Farming and Food Stronger Together – communication

and engagement with farmers

Jane King

Editor Farmers Weekly

28

Typology

Traditionalists

67%

Retailers

Advisors

Students

Me & My

Farm

17%

Challenging

Proactive

OutsidersComfortable

Reactive

Business

Farmers

17%

Farmer attitudes to business and to information

Traditionalists: not overly ambitious,

family, lifestyle,

outdoors

Me & My Farm: insular, cautious,

tactical, local,

remote

Business Farmers: Improvers, ambitious,

expanding, knowledge

seeking

Tips to effective communication with farmers

• Don’t lecture

• Allow farmers to have a voice

• Keep it real

• Show them the money

• Stop all business/management speak

• Demonstrate empathy

• Show them the context

• Make it easy, accessible, hassle-free

• Make it practical

More tips

• Work hard at participation and engagement

• Reputation/relationship is key if you are to be

believed

• Help them weigh up cost v benefit with hard

evidence

• Keep paperwork to absolute minimum

• Show how other farmers profit

90%

64%60%

52% 52%

42%40% 40%

37%34%

25%

Base: 20+ ha crops & grass

Farmers use a wide range of sources to

gain information & advice about farming

Base: 200+ ha crops & grass

Use of digital sources has

increased since 2007:

+11% Websites

+23% Email newsletters

Use of digital sources is

greatest amongst larger

farms:

49% Websites

46% Email newsletters

Around four fifths of farmers currently have access to the Internet in the farm office/home

Internet penetration is highest amongst larger farms with 92% of those

with 200+ ha having access to the web

Base: 20+ ha crops & grass

67% for technical information

61% to check market prices (+16% from 2007)

60% For product information to aid brand choice

52% to source suppliers (+27% from 2007)

27% for business advice (+13% from 2007)

21% for online learning & training (+12% from 2007)

17% to take part in forums/discussion groups (+12% from 2007)

Farmers are using the web for decision

making and to perform a range of business

tasks

Base: 20+ ha crops & grass with Internet access

Major changes in way we communicate

• Over 50% of world’s population under 30

• 96% of these use social networking sites

• Email seen as old hat

• Consumers spend half waking hours multi-tasking with technology

• Average person spends 45% of time awake absorbing media

• We send 4 x more mobile text messages a day than in 2004

• Average person crams 8 hours 48 minutes of media into a day

• Younger people cramming 5 hours of media use into 2 hours a day

• Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences