Why I Love Dairy Video Contest and Life In A Day

There are two great (and FREE) video contests currently available to us in the ag industry, both of which offer excellent opportunities to promote dairy.

Why I Love Dairy Video Contest
Why do you love dairy? Share your story about modern dairy farming with this fun video contest sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. ...

The below is an excerpt taken from the Indiana Dairy Council website.
Do you want to let the public know all the great things about modern dairy farming? Are there consumer misperceptions about dairy that you want to set straight? Are you a fan of milk, cheese and yogurt and want to let others know why?

Here’s your chance: Enter the Why I Love Dairy Video Contest, sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. (DMI). If you participate in the myDairy Online Advocacy Program and have access to http://www.mydairytoolkit.com/, you’re eligible to enter. To join the myDairy program and obtain a password, email your name and email address to Amanda Trice at atrice@sedairy.org.

Read more here.

Life In A Day
If you haven’t heard the “buzz” about this already, you will. This is an opportunity to put agriculture on the “big screen” and in our own words …

The below is an excerpt taken from Life In A Day’s YouTube channel.
Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald discusses his latest project, Life In A Day: a historic global experiment to create a user-generated documentary film shot in a single day.

On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin.

For more information, visit www.youtube.com/lifeinaday.

Start Filming!
“Be careful what you wish for,” as they say. We’ve said we want to be the ones to share the story of ag and these are two great opportunities available to us.

As you are filming, be sure to keep a few things in mind:

• What are your key messages and points that you want to share? Animal safety or care? Nutrition? Technology?
• What will my farm look like to a consumer? What impression do I want to leave with them?
• Don’t get too technical - How can I best explain what viewers are seeing in my video? Should the video be narrated or should interviews be included?
• Most importantly – Be sure to ask yourself “How can I best showcase my dairy story?

So, start filming! We’d love to hear about your video(s), so keep in touch, too!

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

"Social media isn't a fad, it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate."

Social Media and Ag

The above is a bold statement from the four minute YouTube video, Social Media Revolution 2.

In the ag industry, we've become painfully aware that we need to be the ones to tell our story, not only the mainstream media. Social Media Revolution 2 confirms the best resource to do this is through social media. Our audience is out there, as you will see in the below stats, we just need to keep the conversation going.

Below are a few quick stats from the video ...

• If Facebook were a country it would be the world's 3rd largest
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world
• There are over 200,000,000 blogs
• 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily

It's simple!

If you have a computer and an Internet connection (which, if you are reading this you do!) social media is an affordable, convenient and instant tool to share our stories and promote our lifestyle with fellow farmers, as well as consumers.

It's more important than ever that we keep the momentum and remain at the forefront of the social media revolution. AgChat Foundation, a group that empowers farmers and ranchers to connect communities through social media platforms, is there to help. They will host Agvocacy 2.0 training, August 30-31, 2010. Click here to learn more.

The video

By now, you've either stopped reading this to check out the video, or you are within seconds of clicking on the below video, Social Media Revolution 2.

Go on!

We hope you find it as useful as we did.

"Live Life Lely"

"Live Life Lely"

We at Lely hope you are familiar with the above way of life, either because you currently own Lely's innovative products or are intrigued by our vast product line. If "Live Life Lely" isn't in your vocabulary quite yet, we look forward to introducing you to our extensive range of products, all well-matched to the needs of our modern cattle farmers and contractors.

Beginning with our first Lely machine, the finger wheel rake, it was Cornelis and Arij van der Lely's specific aim to build machines that would alleviate heavy physical labor on farms.

Today, we continue our mission to be the company in the dairy and cattle market that is the front runner in state of the art farming solutions, striving for improvement of the financial and social well-being of its customers.

It's important to us that our farmers understand Lely's history, mission and way of life. Therefore, we want to share with you a video recently released by Lely that we trust will leave an impression about what it's like to "Live Life Lely."

Enjoy!

One Hungry Planet

Farmers work long, hard hours.

Numerous advances have been made in the industry to make the world's food supply safer, higher quality and better for the environment.

We are well-aware of the above statements but a new video is now available to help spread the word in a fun (and yes) modern way!

BASF released the video via their YouTube channel, highlighting American agriculture since 1950. We're so impressed with this video, One Hungry Planet, that we can't help but pass it along to everyone we know.

So, click on the video below (if you haven't already) to see what we're talking about. We hope you are as eager as we are pass it along to your family and friends ... and thank a farmer!

Agriculture and Social Media

Social media. It's become the "catch all" term for our connection to anyone, anywhere, any time. Oh, and did we mention that it's connecting people all over the world and in real time? It sounds pretty impressive, but what does this new way of communicating have to do with our jobs and livelihood?

Let's take a step back.

It wasn't so long ago that cell phones became the "new norm" and could only send and receive phone calls. We had to use a phonebook, full of hundreds of unbelievably thin pieces of paper, to look up a phone number and "good luck" if we needed to find a number outside of our phonebook listing!

Today we toss around words such as, blog, tweet, "like" and "follow" ... it's almost become our new, universal language.

So, back to where we started.

What does this new way of communicating have to do with our jobs and livelihood? One must think there's something to it since the Library of Congress began documenting each and every public tweet in March 2006.

Michele Payn-Knoper, Principal of Cause Matters Corp., has some helpful insights when it comes to agriculture's interest in social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The following is an excerpt from Michele Payn-Knoper's website.

