Online Farm Magazine Helps Growers Profit

Continuing a prolonged push into cyberspace, the Ventura County Farm Bureau recently made the leap into the next millennium with an online version of its quarterly magazine, the Broadcaster.

The virtual publication, one of the first of its kind in the state, is the latest step in the Farm Bureau’s efforts to keep pace with changing technology and help its 1,500 members discover speedier, more cost-efficient ways of doing business.

Those efforts mirror a larger trend that has seen growers increasingly turn to computer technology as a source of fast, timely information about everything from weather forecasts to the best deals on equipment and supplies.

“There’s no such thing as an uneducated farmer, at least not for very long,” said Betsy Blanchard Chess, the magazine’s publisher and great-granddaughter of farming pioneer Nathan Blanchard.

“If you look at the middle to top management at all the major agribusiness companies, you’ll find a superbly educated and sophisticated group of people,” Chess said. “And a great deal of what they are doing is taking place on the go with a laptop and a modem.”

This is not her great-grandfather’s farm bureau.

Twenty years ago, the office’s high-tech arsenal consisted of an IBM typewriter and an old-fashioned mimeograph machine used to duplicate meeting notices.

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The county’s Farm Bureau was among the first to enter the computer age, joining Tulare and San Luis Obispo counties in 1983 in purchasing a 64-megabyte personal computer. The machine allowed the three counties to computerize their accounting and create comprehensive databases of their members--a novel concept at the time, especially for an industry traditionally slow to embrace change.

Today, the local office has three desktop computers along with an array of cell phones, laptops and modems. It was the first farm bureau in the state to employ a high-tech telephone system that allows members to access the latest weather forecasts, crop reports and other information.

The Farm Bureau even launched its own Web page two years ago, providing a range of information and links to other industry sources.

“Most of the growers I come in contact with on a regular basis are fairly computer literate,” said Rex Laird, the Farm Bureau’s executive director. “I don’t know where this whole Internet technology is going, but for us in the association it’s a constant battle to stay ahead of it.”

It’s hard to tell precisely how many growers are ready or willing to take advantage of such technology.

Earlier this year, the National Agricultural Statistics Service found that 40% of American farms leased or owned computers and that nearly one-third had Internet access. The numbers were even higher in California, where 55% had access to computers and nearly half regularly surfed the Internet.

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A North Carolina businessman--who recently launched an online agricultural auction house where farmers can buy from suppliers anywhere--found that 75% of farmers with revenues of more than $250,000 regularly use the Internet.

While the Internet offers advantages to farms of all sizes, growers say it can be especially helpful to small- to medium-sized operations, allowing those growers to make instantaneous contact with national and international markets.

But of greater significance is the savings of time and money made possible by the new technology, allowing farm managers to update production reports, answer e-mail and send faxes even while out in the field.

“The neat thing about agriculture is that a lot of organizations are run by people who are very savvy when it comes to computer technology,” said Ventura vegetable farmer Ed Terry, who appears on the cover of the Broadcaster’s fall issue using a laptop computer while sitting astride an old yellow tractor. “It’s amazing technology and it’s only going to get better.”

Appropriately, the Broadcaster’s first online issue is dedicated to the impact of computer technology on agriculture.

It includes articles on everything from growers who are increasingly relying on computer technology to promote their businesses to widespread concerns about Y2K-related chaos.

There are also short features about happenings within the agriculture industry and links to sites such as the USDA home page and free weather information.

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The hard copy of Broadcaster magazine, first published in 1946, goes out to about 5,000 subscribers and generally runs between 40 and 48 pages an issue. While the electronic version doesn’t have the same girth or circulation, Farm Bureau officials hope it will become more popular as more people learn about it.

Eventually, they envision an online publication, replete with advertisements, that will become a regional source of information for growers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

That would sit perfectly with Santa Paula real estate agent Scott Dunbar, who specializes in agricultural properties and advertises in the Broadcaster.

“I’m very excited about it--it’s nice to see more and more of agriculture coming on line,” said Dunbar, who wrote in to Farm Bureau officials asking about the possibility of online advertising.

“I think we’ll continue to find growers spending less and less time in the fields and more and more time looking after their businesses,” he said. “Their money is made not so much by kicking dirt clods anymore but by managing their businesses.”