Ever since Yahoo! published an article Jan. 19 by Terence Loose listing “College Majors that are Useless,” agriculturists across the nation have been having a field day.  The ground is snow covered throughout the Corn Belt, but the agricultural community is making hay any way!

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Loose’s article does more than boost hits on the Yahoo! site… I’m betting it’s going to be one of the best PR opportunities our industry has seen.  It gives agriculturists a great chance to tell our side of the story to a captive, engaged audience.  He’s making our story relevant, timely and newsworthy!

Take a look at how people across the country are weighing in:

• “Without agriculture, everyone would be naked and hungry” is one of the tweets I read last week after the Yahoo story ran.  Since I couldn’t remember who deserves attribution for this quote, I did a quite Google search for “hungry naked agriculture.”  WOW.  My search revealed about 14,200,000 results with this one listed at the top:  Are You Ready to Be Hungry and Naked? | Hoosier Ag Today.  You can even buy “Naked & Hungry” T-shirts from the National FFA Organization.

• Ag grads have posted nearly 4,000 comments over the past four days on a new website, I Studied Agriculture and I Have a Job.

• In the Huffington Post, Allen S. Levine, Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and Director of the Minnesota Obesity Center, University of Minnesota, writes:  “While I’m hesitant to give the list (by Terence Loose) more credibility than it deserves – it’s based almost entirely on U.S. Labor Department projections and one author’s opinions – this blog post is so far off base it has to be refuted.”  Click here to read his rebuttal.

Interestingly enough, a publication entitled Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 published by Dr. Phil Gardner at Michigan State University concludes:  “No sector appears stronger than agriculture/food processing with an increase in hires of approximately 14 percent.”

Mike Gaul, Director of Career Services for Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences,  says, “Every thing that’s happening at our college completely contradicts the Yahoo! article.  Our college has the highest placement rate on campus at 98.2%.  ISU CALS hosts the country’s largest agricultural career day.  The fall career day, on Oct. 18, 2011, was the largest on record with 175 companies exhibiting.  In addition, more nearly 1,200 interviews were conducted on-campus last fall.  Now ISU CALS is getting ready to host its 5^th annual spring ag career for which record participation is expected.

“When you invest in a college degree, you want to be marketable upon graduation.  A degree in agriculture is offering a great ROI right now,” adds Gaul.  “Agriculture is diverse and agriculture grads are in high demand.”

Agriculture is a far different industry than it was 50, 30, or even 10 years ago, says Levine of the University of Minnesota.  He’s quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, “Who knows? The next George Washington Carver, Temple Grandin or Louis Pasteur might be thinking about a future in the agricultural sciences right now; the health of our people and our environment could depend on what he or she chooses.

ISU’s Gaul agrees there are many more majors under the ag umbrella today including microbiology, horticulture, culinary science, and global resource systems.

Agriculture in 2012 is certainly broader than it was in my grandparents’ and my parents’ day.  It’s even broader than it was in 1993 when I enrolled at Iowa State University with a double-major in Agricultural Journalism and Public Service Administration in Agriculture.  My degree has provided me with wonderful experiences during the past 19 years including lobbying on behalf of Iowa agribusinesses, doing public relations for agricultural leaders and now owning a business where I have the pleasure of working daily with those who help feed, clothe and fuel the world.  Truly, an ag degree is one of most useful degrees!

As a family-owned, independent seed company, we believe it’s both our right and responsibility to get involved in the communities where we do business.  That’s why we look for opportunities where our interests and expertise align with community needs.

One such opportunity presented itself a few years ago during a regular meeting of the Iowa 4-H Trustees when I learned that Franklin County is one of the few counties in our great state without an endowed 4-H scholarship.  I had a proverbial “light bulb moment” and decided then and there that I wanted to spearhead efforts to establish an endowment that would help the next generation of agricultural leaders in their pursuit of higher education.

Why is it when you come up with an idea that you find yourself leading the charge? Now I’m helping lead the charge to raise $20,000 to endow the Franklin County 4-H Scholarship.  As much as I enjoy baking, I could never raise the needed dough through bread and muffins alone!

