Marketing to Farmers and Ranchers

Marketing to farmers and ranchers takes more than just securing mailing lists or agriculture leads. Those who really want to engage farmers need to use both online and offline marketing techniques to do so. However, depending on what you are trying to sell or to market it’s important you understand how farmers live, work, and use their purchase power.

As with any marketing segment, it is important to really get to know your customers before you can try to sell them something. And the worst thing you can ever do is to make assumptions about what a customer needs or wants. So if you are newbie to marketing to farmers and ranchers, or even a seasoned professional, it pays to brush up on your facts about farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers. Here is some information you should know before you make that first contact:

  • In 2010, there were a little more than one million farmers, ranchers, and agricultural managers. Almost 80 percent of these were self-employed.
  • American farmers and ranchers produce food to feed the nation and they also export to other countries. They must do this while contending with a variety of unknowns, from weather to price fluctuations.
  • Crops are mostly sold to food processing companies but more and more farmers are selling their goods directly to consumers.
  • Farmers also are business managers. They must oversee crop production, purchasing supplies, and maintain buildings and equipment. They also are in charge of keeping financial records.
  • Farmers and ranchers must be part salesman in order to effectively market their livestock and crops.
  • While in the past most farmers had only a high school education, bachelor’s degrees in agriculture or related fields such as agricultural economics are becoming more and more common as farming becomes increasingly complex.
  • The median annual salary of farmers and ranchers is just over $60,000. Incomes can vary widely from year to year because of the many outside factors that affect farm production. Small farm operations are often run by a farmer who also holds an additional full-time job away from the farm.

Farming is like every other industry in that it is ever-evolving and its dependence on technology continues to grow. If marketers expect to effectively market to farmers and ranchers, it will mean keeping up on the many challenges that farmers and ranchers continue to face.

Marketing to Farmers Brings its Own Set of Challenges

In order to successfully market to farmers, you need solid agriculture leads, mailing lists, and a variety of other marketing tools. Once you have these tools in hand, however, your job has just begun. One of the most common reason marketing to farmers is a challenge is because of the many common misconceptions people have about farmers.

In order to speak to your target audience – in this case, farmers – it is important that you leave all stereotypes at the door. What follows is a list of the some of the most common ones that can be a real impediment to successfully marketing to farmers.

  • All farmers are old. While it is true that the average age of farmers in on the rise (this is true in the general population, as well), there also is a growing number of young, beginning farmers. This is due in part to a variety of programs introduced by Congress and the USDA to support young people interested in farming. These programs include the Agricultural Credit Improvement Act, the Farm Security and Rural Infrastructure Act of 2002, and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act.
  • All farmers are white. While many farm owners are white there is an increasing number of people – of all races and ethnicities – who are interested in breaking into the farming industry.
  • Farmers are not well-educated. While they may not have degrees in philosophy, farmers are far from uneducated. In order to be a successful farmer, one needs to have an in-depth knowledge of microbiology, ecology, chemistry, economics, carpentry, forestry, and more. Further, many young farmers are starting out after graduating with majors in things like agriculture, land management, and similar fields of study.

While common sense should always dictate marketing decisions when it comes to a particular market segment, it is better to be safe than sorry. That means you need to know who you are talking to before you start a conversation. Here are some facts about farmers you can count on:

  • Farmers generally produce a crop or livestock. In some cases, both. These crops and livestock are in most cases are sold to food processing companies.
  • Farmers receive most of their training on the job – even if they have earned a degree in agriculture or a similar field.
  • Most farmers are self-employed and their duties will vary with the size of their farming operation. Small farmers will typically take care of all day-to-day operations while large farms will have employees that manage particular tasks.
  • Farming can be a challenge financially. So much to do with farming has to do with market fluctuations so a farmer’s financial return can vary greatly from year to year.
  • It is hard to find anyone who works longer or harder than a farmer. Time is always of the essence as farmers fight weather conditions, market fluctuations, and other factors.

Marketing to farmers is a challenge because of the particular nature of the industry. Having a good grasp of farmers and what makes them tick will help your efforts be successful.

Searching for the Best in Ag Apps

Agriculture apps are a big business. With more and more farmers using tablets and smartphones while working in the fields, it’s no surprise that they are searching for apps that can help them do their jobs better.

Finding quality farming and agriculture apps can be a difficult task. This is unfortunate since there are so many quality apps out there that can make a farmer’s workload lighter.

One problem with finding quality farming apps is that it’s hard to know which agriculture apps are really useful. Thankfully, there are ways around this problem. For instance, AgWeb now has an app finder that allows users to search by category, such as markets, business, livestock, and crops.

What follows are some of the apps farmers list as their favorites. But remember, the most popular apps can change quickly – and new ones are popping up daily.

Ag PhD App Suite. This suite of apps includes a field guide, drainage calculator, planting population, a harvest loss calculator, and more.

