes and wine grapes.  (Not totally sure why, can anyone tell me?)
• It takes at least 2 ½ bee hives per acre of almonds for pollination.
• There are 120 almond trees per acre. (at least on Double E Farms)
• It takes 5-7 years after planting a walnut tree to get a crop.

Countless things did not make the list.  It was a day which ended up in information overload to say the least. The facts are great, but I’d say my biggest takeaway of the day was the passion and pride each and every farmer we talked to had about their farm or ranch. They love the land, they love the tradition and take tremendous pride in what they do. I have more and more respect for farmers, the tough business decisions they have to make, and the agriculture industry every time I get to experience a day like this.

Josh Lysne is the Director of Digital Strategy for AdFarm.  Follow him on Twitter @jlysne.

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Happy Birthday YouTube!

By Mary-Jane Turcotte, April 8, 2010

YouTube is celebrating its 5th birthday and is stronger than ever. YouTube started as a community where people could post their homemade videos for friends and family to see. As it grew, more and more companies, community groups, politicians, etc. saw YouTube as a new way to get their message to millions of people.

Companies also saw a way to make an inexpensive “how-to” video for their clients. Instead of using traditional television commercials, some companies have chosen to sell their brand through YouTube and reach a much wider and diversified audience. Over the last five years YouTube has staked its place as not only an entertainment venue but as a learning tool as well. What will YouTube do in the next five years? The possibilities are endless! Type in AdFarm and see how we have incorporated YouTube into our online experience.

Assorted agriculture “How-to’s” on YouTube

I recently discovered a few “how-to” videos related to Agriculture. One was for The Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP). It gave me information about AALP but also showed a video that taught cost and how to apply.

Another video was called Online Social Networking for Farmers – How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business. It is a step-by-step video made by The Country Farm Club House. There are even whimsical videos demonstrating the many uses of duct tape on the farm. I tried typing in agriculture, farming, farm, agriculture growers, agriculture producers, agriculture retailers and agriculture companies. The resulting list was vast.

Try typing in your own list and explore the videos you find interesting. Whether you are looking for pure entertainment, information to help you grow the perfect crop, or how to become more technically savvy, YouTube has a video for you.

How do you incorporate YouTube into your business and personal life?

Mary-Jane Turcotte brings an eye for design to the work she does for our clients. You can contact her directly at MaryJane.Turcotte@adfarmonline.com

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The power of choice – liberating or debilitating?

By Ron Wall, April 1, 2010

diceAn article about consumer choice in the Globe and Mail’s Adhocracy column caught my attention the other day.

The article focuses on a new book called The Art of Choosing.  Author Sheena Iyengar, a professor at Columbia Business School, asks why we make the choices we do, when it comes to making a purchase. Is it science or just the luck of the draw?

In the article, Iyengar offers plenty of support for the theory that although we might think we make  well-considered choices, we really don’t. As an example, she points to the 2000 U.S. federal election. Ms Iyengar states that thousands of Florida voters cast their ballots for George W. Bush simply because his name was at the top of the ballot.

 We can’t get no satisfaction.

Part of our problem is the barrier of too much. Without question, consumers have more choices in the marketplace than ever before. In her book, Iyengar notes that “while the average U.S. grocery store offered 3,700 products in 1957, it now offers about 45,000. Meanwhile, the number of consumer goods available in the United States jumped from about 500,000 in 1994 to almost 700,000 by 2003. Yet research shows that consumers are perhaps more restless and certainly less satisfied than they’ve ever been.”

Far from creating more personal freedom, one of Ms. Iyengar’s studies suggests that too much choice might instead caise a kind of “consumer paralysis.” But we’re in complete control of our wallets, right? Maybe not.   

Iyengar finds “compelling evidence that people may not really know what they want, or even why they want what they say they want. (This alone has the potential not just to throw marketing research into a spin, but also the very basis of economics, which seeks to study how people maximize their utility.)”

So what does this have to do with agri-marketing? Everything, because whether you’re in the market for a soft drink or a post-emergent herbicide, you have to make a choice.

How do you decide which products to choose? How do marketers influence those choices? 

For more on the subject, you can watch a one-on-one interview with Sheena Iyengar and Globe and Mail writer Simon Houpt. And whether you watch it or not, you’ve made a choice.

 Ron Wall is a writer at AdFarm. He believes in free will, as it applies to online shopping.

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Does agriculture think different?

By Scott Samoleski, March 31, 2010

Risk. It’s a concept that infiltrates more business and personal conversations than you can imagine.  We manage risk, deflect risk, accept risk, analyze risk, cut risk and absorb risk. Heck, we even play Risk.  But what does taking a risk really mean?

 Start with a simple definition: risk is the quantifiable likelihood of loss or less-than-expected returns.

 So if you risk, you might lose. And the reality is that nobody likes to lose, especially in front of their peers.  Losing doesn’t look good and it doesn’t feel good.