Our fund-raising efforts kicked off last fall with a Brown Bag Burger Benefit during harvest.  Thanks to Fareway of Hampton, Franklin County Pork Producers and Rainbow Feed & Grain for making our first-ever barbecue a success!  Special thanks to Craig Donnelly of KLMJ, the staff at the Franklin County Extension Service and my parents for their service. (Yes, 4-H is still a family affair– 20 years later.)  And all of the area residents who came out on a beautiful fall day to support this cause also deserve a round of applause; we sold 396 pork burgers from our inventory of 400 burgers!

The Brown Bag Benefit helped raise awareness about the endowment fund, but it was just one tactic in our overall campaign. The majority of our funds will be raised through the creation of a book documenting the history of agriculture in Franklin County. The completion of this book is going to take the support of our county and of Franklin County natives.

To garner participation in our book, we began by inviting Century Farm Families to share their stories in honor of the 100^th year of 4-H in 2012.  Coincidentally, this book will be written during the 65^th anniversary of Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds.  Yours truly will definitely be submitting a story about our company’s founders and the contributions they made to agriculture and farm life here.

We hope you’ll join our efforts, too!  It’s as simple as sharing your family’s farm story.  Click here to download a form and to learn more about the donor levels.  Feel free to contact me directly to see how I might help tell your story.

submitted by Aaron Putze
Director of External Relations & Coordinator
Iowa Food & Family Project, Iowa Soybean Association

If past performance is an indicator of future success, then there’s much to be optimistic about regarding agriculture! Corn production has nearly doubled since 1980 while the amount of nutrients used to grow it has declined by more than half.

The numbers speak for themselves. Nearly 30 years ago, America’s farmers harvested 6.64 billion bushels of corn and used 3.9 pounds of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) per bushel to nourish it. In 2010, farmers harvested 12.45 billion bushels of corn while using 1.6 pounds of nutrients per bushel.

Similar trends can be found in soybean, beef and dairy production. For example, since 1987, producing a bushel of soybeans uses 26 percent less land, 61 percent less energy and 20 percent less water. Similarly, a gallon of milk is produced today using 65 percent less water and 90 percent less land than in 1944 while each pound of beef requires 14 percent less water and 34 percent less land.

Why the improvement?

Better feed, seed, livestock facilities and farm equipment. Advancements in all phases of agriculture have helped farmers optimize the use of each acre of land and raise livestock, dairy and poultry that’s healthier and achieve market weight sooner.

submitted by Aaron Putze
Director of External Relations & Coordinator
Iowa Food & Family Project, Iowa Soybean Association

Today marks the two-year remembrance of the 7.0-magnitude quake that devastated Haiti, killing tens of thousands and leaving more than a half-million people homeless.

“Special Delivery. Homes. Help. Hope. For Haiti,”launched last month and coordinated by the Iowa Food & Family Project, is in full swing. Its goal: to generate cash donations of more than $300,000 to the Global Compassion Network for the purchase and construction 48 Sukup SafeTHomes on the Village of Hope near Port au Prince.

“Special Delivery” campaign co-chairs Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Ag Secretary Bill Northey will join representatives of GCN, Iowa FFP and Iowa Soybean Association on today’s Jan Mickelson Show from 9-10 a.m. (listen in at 1040 on your AM dial).

Also, be sure to read a guest editorial about the campaign in today’s Des Moines Register and share it via Facebook and Twitter. The Register will also provide ongoing updates as the campaign progresses. To date, more than a dozen SafeTHomes have been donated!

Thank you for helping share the “Special Delivery” story as we strive to provide homes, help and hope to the neediest of the needy.

There’s a new worker at our plant in Alexander. This one can work nights, weekends and never ever needs a break!

December 1 was the first day on the job for “Willard,” as we’re affectionately calling our new robot. Willard was installed by Chantland Company of Humboldt, Iowa, and Latham crew members spent five days learning how to program the robot and to integrate it into our bagging system. Willard does some heavy lifting! It can stack 18 bags of soybeans per minute, which greatly reduces the amount of physical labor required to move seed from the bagging line to the warehouse.

