I’ve just returned from “Trends in Agriculture,” which was hosted by National Agri-Marketers Association in Kansas City, Missouri.  At TIA, I presented my a case study of how my family is using social media to tell the Bradshaw Vineyards story, engage with the winery who buys our grapes (King Estate | @KingEstate) and connect with pinot noir wine lovers everywhere.

Full presentation embedded below, 6 follow-up thoughts included after the jump.

It was an incredible experience, and here are 6 reasons why:

1 - FARMERS ARE ON THE CUTTING EDGE.  I was impressed, but not surprised to find out how many farmers are using digital technology to create efficiencies, consume and store commodity information and connect with consumers.  Mobile is leading the way, but social is not far behind.  This makes complete sense to me, knowing how my dad and mom always look for new tools to help him better operate our farm, ranch and vineyard operations over the years in Oregon and Wyoming.  I was especially impressed with my co-panelists Joe Grigsby (Director, Emerging Media at VML) and Joel Jaeger (who founded Commodity Update with his family, in addition to farming in Eastern Colorado and Belize), as well as Sara, Brad and Bryan from Paulsen Marketing (”the ag and rural lifestyle specialists”).  They interviewed me for their blog “On the Road” (video below).

2 - FIRM HANDSHAKES, BIG HEARTS, PRODUCTIVITY.  It was nice to be with a group of people who were unequivocally genuine, hard working and solid.3 - CONNECTING WITH THE SUCCESSFUL FARMING CREW.  New Media Strategies is owned by Meredith Publishing.  So is Successful Farming.  It was like meeting a sibling you didn’t know you had years after the fact and realizing you have so much in common.  Curt Blades is the one who made the initial connection after seeing NMS in my bio on the NAMA website; he then introduced me to John Walter (Executive Editor of Successful Farming), Scott Mortimer (Publisher of Successful Farming), Tom Davis (VP / Group Publisher for Meredith) and Janelle Buxton. Was really impressed to learn they were leveraging Ning to build a community for young farmers: Farmers for the Future.4 - MEETING “AG WIRED” CHUCK ZIMMERMAN IRL. He does a great job with blogging, video, photo (Flickr + TwitPic) on his site www.AgWired.com | @AgriBlogger (and also publishes www.DomesticFuel.com, www.WorldDairyDiary.com, www.PrecisionPays.com and www.AgNewsWire.com). We were able to get a podcast interview in; he also did some great tweeting and TwitPic’ing of / for me during my presentation (see below).

5 - STEVE MERCER ROCKS. So a big and special thanks to Trends in Agriculture Chair, Steve Mercer (who serves in a full time capacity as the Director of Communications at U.S. Wheat Associates | @USWheatAssoc out in Washington, DC); Steve first introduced me to NAMA back in May / June 2009, when Alex Redmond and I spoke to the DC Ag Communicators.

6 - FARMING IS IN MY BLOOD, GROUNDS ME AS MY ROOTS.  As I share in slides 3 & 4 of my presentation, I have had farming in my blood for at least 5 generations (and likely / obviously well before that the more I think about it).  To be able to continue this tradition in a modern context, blending the land and the technology in such a fruitful way, is truly the most meaningful thing I could imagine doing with my time.

It is with great pride that I present the initial overview of the Bradshaw Family’s 12th Harvest.  Complete album available on Flickr here.  Video overview on the “day of” at the bottom of the post.

History: It all started in the late 80s, when our family purchased property in Oregon.  We vacationed there during the summer, camping out and scoping the land for our eventual vineyard plot.  By 1993, our family (mom, dad, Jen, me) had all moved to Oregon and officially started scouting, prepping and eventually cultivating the land.  Our first planting season was in 1996.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Summary:  This vintage we targeted lower yields to ensure higher quality.  While others had challenges this year, our growing season was exceptional this year for our site.

