Ag Business and Katie Eisenberger!

In January of 2011, Kris, our 3-month-old Max, and I went to Atlanta for the American Farm Bureau meeting.  

While we were there, Atlanta experienced quite an ice storm.  Great footage here.  There were no flights, no restaurants or museums were open, and the hotel workers even had to stay in the hotel because no one could go home.  (In fact, on the day we were trying to take a train to the airport a car nearly slid into Max and me in the street.  SO MUCH ICE!)

As a result, we spent a lot of time with the other Farm Bureau members there and got to know them very well!  One of them was Katie Eisenberger, and we've been friends every since.  She's also the daughter of a dairy farmer, and after careers at MSU extension and as in insurance, she's now an agriscience teacher at Breckenridge High School!

Katie is one of those teachers that you absolutely just loved.  We all had them.  It was obvious from the way the students acted.  She's easy to love!

Katie asked me to talk in her Ag Business class today about how to communicate with people, how to share your story, and about blogging.  The students were great (hello all), and it was incredibly enjoyable to talk with them!

Out of the class only three of them were from a farm, and one girl whose family runs a greenhouse talked with me about how ... she knew there was a lot that went into a greenhouse, but until you're DOING IT, you have no idea.  

We discussed how each farm is different - we haven't been to a chicken farm ... she hadn't been to a dairy farm ... it's all just what's around and what kind of farmer you know.  Farmers don't know the details of other kinds of farms, let alone the general public knowing about every kind of farm.  

Just like the ice storm, when we were joking about why Atlanta had no equipment or salt - why would they?!  It almost never happens, so why have that expense for a once-in-50-years event?  You don't know everything that goes into it until you're the person responsible.

I went to the gas station by the school afterward, and the cashier said, "Are you a teacher?" 

I said, "No, I'm a dairy farmer."  

"Oh!  Well, thanks for feeding all of us!" he said cheerfully.  

And thanks to people like Katie Eisenberger, who are teaching all about it!  

Happy Thanksgiving, all!  

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You don't have to be lonely ...

Every other year, young ag people gather for a huge leadership, development, and social event - the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference.  This year it was in Kansas City, Missouri.

Fellow USFRA Face of Farming rep Jay Hill and I were on a panel talking about our experience in this role and about how we are reaching out to our real life and online communities.  People asked lots of questions and it was really enjoyable!

We were also judges for the collegiate discussion meet, which is a competition where the students discuss issues in agriculture.  We judged the sweet 16 round, and we were impressed by the students' talents.

After a breakout session, a woman approached me and said she was originally from Michigan but now she and her husband farmed in Missouri.  I asked how they happened to move there, and she said that she met him online.

"What site did you use?" I asked ... because I always do.  (I have my own personal survey going and like to share the results with my single friends.)

"We met on Farmers Only," she said.

"Hooray!" I practically squealed. "You're only the second married couple I know that met that way!"

"Really?" she said. "I know a few!"

She told her romantic story of them meeting, talking on the phone for hours, driving to see each other and meet their families, and getting married within four months. She finished, "And now we've been married nine years!"

After we left, my friend Alex (who is also married but likes to help friends) said, "We should coordinate a YF&R singles event!"  A group of us started discussing the possibilities. A girl offered, "We could have nametags that designate you as married or single.  A guy offered, "Or add 'dating but willing to upgrade!'"

I sat down for lunch with different friends and relayed the Farmers Only love story. A girl said, "One of my friends asked if I was on there, and I said I would never be on there! I hate their commercials! They make farmers look like a bunch of hicks. My friend threatened to sing it and I got mad." 

Jay said, "But I bet every person in America knows that jingle."

I told them I think their commercials are hilarious. Good marketing, memorable ... And apparently it works.

She said, "Yes, but the way they reinforce stereotypes?  And the way they talk?  They make it seem like we're a bunch a rednecks!"

We discussed it for awhile. Some of their commercials definitely go for the stereotype, but some are just goofy.  (You can see the first Farmers Only commercial here.  I remember seeing it for the first time and laughing so hard.  Not so horrible ones exist like this, and there are some that celebrate riding horses, fishing, and country attire.)  

I brought up Alex's singles event idea and everyone thought it was great .... the married people could organize it for the singles, and it'd be way better than Farmers Only. These were real farmers in real life!

Later at the awards banquet, the farmer speaking said that we have chosen "the greatest responsibility" - we need to feed everyone. He went on to say that the future of farming and ranching was in that room of 1100 people, and that we all take it seriously. 

