I’m an avid user of Facebook.  I love seeing and hearing about all the things my friends in the agriculture industry are up to. Not to mention that a news feed filled with ag updates really helps me in my job.

Lately I’ve been noticing more and more Ohio farms having Facebook fan pages. Here are a few I follow and what they told me about why they started a farm fan page and who follows them.

 

 JCW Farm Partnership

For the Wilson family, who are grain farmers near Plain City, their page, JCW Farm Partnership, started because family and friends wanted to know what they were up to on the farm. However, its grown to much more than that. They now have many people they don’t know following them, including people across the country and even the world.

“We share photos and post statuses updating our followers on what we are currently doing on our farm,” Casey Wilson said. “We have gotten  a lot of chatter on our page on why we use the types of equipment pieces we run and the hybrids we chose to plant.” She finds that people are also interested in staying up to date on the conditions of the crops and weather in their area.

Lutmer Farms LLC

Lutmer Farms started a Facebook fan page because it was free advertising for them. They also feel it gives them another form of communication with their clients.

They mainly share photos of what they are doing around the farm, but they also Adam Trainer said, “use it to offer specials from time to time depending on what we have overstocked or what’s popular for the season, like liming in the fall or hay in late spring.”

Their page is just a few months old and they’ve already seen an impact on their business. “We have already had people that wouldn’t have done business with us if facebook had not given us the opportunity,” Trainer said.

Landis Farms

Landis Farms of Baltimore began their page to give people a way to find their contact information and share bits of what’s happening on the farm.

Jamey Landis said, “The age group 25-34 predominately like our page and quite honestly I am pleasantly surprised at the number of likes to our page.”

Isler Genetics

Isler Genetics of Prospect utilizes Facebook to reach their current and potential customers. Their fan base ranges from other farmers to people looking for breeding stock to parents of 4-H and FFA members that show pigs.

Nathan Isler said, “We can reach people instantly with information they might not see in a print ad for months. Facebook is much more assessable than our web page and is viewed by a different group of people.”

“We share news of upcoming events like our club pig sales or what shows we are attending and sneak peaks of animals that will be up for sale. We also post pictures of recent county, state and national winners,” Isler said.

Carper Family Shorthorns

The Carper family just created the Carper Family Shorthorns Facebook page for their cattle farm.

Mike Carper said, “Because so many people seem to be communicating via the web, and alot through facebook, we are eager to see if this might be another avenue to reach folks fast and cost effectively for our small operation.”

They plan to use the page to promote their shorthorns by posting what genetics they have, the pedigrees they are utilizing and what cattle they have for sale.

The number of likes to their page is rapidly growing as family, friends people in the ag industry and those whose have an interest in Shorthorn cattle are following their page.

This are just a few of the farm pages I follow. What other Ohio farms out there have Facebook pages? Who do you like to follow?