Yield: 16.7 tons (which equates to approximately 12,024 bottles, or 60,104 glasses of wine)

(conversion: 1 ton = ~60 cases; 1 case = 12 bottles; 1 bottle = 5 pours)

Harvest Date: October 10, 2009

Location: Ferguson Road - Junction City, OR (Willamette Valley)

Total Tweets: 50+ (includes tweets from @BradshawPinot, @LeslieBradshaw, RTs from folks and support from @KingEstate, which is the winery that we sell our grapes to and work with to produce our wine)

Total Videos: 24

Total Photos on Flickr: 80+

Total TwitPics: 20+

Pictured above: Mom and the pinot, lower pasture.

Pictured above: Dad tweets at King Estate, thanks truck driver John Annett for safely transporting our 16.7 tons.

Hearing and reading phrases like “social media for social good” and “social media for government” in the tech-pop-culture vernacular has me thinking… what kind of applications might there be in other industries, namely, manufacturing and farming? I am also particularly inspired about these topics, as I am fresh off of a two-week trip to my family’s farm and vineyard (located outside of Junction City, Oregon).

As many others have articulated before me, I too have always thought that social media is not just a listening mechanism, but one that helps in telling and documenting.  With tangible products being produced such as grapes and cars, vintners and automakers have a great opportunity to use social media to share their story.  Putting social media for manufacturing on hold for the moment, I am probably not the first to say this out loud and Lord knows that there are lots of great farm blogs out there like Tiny Farm Blog, Sugar Mountain Farm Blog, Ellwood Thompson’s Blog (to which readers of my blog know I have a personal connection), Old Shaw Farm Blog, Farmgirl Fare, Apifera Farm Blog, the list goes on…. Rather, I’d like to think of what I am sharing as an extension of the conversation… with maybe a few new-fangled tools and apps thrown in for even more impact.

With that said, I have outlined six applications that I think are particularly useful for the agriculture industry.  Where appropriate, I also include my personal experiences in hopes to make it that much more real.  For #1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 I see the ultimate goal as being able communicate to key audiences, be it consumers of your goods you hope to make loyal customers or members of the media you hope to have cover your story on TV or in print.  For #4 in particular, I see general efficiencies being made possible by the likes of Google Maps.

1 - Use Twitter to share fun tweets from around the farm.  Usually best with an application like #2 (Utterli) and #3 (Twitpic) below, there is nothing like sharing the in-the-moment thoughts you might have while killing time on the combine tractor.  When I was laying irrigation pipe with my dad, I tweeted as much as I could before I had to get my hands in the dirt and purple pipe primer (say that ten times fast!). I had a lot of great responses from my friends, followers and a few new folks.  Definitely built up some interest in our family’s endeavors that I hope will translate into long-term brand awareness (warning: marketing speak!)

2 - Consider Utterli to capture farm animal noises.  I haven’t done this yet, as we haven’t had pigs, sheep and cattle for a few years… but I think that this would be an awesome thing to document.  It’s one thing to tweet about a baby being separated from its baby during weening, it is another to hear it.  Not saying I’d want a full minute, but a good 30 second clip would sure make it real. Utterli also allows you to share video and photos, but I think its strongest product is the audio-capture.

3 - Twitpic is a must for capturing photos of the farm on the fly.  I really went to town with this application during my two week trip back home.  I was sending photos of our trench-digging from my BlackBerry to Twitter, where my friends and family were able to see in almost real time the progress we had made. Even the time of day is apparent in the photos. Check it out:

4 - Google Maps and Google Earth help you plot your land.  No one would argue that Google has some mind-blowing innovations that have impacted our lives in major ways.  There is also an argument out there that Google tends to buy up (at best) or run out (at worst) smaller companies who have been innovating in similar spaces.  That said, my point here is that Google has cataloged what the entire earth’s surface looks like, matching it up precisely with longitudinal and latitudinal markers.  What does this mean for farmers and vintners like my family and me?  It means we don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to have “fly-over” photos of our land.  These “fly-over” or “bird’s-eye-view” images are helpful in mapping out property lines, creek (a.k.a. “crick”) and river boundaries and generally helps you keep track of what is where.  While Google’s images won’t update the next morning after you have logged a few acres on your land, what it will help you do is track your property over time. Moreover, because the maps are to scale, you can actually use them as measuring devices.  My dad used Google’s products to measure out how much PVC pipe we would need to make it from the top of our vineyard (which is on a hill), down to the creek (a.k.a. “crick”), from which where we plan to pump the water.  His measurements using Google were within feet, if not inches, of being SPOT ON.  Oh, and did I mention, he did all of this from Wyoming, a few hundred miles away, sitting at his computer.  Talk about efficient.

