28 Cent Facts
Feb 04, 2011
Welcome to the inaugural post of Follow Fridays on Barn Buzz. Follow Friday is a tradition on Twitter that I thought would be beneficial to this blog. Each week you will get to meet a new agriculture blogger from various parts of the country. Today we head south of the Mason-Dixon Line to meet Ryan Goodman, a cattleman and blogger from Arkansas.
Ryan (
@AR_RanchHand on Twitter) uses social media to tell the stories of American farmers and ranchers. Ryan writes a blog about everyday life in agriculture and on the ranch. You can read his blog at
AgricultureProud.com. He not only writes about what he knows but he seeks input from farmers and ranchers across the country.
Anna-Lisa – “Why do you think social media is important to agriculture?”
Ryan - “Living on the cattle ranch, I can’t easily jump up and leave for travel. However, thanks to networking on social media, I can communicate with people I may never be able to meet and learn about places I may never get to travel. This goes the same for consumers who may never get to witness food production. They [consumers] can talk with the farmers and ranchers across the country. This opens doors for great communication, sharing of ideas, and an inspiration for more learning.”
Ryan loves to use social media to learn about agriculture in other parts of the country. That’s one reason he started one of his latest projects;“States, Stamps and AgFacts”. This nationwide project builds a bridge between the pony express and the world of social networking. Ryan is encouraging people across the country to send him a postcard from their home state with a fact about agriculture in that state. In return, Ryan will send participants a postcard about Arkansas agriculture and will feature each postcard and its information on his blog.
Organizations and individuals alike are welcome to join in the fun! Ryan has recently received postcards from people in several states, each coast in fact. Larger organizations are joining in the fun too! The
Kansas Young Farmers & Ranchers teamed up with
Kansas Pork Association to help teach Ryan about Kansas agriculture. In a breakout session about social media, during their annual Kansas YF&R Leadership Conference, 15 Kansas young farmers wrote Kansas AgFacts on postcards provided by
Kansas Pork. Ryan’s mailman will certainly chuckle when he delivers 15 post cards from the same address in one day!
Currently Ryan has post cards from California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas & Vermont. If you live in one of these states don’t worry! Ryan would love to add your AgFact to the list as well! If you aren’t from one of those states I encourage you to send Ryan a postcard today!
“Send your postcard to 8656 Hwy 270 W, Prattsville, Arkansas 72129. A stamp is only $0.28 and a postcard can be a photo or a piece of card-stock. Don’t worry if your state is already listed. There are many facts about Agriculture everywhere. So get out your pen and help me learn about Agriculture across the country. Maybe next year my goal will expand to the globe?” Ryan Goodman via AgricultureProud.com
