Survey says: Podcasts are becoming more popular with local farmers

A new year is a good time to start a new habit, and Farm Credit Canada (FCC) suggests that regularly listening to a podcast is a good idea for Canadian producers.

Canada’s leading provider of agriculture lending products and services now has a series of podcasts, entitled FCC Edge, available online.

“A podcast is mobile friendly. Producers can access valuable information on the go,” said Lyndon Carlson, FCC senior vice president of marketing.

“You can listen and learn in the tractor, barn, on the road or at home. It’s all about convenience and making the most of people’s time.”

According to the 2011 E-Business in Agriculture study conducted by Ipsos Forward Research, 38 per cent of Canadian producers with $50,000 plus in revenues have listened or subscribed to an online audio podcast in the past 12 months for either personal use or farm related/farm business purposes. Twenty-five per cent have done so for farm related/farm business purposes. The number rises to 48 per cent for personal use and/or farm related/farm business purposes (34 per cent for farm related/farm business purposes) for those with revenues of $500,000 or more.

The 20-minute, FCC podcast produced bi-monthly, is hosted by Kevin Stewart, longtime host on AgVision TV.

“When we develop content, we look for topics that fuel possibility-thinking. So many of the very successful producers constantly put themselves in a position to learn and be stretched, so we try to foster that,” said Stewart. “The topics range from discussions on business and technology, to inspiration and farm safety. Our goal is for the features and interviews to be relevant to Canadian agriculture right now.”

Topics of the podcasts have included:

• managing computer files across all your devices

• recognizing opportunities

• reducing hearing loss on the farm

• turning your to-do list to a stop-doing list

• 10 stupid things we do to break up our business

• Google search tricks

“FCC did some research about technology adoption by Canadian agricultural producers which showed that they are on par with other Canadians,” said Jean-Philippe Gervais, FCC senior agriculture economist.

“It’s this willingness to keep learning, to keep working toward making their businesses better that helps to set Canadian producers apart. Consumers’ access to safe, quality and convenient foods is a function of innovations generated across the entire agri-food supply chain. For producers, access to information is key in sorting out the complexities of today’s industry.”

To listen to FCC Edge, go to www.fcc.ca/edge. You can also subscribe to the Edge on iTunes.