I looked around. There were college students, young people just starting out, people taking over after generations of their families doing the same thing.

The farmer asked who was a first generation farmer, and out of the entire room, four people raised their hands.  I looked to the back of the room where there were - as always during these events - tons of moms and dads standing and holding babies. Tiny babies, fat babies, happy babies. It's hard to start a farm from scratch. It's way more common to pass down the work and land you love. If Farmers Only is helping people find each other, despite their stereotyping farmers, it seemed their marketing was doing more good than harm.  

The next day, I was chatting with my Algerian electrical engineering student taxi driver. I asked him, "Have you ever seen a commercial for Farmers Only?"

"Yes," he said. "I've seen that."  He half sang, "You don't have to be lonely, at FarmersOnly.com ..."

"So, we were talking about those commercials," I said.  "Do you think they portray farmers in a negative light?"

He said, "Farmers are busy. They word hard. They are on their farms, and how do you meet anybody of you don't work somewhere else?  It makes sense."

Singles events, conferences, blind dates ...  no matter what, people are managing to meet, marry, have kids, and run farms together. The people in the Farmers Only commercials don't represent the farmers I know, (Kris has never even ridden a horse!), but the marketing seems to be working.

Maybe a suggestion?  Show farmers actually farming - but keep the jingle. If every farmer, Algerian student, and baby knows it ... you know you've got a hit.


Thank you for U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Michigan Farm Bureau, and the YF&R team!  Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

There was a casino night too ... here we are with Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News after our interview

The Marriott decorated for Valentine's Day

Fun USFRA friends Paul Spooner and Jill Mantey

My Michigan people - Mark Daniels, Alex Schnabelrauch, Ricky Southward, Darcy Lipskey, and Calby Garrison

Michigan out on the town

Jay Hill farms in New Mexico, thus the cowboy hat!

#yfr12

We're home from the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers conference!  About 1000 young farmers (and people involved in ag) from all over the country got together to learn and talk policy.  Today they hosted a lot of tours around Michigan to different farms.

It was so fun!  The farmers who go are outgoing and like to talk.  They purposely seat you to mingle at meals, so you meet interesting people.

For instance, I met:

- A seventh generation rice and soybean farmer from Arkansas.  He farms 4000 acres.  I'd never met a rice farmer before and had a million questions.

- A rancher/writer/photographer from Wyoming.  (Heather blogs here.)  When I asked, "Where is your farm?"  She said, "We don't farm - there's no water where we are.  We have a ranch."  Which is why the name of the national organization is Farmers & Ranchers.  I clarified it with her - to her, a farm is a place where you grow crops.  She has cattle on tons of acres, which to me is definitely a ranch!

- Tons of cash crop farmers from sea to shining sea.  Whenever I said we had a dairy, they'd say, "I've met a ton of dairy farmers!"  Which is because there were tons of Michigan people there, and Michigan has a lot of dairy farms.

One of the big topics of discussion - as it frequently is - is how to reach our customers through social media.  I watched the collegiate discussion meet and the final question concerned that.  One student said that getting internet access to farms was a problem.  (Really?  Where?!)  Another said that you couldn't trust farmers to say what they're supposed to say, because they would 'shoot from the hip' and needed intense training.  (This kid had a low opinion of farmers.)  Another finished her conclusion with, "Hashtag, yfr12."  I liked that, because she was citing the twitter symbol and keyword of the conference.  (Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher were also mentioned in the discussion.  Can you get more youthful than that?)

It was exciting - a convention center full of people who love their jobs and like to talk about it.  Blogs, Facebook, and twitter are fantastic, but there's nothing better than laughing with people in person.  No hashtag required.

Over the river and through the woods, to another conference we go ...

Today we're off to the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Leadership Conference. It's a national conference that just so happens to be in Michigan this year.

It seems like there are a lot of conferences, right? Well, it's the time of year. Winter is farmers' slow season, so the meetings are all crammed into about three months. It's the only way any of us can actually attend! It certainly makes winter go quickly - and we get to see a lot of friends we barely see the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the free stall addition is coming along nicely.

New mats, new stalls:

The clientele, looking eagerly at the new addition in the works:

They'll enjoy this for a little while, then they'll be moving out to pasture as soon it's spring. And we'll be transitioning from indoor meetings to outdoor work at the same time.

Farm Bureau

I'm now a contributing author on the American Farm Bureau site. My first post for them is here: Terms.