AgWeb. This app features market news, weather, and other ag-related content. It also is interactive – allowing users to choose the specific content they are interested in.

Climate Basic. From The Climate Corporation, this app enables users to track up-to-the-minute, field-level information such as weather forecasts, soil conditions, and crop growth stage. Farmers also are able to add their own notes and field alerts.

Farm Futures. Farm Futures magazine’s app provides an overview of agriculture news and headlines, along with podcasts.

FarmLogs. Farmers can collect and log detailed information on a per-field basis with this app. Rainfall history, budgets, and inventory management are just some of the information farmers can track using FarmLogs.

Grower’s Edge. Offering a variety of functions, this app includes access to cash prices, market quotes and commentary, news, and weather.

Pioneer/Encirca View. Encirca View allows farmers to record field observations which are then georeferenced for their convenience. When used with the Encirca View website, users also are able to access aggregated data from other Encirca View users.

TractorHouse. A simple way to buy or sell a tractor. The TractorHouse app allows users to browse or list equipment by make, model, price, and location.

Drop in Grain Prices Effecting Grain Farmers and Landowners

A drop in grain prices is making it tougher for grain farmers to pay rent on the land they lease. As a result, some overwhelmed grain farmers in the Midwest say that they are considering breaking their lease contracts.

Many rent payments come due on March 1. These payments can range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars, depending on the size of the farm.

For more than 10 years, grain farmers have enjoyed a boom, but that appears to be coming to end. John Deere has cut its profit forecast, blaming declining sales on the fact that farm income and grain prices are both down. Lower farm income and grain prices are further aggravated by the fact that other costs associated with farming have remained high.

There is little hope of a quick turnaround since grain prices aren’t predicted to rebound anytime soon. The U.S. dollar remains strong, leading to a decline in exports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that net farm income could be reduced by almost a third – to $74 billion – from its peak in 2013.

Currently, there is no way to tell exactly how many farmers will breach their leases. What is known is that a great deal of farmland is leased and is therefore at risk. USDA statistics show that 40 percent of farmland in the Midwest is leased.

It is unlikely that landowners will decide to reduce rent prices. This is because much farmland is rented out by retired farmers who rely on the income to live. There also has been a rise in realty investors who are unlikely to lower rent prices since that would negatively affect their profit margins.

Landowners and renters aren’t the only one who are likely to feel the squeeze from falling grain prices. Whenever there is weakness in one area of the farm economy, consolidation occurs. This leads to weakness in other parts of the farm economy with fewer elevators, machinery dealers, and the like.

Farmers list few options for meeting rent payments. One option is turning to bank loans. Operating loans for farmers rose 37 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Agricultural Finance Databook.

In the end, farmers who plan to walk away from their leases will face resistance. Landowners have made no secret of the fact that they will want their money and will go to court to make sure that they get it.

Farmers at Increased Risk for Skin Cancer

In the 1940s and 50s, despite the fact that tractors did not have cabs and there was no such thing as sunscreen, farmers were in many ways better protected than they are today from the sun’s damaging rays. Most farmers in those days wore light, long-sleeved shirts to protect themselves from the heat and bright sun. They also wore wide-brimmed straw hats to keep the sun off their neck and face. While all of these measures helped prevent skin cancer farmers did it for another reason – to keep cool.

Fast forward to today and the same methods that were used more than 50 years ago continue to make great sense. For instance, while today’s farmers prefer baseball hats, baseball hats do not protect the ears, nose, and neck as effectively as a wide-brimmed hat. Further, long-sleeved shirts and long pants – the normal outfit of yesterday’s farmers – are the best way to protect arms and legs against the sun’s harmful rays. This type of clothing actually keeps the body cooler than t-shirts, shorts, and baseball hats.

This information is particularly relevant given that farming is one of the most perilous jobs in the United States in terms of skin cancer risk. The sun’s ultraviolet rays are the strongest and most damaging during the peak hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Since staying out of the sun during these hours is not possible for most farmers, it is important that preventative steps are taken. This is easier said than done, however, as continued research indicates that farmers do not take their risk of skin cancer as seriously as the general population. Given the time they spend outdoors it is easy to see why this attitude is extremely dangerous.

While no one would question why a farmer would resist being inside during peak daytime hours, there is no reason why they should bristle at protecting themselves with the proper clothing and applying sunscreen. However, less than one-fourth of U.S. farmers surveyed say that they use sunscreen. This statistic goes a long way toward explaining why the incidence of skin cancer is higher in farmers than the general population.

Education is one way to raise farmers’ awareness of skin cancer. To be effective, this education should point out that by ignoring the risks of skin cancer and delaying treatment, in most cases this will result in the need for increased medical intervention. This intervention is likely to keep farmers away from the farm for long periods of time – something they were trying to avoid in the first place.