 How far do we go to avoid losing? 

When an outcome is tangible, sometimes public and most often embarrassing it’s tempting to run the other way.  And even if you miss a tremendous opportunity by playing it safe, who’s to know?  Lost opportunity can just silently drift by, with nobody being the wiser. No public shame, no negative judgments of competence issued.  Just safety and comfort, thank you very much.

 But avoiding risk doesn’t make for great communications.

Take Apple computers, for example. In my humble opinion, the greatest ads ever run were the 1997 “Crazy Ones” series developed for Apple by Chiat/Day.  They anchored the Think Different campaign – which is credited with restoring  Apple’s then-lagging reputation.

The commercials featured black and white film footage of the “Crazy Ones,” people like Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon and Gandhi. The voiceover was performed by actor Richard Dreyfus and the script came from Chiat/Day’s Craig Tanimoto.

 

The significance of the spot is much bigger than marketing or brand development: it’s about inspiring courage.  It’s also about client and agency pushing themselves to a point of vulnerability because taking that risk was fundamental to achieving truly great things.

“Crazy Ones” risked failure because they knew it could lead to significant success.

On any given day in agriculture we make decisions that favor managing risk and mitigating failure.  But hopefully we also make other, tougher decisions — accepting failure as a possible outcome.

Because we know that taking risks is OK, right?

 

Scott Samoleski is Team Lead at AdFarm. He takes more risks than most of us – and wins more often than he loses.

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Four key steps to bridge the farm relationship gap.

By Colin N. Clarke, March 24, 2010

Consolidation in the agriculture industry is well recognized – be it manufacturers, distributors, retailers, or farm entities themselves. There is no question that North American agriculture has been steadily evolving.Bridge photo

As the ag industry has evolved, so has the business engagement among farmers and agribusiness. Where one time local dealers were present every 20 miles, a “local” dealer may now be 60 miles down the highway or further. So how is a manufacturer to build and maintain customer relationships when local is no longer really local?

Farm customers are relying more and more on digital tools to help them search for products and equipment. The process can be quick, or it can be exhaustive, but the truth is, farmers do their homework. Trouble is, manufacturers have not kept pace with farm customers’ quest for relevant information and farmers are left frustrated and disconnected. So the problem compounds. Local is no longer local, and farmers are struggling to find helpful, relevant information on products and equipment.

So how can a manufacturer remedy these problems and build a closer relationship with the farm customer? Bring digital to a local level. Here’s how:

1) MORE testing and trial results in MORE locations. Farmers rely on testing and trial results for data, but every farmer has different needs and they will be suspect of posted results unless it closely matches their situation. Soil type, growing season, annual rainfall, rotation, pest pressure and fertility are all highly variable. On-farm cooperative tests and trials of equipment and products in more locations will allow manufacturers to break down that “suspect” barrier.

2) Open forums for peer reviews. Farmers trust their fellow farmers. No question. Word of mouth has been and will continue to be of huge value to farmers as they seek out information on new equipment and products. Manufacturers need to create digital forums where farmers can share their experiences and encourage farmers to post their experiences.

3) Search engine friendly. Manufacturer websites are rarely designed with the customer in mind. Often company-centric, the information shared is generally corporate in nature and backed up with heavy digital brochure ware. Build your site from the ground up and address the farm customer’s needs first. Think ahead on what farmers will be searching for and search engine optimize your site so you can provide outstanding, relevant information on the first click.

4) Customize for my farm. With more testing and trial results and peer reviews and product information organized in a way the farm customer can use, take ease to the next level and allow the user to “customize for my farm.” Provide the farmer an easy option to take ALL results right down to their zip code. Comments, forums, data, testing, results, local dealers and other allied support. Bring it all home and make it easy, “For my farm.”

Agriculture continues to evolve and relationships are evolving right along with it. Farmers are adapting and making great use of new and existing digital tools. Today a farmer can stump Google in 10 seconds flat. By bringing digital to a local level manufacturers can close the widening information gap and begin building new relationships with this progressive customer base.

What manufacturers do you feel are doing a great job of using digital to help put the farmer first? Any who are faltering?

 

Colin is a senior strategist for AdFarm who enjoys the deep dive into marketing strategy. Follow him on Twitter @ClarkeAgWorld or on Facebook at Facebook.com/cnclarke.

(Photo courtesy of Alyce Lee on Flickr)

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What Avatar can learn from agriculture.

By Warren Fick, March 15, 2010

Why should a box office-busting, technologically ground-breaking Hollywood movie listen to the world’s oldest profession about anything? Well since Avatar didn’t sweep the 2010 Oscars or even manage the Best Direction awarded a true agriculture classic like The Grapes of Wrath , just think of it as a little neighbourly advice.

 

Do these 3-D glasses make my crop look big?

