Who do you trust to inform your decisions?
“A lot of times questions come up like ‘What do you think about growing this crop?’ or ‘Should I sell all my Durum this month and take out an early payment option?’ Being farmers, everybody has a different opinion. It’s certainly good to discuss opinions.”
To get firsthand experience and information, members of the group develop and carry out small research projects on their own farms for varieties and crop protection products.
Dean Schoenberg at Mohall in western North Dakota says one of the groups he trusts to give him accurate information are the people who operate test plots and field trials on his farm. Schoenberg farms 2,800 acres of wheat, winter wheat, Durum, barley, oats, sunflowers and canola.
“The extension service and seed companies’ plots provide very useful information for our chemical and seed variety decision-making,” Schoenberg says. He has worked 10 years with the county crop improvement association and NDSU extension officers on small test plots. He says he’s happy to supply two acres in exchange for the direct and accurate knowledge he gains.
In southern Alberta, pedigreed seed grower Will Van Roessel, owner of Specialty Seeds Ltd. at Bow Island, says he relies on many sources of information but places a great deal of trust in the information his customers and memberfriends of a local marketing club offer him.
Van Roessel grows about 1,800 acres of irrigated spring wheat, Durum, hybrid canola, yellow peas, green peas and chickpea, all of which are grown and sold as Certified seed. “I place a fair bit of trust in my customers,” Van Roessel says. “I sell them seed and trust their feedback as to what they like about certain varieties or what characteristics are lacking in the varieties they’re growing. I use their information to decide what seed and varieties to produce in the next year to supply that market.”
“Online peer-to-peer communication is available for farm managers but in a very limited way.”
Since Van Roessel’s customers include major seed companies with a staff agronomist, his information feedback is highly informed. As a result, he places a great deal of trust in the advice of these professional advisers. Van Roessel also belongs to a farm management group. The dozen members meet every couple weeks off-season from nine till noon. They enrich their information base by arranging full-day sessions with specialists on topics like machinery, marketing or cost-management. “When everybody’s willing to share, the information becomes extremely useful and isn’t information you would likely get from any other source,” he says.
Van Roessel visits one online site almost every day. “I’ve posted questions and had discussions there.” “A lot of the information I use is based on plot data. You gain knowledge on which varieties do better in different conditions like drought and rain. It also gives you a good idea of what varieties work well in this area. They’re actually on farm and you see them. It helps us decide what varieties of a particular wheat, barley and sunflower we should be growing.”
In addition to his farm management group, Van Roessel says he has reached a certain “comfort level” with online discussion groups. “I visit one site almost every day. I’ve posted questions and had discussions there.”
Online discussions helped inform a sprayer decision last winter when he was doing research on a new type of sprayer available in Minnesota. “I got comments from people in southern Minnesota who were using or familiar with that equipment, and I bought one in February. It’s the only one they’ve sold into Canada so far. That was directly a result of finding information on the Web.”
Internet consultant on agricultural issues David Nagy in Calgary, Alberta says farm peer-to-peer online communication is still hard to come by. “Online peer-to-peer communication is available for farm managers but in a very limited way,” notes Nagy. “If you want online peer reviews of a movie, that information is available in droves, but if you want farmer peer-to-peer information about a new product, that’s harder to access because the product manufacturers control the bulk of the information.”
Van Roessel says he puts “a fair bit of faith” in the internet responses that come back to him from his posts. “In most cases, they come directly from a farmer who doesn’t have a particular bias or product to sell.”
He adds that some of his trusted information sources remain telephone contacts he’s never personally met. “If I’ve talked to somebody over the phone for a number of years, I may not know what the person looks like, but if their information has been useful and accurate, then we build a trust that we can rely on.”
Finding a trusted source for information on grain marketing is a different ball game. Schoenberg goes about it by reading papers, magazines and accessing online farm bulletin boards. “It’s not really useful for decision-making; it’s just information,” he says. “When it comes to grain marketing, I just go with my gut feeling. I usually work directly with the elevator, but I really don’t take anybody’s advice. I just trust myself and mostly use cash sales.” Schoenberg says the accounting firm he uses is also a trusted information provider. “The accounting people are my financial helpers for decision-making. I see them three or four times a year.”
Nagy, who grew up on a farm, says, “The relationship you trust is often the one you do business with. Sometimes it’s your distributor, sometimes your dealer. Now more than ever, peer-to- peer websites are sources farmers turn to for unbiased information.”
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Who do you trust to inform your decisions?
