Why Farmers Need to embrace social Media. After yesterdays announcement of another dairy mistreating livestock I have a confession to make. I am not completely innocent, and yes Ive done things I wish I could take back. Although I dont think I ever crossed the line there is no question until I met my wife Lisa I never realized just how desensitized I had become to what other non ag folk might feel or think about what I thought was fairly normal practice. Being a town girl Lisa was not exposed to farming at all until coming into my life, and the effect she had on me instantly, changed me forever. Once she became involved with calf care, and milking twice a day everything we considered normal practice was re examined, and questioned. I can honestly say without her presence, the chances of me pursuing polled genetics would probably not have come to light. Venture Genetics would have never existed, and I would not be involved with Dairybullsonline. Anyone thats been around long enough knows there are things we used to do 50 years ago we would never consider doing today. That doesnt make me or anyone else back then bad people or bad farmers, its just things change, technology improves, and eventually we adapt. However the world has completely changed almost overnight in ways we did not see coming. As we all now know a simple youtube video can now be shared with hundreds of thousands within minutes. Something not possible just a few years ago. We hear comments from farmers that consumers are more disconnected from farms. Have you ever thought that maybe farmers are just as guilty of becoming disconnected from consumers? The problem is social media is changing that disconnect, and its demanding transparency across all spectrums, and farmers are not going to be exempt. The number of people active on social media platforms today is in the hundreds of millions, and somewhere Ive heard as much as 40% are referencing about food. Its super important to understand that 99.9% of our customers not only want to know what is happening with their food, but also how our animals are cared for. (This question below is a repost from Bruce Camerons FB page last week, but its a question we all need to ask ourselves) Who is it that will ultimately decide the future of our industry? Farmers Veterinarians Government Consumers No we cant fix the 1% that are radicals or those with agendas, any more then we can fix the 1% of farms that have no business looking after livestock. However we can take this opportunity to sit down with our families, our employees, and maybe even our neighbours or someone from the outside who can look at things from a totally different perspective, and ask yourself if there is anything you can do to make things better? Roy
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:03:43 +0000
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