5 - Flickr albums take your farm photos and allow it to be dynamic. Related to Twitpic, Flickr is a great outlet to store high-res versions of your photos and keep track of a crop’s progress over time.  A trip last year to Trails End Farm with the Ellwood Thompson’s team allowed us to capture a snapshot (see below as well) of what was happening on their farm.  Imagine if you had a daily photo journal of the same spot over the course of a year, five years… maybe even a whole generation.  I am looking forward to digitizing some of my family’s footage, knowing that my mom has done an amazing job documenting our farm since we first set foot on it in 1989.  Flickr also allows you to store videos that are 90 seconds or less.

6 - Video is essential… make your own commercials, news packages and documentaries.  Vimeo and Viddler are both good choices for the aesthetic value as well as the community support (and, of course, YouTube is the universal platform).  At any rate, most of my experience with this has again been with the Ellwood Thompson’s team (see their Vimeo profile) and shooting a few of my own videos of moss and Bradshaw Vineyards.

In order to get this:You need to plant and tend to these:And make sure they get plenty of water (and you know how I feel about water):With that said, I will be back in Oregon from April 29 - May 10 to help my dad with irrigation pipe and other expansion logistics.  In the next year or so, we will be expanding to reach about 44 total acres (yes, my favorite number, what are the chances… *wink*).  I hope to share more about the experience here on my blog and over Twitter upon my return.I hope to also get some rest, spend some time with my sister and my Grandma… not to mention, take stock of / relect on life and be “off-the-grid” for a while (cf. “Coming Back Online, Maintaining Balance“).For more about my Family’s vineyard, please see:February 2008 Album on Flickr March 2009 Album on Flickr Our Family’s Hard Work Has Paid Off: Wine & Spirits gives us a 90!!

Just got off the phone with my dad, the rumors are true, our Pinot Noir (Bradshaw Reserve 2005) is a hit. And not just with people in our immediate circles. The folks at Wine & Spirits concur.

All the details will be in the June edition, but for the time being, I wanted to post some pictures of the family and the vineyard in honor of this celebratory news.

The Core Team

Building the vineyard, one day at a time since 1987… soil tested in late eighties, first plants planned and planted in 1993 - 94.

Jim Bradshaw: Visionary; Bradshaw Vineyards CEO, Self-Taught Engineer, Viticulturalist, My Hero, dad and best friend

Mary Ellen (Maria) Bradshaw: Co-Visionary; True Naturalist, Bradshaw Vineyards CFO, Work-flow manager, crop-protector; My Hero, mom and best friend

Jennifer Bradshaw: Cultivator; Bradshaw Vineyards Manager, Worker, Evangelist and Wine Expert; Nature Baby; my inspiration, sister and best friend

Leslie Bradshaw: Cultivator; Bradshaw Vineyards CMO, Worker, Community Builder and Evangelist; Green Gurl

Bradshaw family members this Christmas at our place in Wyoming (not where our vineyard is) from left — Wyola, Mom, sis, JC, dad, me, O’Ryan

So grateful to have been included in Jessica’s wedding party. We have been best friends since I moved to Oregon in 1993 as a nerdy-yet-stylish, platform-wearing blonde from California. She has been there for me from that day forward. All my love and the best to her and her *oh so lucky husband* Justin.

Great to spend time some QT with the baby sister and friends Annie, Ryan and Tonya. Saw a lot of other JC grads — so good to catch up, albeit briefly.

LAB + JLC

The gurls:

The guys:

The Bradshaw Vineyard, looking sharp!

Annie B!!


Mossy moss

Untitled from Leslie Bradshaw on Vimeo.