Why should agriculture care about social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? It’s really quite simple. Because the rest of the universe does and there certainly is a face being put on the agrifood business. If you’re not at the table, you can’t be a part of constructing that face – nor can you counter the misinformation campaigns. My research clearly shows HSUS, PETA, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and other activists working against ag are growing their communities nearly 40-fold in a year’s time. I believe we have a responsibility to provide perspective to counter the misinformation and be a voice in the conversation.

Food is an extremely hot issue – and it’s time for agriculture to leverage that through social media leadership to influence public opinion, rather than react to rhetoric. How are you willing to do that? It’s time to add a new tool!

Click here to visit Michele's website and learn more and social media's importance in the world of agriculture.

Nancy Grossi on Agvocacy

We recently asked Nancy Grossi, one of the most, if not the most, active members of Progressive Dairyman's Proud to Dairy social media network to write a blog for us on the importance of "agvocacy." Nancy, thank you so much for your contributions "agvocating" on behalf of the dairy industry. If you would like to follow Nancy's blog, please visit http://www.thewifeofadairyman.blogspot.com/.

Letter from Nancy:

We are a dairy and natural beef ranching family from Northern California. My husband, Dominic is a 4^th generation rancher. From the time he was five, he knew he wanted to continue on with his family’s legacy of dairy farming. After attending Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, he came back to the ranch and began running the ranch, side by side, with his father. We have a herd of 200+ Holstein milking cows and raise 45-60 pairs of Hereford Angus cross natural beef on our 450 acre ranch.

Not only does Dominic run the dairy, he sits on many boards of different agriculture organizations. He is the current President of Marin County Farm Bureau, President of the North Bay Dairy Herd Improvement Association, sits on the MALT (Marin Agriculture Land Trust) board, and Sonoma-Marin Fair board, just to name a few. Being active in all of these organizations along with having a ranch of our own, gives us first- hand knowledge of what is going on in the agriculture industry.

Growing up in the country myself, my parents raising their own beef on five acres of land to feed our family and growing at least a ½ acre of vegetables every year, makes me no stranger to agriculture. But being married to Dominic for almost seven years now, and becoming involved with the family dairy and beef ranch, has really opened my eyes to how much the agriculture industry is being barraged on a daily basis by people and activist organizations, such as HSUS and others that are trying to discontinue production agriculture in this country.

It was time for me to stand up and do my part, even though it’s a small part, to reach out to the consumer, the community and as many people as I can reach to share my story of agriculture. I believe that sharing my account of what it’s like to live and work, day to day, on a working dairy and natural beef ranch is extremely important. I also believe, the information I make available, through my blog (The Wife of a Dairyman), Facebook and Twitter will give the public a better understanding and a connection with true agriculture.

As ranchers, Dominic and I feel it’s important that the public realize that most all farmers and ranchers care. We care about the environment. We care about animal welfare and that every animal is treated with the utmost compassion, care and kindness. We care about the quality of our products. We have a strong sense of responsibility to preserve our farm and community for future generations.

I feel it’s so important and encourage anyone who is in the agriculture industry to ‘Be Proud to Ag’, to be an Advocate. Advocacy is about action, big or small. Share your personal story at any given opportunity you can. I truly believe that the public wants to connect with their farmer and rancher. They want to know who is growing and producing their food and how it gets from the farm to their plate and they want to feel good about it.

Nancy Grossi

www.TheWifeofADairyman.blogspot.com

America's Producers Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

Today marks Earth Day, and Twitter is filled with conversation about how America’s producers were the first members of the “green revolution.”

Here are a few fun facts about sustainability advancements that have taken place in agriculture:

1. Since 1944, the dairy industry has reduced its carbon footprint by 63% while increasing milk production by 59%.
2. Over 20 years, the energy used per bushel of corn produced has decreased by 37%.
3. Modern farming techniques have led to a significant decrease in soil erosion. Low-till farming reduced soil erosion by 65% and no-till farming cut erosion by as much as 98%.

One of our favorite additions to the agriculture conversation on Earth Day today was Will Gilmer’s video on his blog. Will “agvocates” for agriculture every day, and he did a wonderful job today sharing the story behind what dairy producers do to celebrate Earth Day, every day.

For more information on sustainable agriculture, click here.

Proposed USDA Budget Hits Ag Hard

Dairy Herd Management reported President Barack Obama’s suggested federal budget proposal this week, stating agriculture, though carrying a trillion dollar price tag, took a huge hit. The total suggested budget is estimated to save $10 billion over 10 years.

In the proposed budget for 2011, Obama suggested a drastic reduction in income that qualifies for crop supports, implemented over a three-year period. The move would save $2.26 billion over 10 years.

An estimated $8 billion would be saved over 10 years by ending “huge windfall profits” of crop subsidies by reforming the administration of the federally subsidized crop insurance system. The Agriculture Department is negotiating a new agreement with insurers that would reduce overhead payments.

Crop subsidies would disappear for people earning more than $250,000 adjusted gross income from off-farm source or more than $500,000 on-farm AGI. Those caps are currently set at $500,000 off-farm AGI and $750,000 on-farm AGI.

The budget also included a request for a 25 percent cut to $1.2 billion, of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

“Despite the administration’s rhetorical desire to support conservation and agriculture, and address such issues as climate change and renewable energy, “reductions of over one-half a billion dollars in mandatory conservation program spending will make it much more difficult for farmers and ranchers to make changes necessary to protect our air, land and water,” said Jon Scholl, America Farmland Trust president.

To read the full article, click here.