Tucked away in the den of his 127-year-old farmhouse, Ed Winkle huddles over his computer. The screen’s soft glow lights up his eyeglasses, reflecting messages about tractors, corn hybrids and crop insurance.
Winkle is checking the latest postings on his favorite Internet farm forum. Advice from fellow farmers around the country has enabled him to increase his corn and soybean production, better market his crops, learn how to rebuild engines and get good tires for his tractor.
Online forums, message boards and chat rooms are replacing rural coffee shops and feed mills as places for farmers to talk farming and trade tips as more of rural America goes online.
Fifty-one percent of U.S. farms have Internet access, according to a July 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 48 percent in 2003. More than two-thirds of them still use dial-up access.
Photo by carlosluis.
Tinus on February 19th, 2007 at 4:06 am
I have a Dutch website targetted at farmers. Everyday I get between 4 and 5 thousand Dutch visitors. This week I will roll out an international version since I get many requests to translate the dang site :-)