James Cameron had a pretty clear picture of what Avatar was going to be, over a decade before the rest of the world did. But the technology was lagging, he decided. So he seeded. And waited.  In the end, Mr. Cameron didn’t harvest the bumper crop of Oscars he had hoped for, and any farmer could tell him why.

Avatar learning #1: Technology will take you only so far.

Farmers who grow crops know that geography and weather are huge factors in determining their success. They can research and ask questions and make informed decisions about seed. But in the end, growers who have the best land and who luck into the best weather conditions, win.

Daddy, tell me a story.

Avatar looks better than any movie has a right to, unless it’s also a $237 million US epic about a computer generated world in outer space. But at the end of the day, there’s a certain amount of value lacking if the movie doesn’t tell a great story. You could do better, Mr. Cameron. And you wouldn’t have to go to Pandora for the premise.

In fact, the next time you’re stuck for a riveting storyline ask a rancher about preg checking cows. Or a farmer about the anxiety of losing a wheat crop to fusarium head blight . Or sit at a business meeting where US soybean growers struggle to understand how they can compete in a global commodities market.

Avatar learning #2: Real life breeds real drama.

You can’t make up the kind of drama that comes from generations of winning and losing in agriculture.  You don’t need to. If we’re facing Avatar Two, the writers should buy a farmer a coffee. Then just sit back and really listen.

Take off your 3-D glasses and let’s hear about one of the bazillion other ways Avatar can learn from agriculture.  If you’re in animal science and can discuss flying dragons in 140 characters or less, tweet @adfarmtweets.

Warren Fick has no Facebook photo, just a silhouette. His big picture thinking gives our clients a unique face in agribusiness. And he writes. Contact him directly at warren.fick@adfarmonline.com

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Agriculture, the original community. Dot com.

By Glenn Dawes, January 27, 2010

AT LAST, WELCOME TO ADFARMONLINE.COM –FARMING’S NEWEST COMMUNITY.

But is it really a community? Or an online website? Social interaction? Or modern marketing?

To quote Adam Broitman (circ.us), “We now live in a culture of participation. A culture where all mediated touch points are interaction points. The result is that all media becomes social, and subsequently, all marketing is social.”

I like this observation, because it implies that brands (including our own) have to come down off the mountain and actually participate in the discussion, which, we’ve all heard, is happening with or without us. And so, here we are, doing what we do best as an agricultural company. Talking to farmers and clients. Asking for input. And, of course, participating in the discussion.

The world really has changed. But what better way to participate in agriculture than to create an online community dedicated to agriculture? Participation may be the new interruption. However, I sincerely hope that the content we provide here helps to advance agriculture into the 21st Century, not just market it. And not that it needs our help. Agriculture practically invented community, although its origins don’t stem from a website. Rather, they evolved from the honest support that ancient farmers offered their peers.

Oh, well. Enjoy our community. Take part. Or watch as we figure out our roles in this thing.

Reminds me of another quote, this time, from a farmer: “Lettin’ the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.”

What do you think is the best part of participating in an online community?

Glenn Dawes is Creative Director for AdFarm. He can be contacted directly at Glenn.Dawes@adfarmonline.com

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Great marketing begins with great stories

By Ron Wall, January 5, 2010

To be truly effective, ag marketers need to tell stories. And we need to do it well. With the tools at hand, we have the potential to tell our story as never before. We can do it through word of mouth, print, web sites, social media, video blogs – well, the list goes on and on.

But the tools are as only as good as the person wielding them. As my Dad often said, just because you own a hammer doesn’t mean you know how to build a house, or in the case of ag, a barn. It takes passion and discipline, creativity and ingenuity.

With that in mind, I’d encourage you to bookmark two sites that turn good stories in effective marketing.

Take a stand

First is Michele Payn-Knoper’s gate-to-plate blog. http://causematters.wordpress.com/. A passionate advocate for primary producers, Payn-Knoper has been doing the heavy lifting that so many of us in agriculture should have been doing for years. She’s not afraid of taking a stand and admitting when she’s wrong. But for the most part, she’s usually right. Top marks for tenacity! Be sure to check out the video blogs on http://www.facebook.com/causematters

Grab a plate

The award for dominating in the Show, Don’t Tell category (if there is one) goes to Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. http://thepioneerwoman.com/. Like her namesake, Drummond does it all – wife and mother, writer and photographer, cook and rancher and it’s paid off with the publishing of her first cook book. She, too, celebrates all the things that make agriculture a way of life that is so worthwhile and her site conveys that in myriad ways.  And the recipe for chicken fried steak is a thing of a beauty all on its own.

Tell a story

Just as there are no uninteresting lives, there really are no uninteresting stories. The difference between boring and captivating is in the telling. And that’s why great stories well told can make for great marketing.

So we’d like to hear who your favorite storytellers in marketing are. Post a link. Send a Tweet. Tell us a story.

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