“A lot of times questions come up like ‘What do you think about growing this crop?’ or ‘Should I sell all my Durum this month and take out an early payment option?’ Being farmers, everybody has a different opinion. It’s certainly good to discuss opinions.”
To get firsthand experience and information, members of the group develop and carry out small research projects on their own farms for varieties and crop protection products.
Dean Schoenberg at Mohall in western North Dakota says one of the groups he trusts to give him accurate information are the people who operate test plots and field trials on his farm. Schoenberg farms 2,800 acres of wheat, winter wheat, Durum, barley, oats, sunflowers and canola.
“The extension service and seed companies’ plots provide very useful information for our chemical and seed variety decision-making,” Schoenberg says. He has worked 10 years with the county crop improvement association and NDSU extension officers on small test plots. He says he’s happy to supply two acres in exchange for the direct and accurate knowledge he gains.
In southern Alberta, pedigreed seed grower Will Van Roessel, owner of Specialty Seeds Ltd. at Bow Island, says he relies on many sources of information but places a great deal of trust in the information his customers and memberfriends of a local marketing club offer him.
Van Roessel grows about 1,800 acres of irrigated spring wheat, Durum, hybrid canola, yellow peas, green peas and chickpea, all of which are grown and sold as Certified seed. “I place a fair bit of trust in my customers,” Van Roessel says. “I sell them seed and trust their feedback as to what they like about certain varieties or what characteristics are lacking in the varieties they’re growing. I use their information to decide what seed and varieties to produce in the next year to supply that market.”
“Online peer-to-peer communication is available for farm managers but in a very limited way.”
Since Van Roessel’s customers include major seed companies with a staff agronomist, his information feedback is highly informed. As a result, he places a great deal of trust in the advice of these professional advisers. Van Roessel also belongs to a farm management group. The dozen members meet every couple weeks off-season from nine till noon. They enrich their information base by arranging full-day sessions with specialists on topics like machinery, marketing or cost-management. “When everybody’s willing to share, the information becomes extremely useful and isn’t information you would likely get from any other source,” he says.
Van Roessel visits one online site almost every day. “I’ve posted questions and had discussions there.” “A lot of the information I use is based on plot data. You gain knowledge on which varieties do better in different conditions like drought and rain. It also gives you a good idea of what varieties work well in this area. They’re actually on farm and you see them. It helps us decide what varieties of a particular wheat, barley and sunflower we should be growing.”
In addition to his farm management group, Van Roessel says he has reached a certain “comfort level” with online discussion groups. “I visit one site almost every day. I’ve posted questions and had discussions there.”
Online discussions helped inform a sprayer decision last winter when he was doing research on a new type of sprayer available in Minnesota. “I got comments from people in southern Minnesota who were using or familiar with that equipment, and I bought one in February. It’s the only one they’ve sold into Canada so far. That was directly a result of finding information on the Web.”
Internet consultant on agricultural issues David Nagy in Calgary, Alberta says farm peer-to-peer online communication is still hard to come by. “Online peer-to-peer communication is available for farm managers but in a very limited way,” notes Nagy. “If you want online peer reviews of a movie, that information is available in droves, but if you want farmer peer-to-peer information about a new product, that’s harder to access because the product manufacturers control the bulk of the information.”
Van Roessel says he puts “a fair bit of faith” in the internet responses that come back to him from his posts. “In most cases, they come directly from a farmer who doesn’t have a particular bias or product to sell.”
He adds that some of his trusted information sources remain telephone contacts he’s never personally met. “If I’ve talked to somebody over the phone for a number of years, I may not know what the person looks like, but if their information has been useful and accurate, then we build a trust that we can rely on.”
Finding a trusted source for information on grain marketing is a different ball game. Schoenberg goes about it by reading papers, magazines and accessing online farm bulletin boards. “It’s not really useful for decision-making; it’s just information,” he says. “When it comes to grain marketing, I just go with my gut feeling. I usually work directly with the elevator, but I really don’t take anybody’s advice. I just trust myself and mostly use cash sales.” Schoenberg says the accounting firm he uses is also a trusted information provider. “The accounting people are my financial helpers for decision-making. I see them three or four times a year.”
Nagy, who grew up on a farm, says, “The relationship you trust is often the one you do business with. Sometimes it’s your distributor, sometimes your dealer. Now more than ever, peer-to- peer websites are sources farmers turn to for unbiased information.”
Back to Top Back to Table of ContentsWrite a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.