The addition of Willard frees up team members to complete other tasks, thus increasing our efficiency. Another benefit of Willard is built-in safety. Its electronic eyes will see when a foreign object (like someone’s hand) ventures into the work area; if so, the robot automatically and immediately shuts down.

When your Latham® Hi‑Tech Soybeans get delivered in 2012, know they were probably stacked by “the new guy.” To see video of Latham’s robot in action, go to http://youtu.be/6IyB97uF2nI.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IyB97uF2nI&list=UUfZtxNBIboE3I2RgYLdgDTw&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]

The Role of Social Media in Iowa became the topic of the early morning #iacaucus coverage. 

During a live broadcast this week, the following question was posed to Franklin County farmer Larry Sailer:  How are you using social media to assist with farming?  Facebook, Twitter and blogs have become virtual coffee shops.

Common uses of social media within the agricultural community include:

• Advocacy – helping others understand farming practices and educates the masses about important issues impacting agriculture and farmers.
• Community Building – connects consumers with producers; helps farmers connect with the people their feeding; and connects people who have similar interests.
• Relationship building – getting better acquainted with people you already know and meeting others with whom you can network and work together for a common cause.

Farmers Do Text.  (In fact, I set up all of the farm stops for the WHO Radio 2011 Crop Tour through texting!)  They also tweet and post status updates on Facebook, too.

“Twitter and Facebook are popular,” agrees Deb Brown of Debworks, a marketing organization based in Hampton, Iowa, that uses traditional and new media to help businesses get noticed.  “Fifty-seven percent of Franklin County residents are on Facebook; it’s the new ‘party line’.”

I just love Deb’s sound bite but can’t help but wonder how many politicos connected “party line” to Democrats v. Republicans rather than the shared telephone lines that were common in rural areas when I was a kid.

Aren’t double entredrés great?  The more I think about it, the more fitting I find it that social media has become the new party line.  Rather than “drawing a line in the sand,” we can use social media to connect “two or more users in an exchange” of ideas.  Regardless of whether people or Democrats or Republican, we can unite around common interests including family and community, food and fun!

Naturally, all Americans look forward to the time between Christmas and New Year’s.  It’s often filled with rest, relaxation and anticipation for the future.  Even if adults are working that week, it reminds me of taking summer classes while a college student: You do the work but the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed.

That is unless you’re an Iowan and it’s the week before the first-in-the-nation caucus!  Then your telephone rings several times a day – even interrupts family gatherings as you celebrate the holidays – with political candidates trying to win your support.  (On the upside, it beats having bill collectors call!)  You can find 24/7 news coverage of the upcoming landmark political event as even the “local news station” is providing its own angle.

But I’m not complaining!  I honestly believe it’s an honor for Iowa to host the caucus.  We have the privilege of exercising our freedom to vote, take part in the political process, plus showcase all that Iowa and its wonderful small towns have to offer.  And that’s exactly what happened when CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brian rolled into the Hawkeye State.

CNN producers met right before the New Year with Franklin County residents including Larry Sailer, farmer and Franklin County Farm Bureau member, and Deb During Brown of Hampton, founder of Debworks, who specializes in using traditional and new media to connect people.

So how did a powerful New York media outlet find two experienced social media users in the middle of Iowa?  It wasn’t random.  It was the result of the 2011 Harvest Tour, sponsored by Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, Franklin County Farm Bureau and Debworks, founded by Deb During Brown.

“CNN found more stories about our bloggers tour,” writes Brown in a Dec. 30 blog post.  “Residents of Franklin County were actually using social media!  Suddenly the topic changed from politics to how rural communities were using social media.  Larry Sailer – a farmer in the county, myself, Claire Celsi – businesswomen and blogger from Des Moines and Michael Libbie – advertising man and blogger will be on a live panel Monday morning.  Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien – here we come!”

Click here to watch a news clip of Franklin County residents and bloggers, who were interviewed Monday on CCN’s Starting Point.