09/30/08 Embracing the New Technologies

Embracing the New Technologies. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I've said this before, I love technology. Give me a gadget and I'm a happy camper, at least until another new one comes along. Young people especially like to have the latest gadget whether it's an iPod, iPhone, or whatever. But where does all this technology fit into farming & ranching? A Young Producers' Council created by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is reaching out to young people ages 18 to 35. This Council will be able to place a member on each of NCBA's policy committees - and provide a platform for young people to express their views and share information on challenges and opportunities. Trent Fredenburg - a cow/calf producer from Greenfield, Indiana is an NCBA and Young Producers' Council member. He says young people in the industry utilize different communication methods when it comes to sharing information. FREDENBURG: They're involved with online resources such as Facebook as well as actively attending live in person events. And the way that they share information is somewhat different than we see with traditional, older producers. They are able to engage in platforms that we haven't experienced yet and I think that's one of the really exciting things is to be able to fine tune these new tools and take advantage of them in ways we haven't seen before. Fredenburg says the popular website Facebook is already starting to bring young producers together to share their stories. FREDENBURG: I'm actually a member of that Facebook group and we've had several hundred young folks from across the country tap into that single resource to be able to have a dialog, a conversation if you will about some of the topics of the day as well as some of those industry issues and emerging technologies that are available to them. According to Fredenburg - old methods of communicating with this young audience shouldn't be ignored - but special attention should be paid to the needs of this new audience. FREDENBURG: As we set up conferences and workshop seminars for these young folks to become engaged in I think that's where you get a true benefit of those young producers to be able to network with one another and share some of the challenges and the opportunities that they are currently facing on their operation and become early adopters of new technology and solutions to those problems. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.