• My passion for agriculture began as I first started meeting farmers and it has grown significantly as I’ve had various roles in agricultural communications. That profession — agricultural communications isn’t something I even knew existed when I went to college. My spot in agriculture is one that I’m betting a lot of people never think about and yet other people regularly speculate about.

As I mentioned in the footnote of each page, I work for Monsanto Company and thanks to a recent job change, I am able to devote my the bulk of workdays to social media. What’s funny is I tend to devote a good bit of my personal time to it as well! (Proof point — as the footnote points out, I write blog posts for this site on weekends or at night and then just schedule them to run. 🙂 )

So what will I be doing on National Agriculture Day? It looks like today will be a pretty normal day at the office. I have several meetings scheduled so I know what I’ll be doing part of the day.

Talking with Farmers

Whether it’s through Twitter, Facebook, email, instant messaging or a mobile phone, rarely does a day go by that I don’t have the chance to talk with a few farmers. This time of year the topics seem set no matter who I talk to — weather and the forecast for planting.

After that, it may be talking about some agnerd topic of the day (Tweetdeck changes, Google Reader being discontinued, how to do ____ on a blog post, etc) or about when I expect to be in their area (the hospitality of farmers is known far and wide… and they don’t have to be Southern nor grow cotton to be so friendly) or about the sweet corn or cotton or some other crop they are excited about. They usually also give me a feeling for what their day has been like. Today (Monday) I heard about broccoli planting just an hour or so after I had a pasta with broccoli for lunch. Makes a girl stop and think!

Talking Social Media

I have a couple of meetings to talk with people about various social media activities that farmers are engaged in or new ideas on things we can do to help people see us and our products more objectively. There are a lot of sources of misinformation on the internet and I have been talking to various people about what they can do to participate in the conversation honestly and transparently.

We have a lot of great things going on too! The America’s Farm Mom nominations are currently being sought as are efforts to Grow Rural Education. Those are pieces that everyone should be talking about. And it is getting close to planting time — farmers are writing are about the cotton varieties they are considering for 2013 and we have a chance to participate in that discussion, making sure they have considered new top performing products from the Deltapine cotton line, as well as the Asgrow soybean and Dekalb corn product lines. Things as simple as sharing a photo of a field trial from last year, or our latest video or ad can help prompt discussions.

Brainstorming & Planning

With the new job being a brand new position, I have had a lot of things to wrap my head around. I’ve been doing a good bit of brainstorming (yes, I still follow my blogstorming format a bit). It’s been fun playing around with various ideas and looking at the year ahead at some of the things that I may be able to do. I’ve got some more of that on tap tomorrow.

Working on My Health

Over the past year, I have been working on losing some of this extra weight I have on me by eating better and more recently by working out more. Both of those are on the agenda for tomorrow. In fact, I am lucky enough to get to get to do these things at the office.

Tuesdays are the day I go to lunch hour WeightWatchers meetings on campus (no doubt that is an incentive to eat a reasonable lunch huh?). We also have a gym on-site — a trainer there worked me up a strength training program that I’ve been following recently. These are probably some of the things that keeps awards coming in as  Monsanto is routinely listed as one of the best places to work.

What’s your ag day plan?

Related articles

Be sure you check out the post on Agriculture Proud because it has a full list of blog posts on the topic of ag day. And here are a few other to check too. I’ll keep updating as possible.

• Ag Day Celebrating Agriculture From California to North Dakota
• National Ag Day – City Girl Meets Ranch Life
• Agriculture Proud – It all started on National Ag Day
• National Agriculture Day Through the Eyes of Farm Bloggers
• Why Do You Need Agriculture?
• Celebrating National Ag Day!

• From One Generation to the Next: National Ag Day – North Dakota rancher Val Wagner says ”Generations Nourishing Generations” is almost our farm’s motto – and as we raise the next generation, we strive to ensure that we’ve done our best for the future.
• Ag Proud on National Ag Day – Taylor Short from Missouri is proud to be a part of agriculture and works to share that message with college students
• The Daily Cowman is Ag Proud – Larry Olberding, a Washington cattleman, takes time to spell out why he is agriculture proud and gives thanks to those who have contributed to his journey.
• Relish the Food Choices Available – Katie Pinke of North Dakota emphasizes her appreciation on food choices instead of food guilt when it comes to choosing food for her family.
• Teaching Our Grandchildren – Wanda Patsche of Minnesota is proud an honored to share the experience of raising hogs, corn, and soybeans with her grandchildren.
• My Other, More Exciting Self – Lara Durben utilizes her experience working with Minnesota poultry farmers to shed some light on the truths of raising food.
• Pride, Humility, Courage and the Long Haul – Beyond the Rows provides some perspective on farmers and the way they approach their days at work.
• Slow Money Farm – Jan Hoadley, an Alabama farmer, recognizes that we seek out the experts in many life situations, why not look to farmers when it comes to food?
• • Shouldn’t We Have Parades – Suzie Wilde, wife of a Texas cotton farmer, is looking for a little fanfare to be tossed the way of farmer for Ag Day.