Changes in agriculture industry highlighted at annual 'Agriculture Is Everyone's Business'

Local farmers, educators, political leaders and other members of the community learned about the changing agriculture industry at the third annual "Agriculture Is Everyone's Business" event, held Friday, Jan. 16 in the Southern State Community College Patriot Center.

According to Highland County Chamber of Commerce Executive Assistant Stormi Bledsoe, approximately 450 individuals attended the breakfast and series of discussions on agriculture in Ohio and in the Midwest.

After the crowd watched the emotional Dodge Ram Super Bowl commercial using Paul Harvey's 1978 "So God Made A Farmer" speech, chamber president Melissa Elmore welcomed the crowd.

"The Chamber's goal and mission here today is to celebrate all of you sitting here today," Elmore said. "Not just to celebrate you, but the leading industry in Highland County – agriculture."

Elmore took time to thank all of the event's many sponsors, supporters and organizers, including Ponderosa and Andrea Holt, who provided breakfast for the large crowd; Terry Mikkelsen, who provided sound; Southern State Community College, for providing the facility; and the Highland County Farm Bureau and Highland County Soil and Water for their assistance in the event's setup.

Elmore also named and thanked the event's sponsors, including: Bane-Welker Equipment (formerly The Equipment Superstore), BioGene Seeds, Buckeye Country 105.5 FM, Carraher Ag, Channel Seeds, Crop Production Services, Ervin Hill Incorporated - Mark Edenfield Fuel, Holtfield LLC, Farm Credit Mid-America, First State Bank, Five Points Implement, Hamilton Insurance, Lerch's Barnlot, Merchants National Bank, NCB, Ohio Asphaltic Limestone, Rick Williams Auction Company, South Central Power, Southern Hills Community Bank, Southern State Community College, Tom Pitzer Trucking, TruPointe, Ventura's Feed and Country Store and Zimmerman Brothers.

Elmore also thanked the Chamber's Ag committee – Marty Cox, Heather Cummings, Jeff Dickey, Brad Elmore, Tim Parry and Rick Williams – for their help in planning the event.

Finally, Elmore thanked the farmers in attendance for their service.

"Every night, families across the nation sit down to dinner with Highland County," Elmore said. "From Seattle to Savannah, from Phoenix to Boston, Highland County products are bringing families closer together.

"Every facet of our ag community works together to bring the best products to the table. From the seedsmen to the farmers to the truck drivers and storefronts, ag is entwined all throughout Ohio and Highland County. I want to take a moment and thank you, the members of this ag community, for being America's unsung heroes. Thank you for taking time away from your families so that I could feed my own. Thank you for the hours you spend to keep America prosperous, and thank you for spending time with us today."

Southern State Community College President Kevin Boys praised farmers for "that connection you have to our Maker."

"I'm always reminded of an ancient hymn that was re-popularized through the musical 'Godspell,'" Boys said. "'We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it's fed and watered by God's almighty hand.' You know you have a piece of it, but there's an awful lot of it that comes from the blessings of God, our Maker. I just want to say thank you."

Boys introduced 2014-15 Ohio FFA District 9 President Matt Hiser of Greene County, who spoke on behalf of the Future Farmers of America, while local FFA representatives served as waiters and assisted with various duties throughout the event.

Hiser has participated in livestock judging, soil judging and public speaking. He earned his FFA State Degree in 2013 and is studying agriculture business and applied economics at The Ohio State University.

Hiser defined FFA as "family, farming and America."

"Those three simple letters and three simple words define how I look at agriculture and FFA as a building block in my community," Hiser said. "As the son of a sixth-generation farmer, I understand the importance of family and how it impacts American agriculture.

"Family, farming and America encompasses what FFA stands for. We must be thankful that when we get out of bed in the morning and when we lay our heads down at night, our community of farmers across this great nation support and light the way that they do so that FFA students like myself can succeed."

Ohio Director of Agriculture and lifelong Highland County resident David Daniels discussed the "evolution of agriculture."

"We've got challenges that we face every day," Daniels said. "These are challenges that we've met, we've conquered, we've moved and continued to be productive.

"What works today is going to be outdated tomorrow. No one knows that better than us, but we're going to meet those challenges head-on, and I know we'll always prevail."

Daniels also spoke of the growing "local food movement" in various cities and states, where "big ag" is thought of as "bad." Daniels said he recently visited Vermont, where he said agriculture is the third-leading industry, and said they are trying to launch their own "local food movement."

"They were talking about how great these methods were," Daniels said. "We made sure that they understood: You can't feed yourselves. You rely on big ag from all across the Midwest.

"We'd like to make sure that while they talk about these things that they're talking about it in conjunction with all those things that we do."

Daniels discussed two Ohio farms as examples – Cooper Farms and Buurma Farms – that started with a simple family operation and expanded into two of the largest agribusinesses in the state.

"I would argue with anybody that that's exactly what we want businesses to do in the state of Ohio," Daniels said. "We want them to start out from those humble beginnings, and that's what they become."

Daniels left the crowd with words of wisdom from the Department of Agriculture.

"We have a banner that hangs up over our lobby," Daniels said. "It says, 'When there's food on the table, there's a lot of things to talk about. When there's no food on the table, there's only one thing to talk about.' Remember that as you go out and do your jobs every day."

"Machinery Pete" Greg Peterson served as the keynote speaker, providing a lively discussion on his 25 years of work researching and analyzing machinery auction prices. His database totals close to 500,000 auction sale prices on roughly 70 categories of equipment, making it the most comprehensive and complete of its kind. Peterson also authors regular columns for Farm Journal, Implement & Tractor and Top Producer magazines and blogs on AgWeb.

Peterson discussed some of his favorite auction experiences over the years and shared data on machinery sale trends.

Peterson also talked about social media's impact on his career in recent years, saying his daughters helped him start his online presence, which includes over 38,000 Facebook followers, nearly 6,000 YouTube subscribers and close to 5,000 Twitter followers.

"Facebook, YouTube and social media have changed everything for me," Peterson said.

Peterson said that he's now posted over 500 YouTube videos.

"We've had 275 followers a day, people watching auction videos and stories," Peterson said. "I like to listen. It's so fun to come on site and have dinner and talk with you, because every one of you has a story. Whether it's a dealership, a farm … it's so fun."

Peterson discussed a few of his favorite stories, including a 101-year-old John Deere salesman who sold machinery starting in the 1930s and '40s while raising 12 children with his wife of 74 years. Another 96-year-old gentleman he interviewed several years ago worked for Henry Ford in 1929 and told Peterson a story about buying Ford a candy bar.

"When Facebook started, I wanted no part of it," Peterson said. "But I quickly saw that the visual image was going to let us do some things."

Peterson told the crowd different examples of how his Facebook has brought people together. Two brothers located and purchased their late father's Ford 5000 tractor that had been sold years earlier, and they sent Peterson a photo of themselves and their mother reunited with the tractor.

"Every day I get these pictures and these stories, and it's so fun to turn around and present these to the audience," Peterson said. "The emotional connections that particularly tractors have in our families is really powerful stuff."

Peterson also showed a slideshow of photos submitted by fans of "kids in tractors."

"When I was a little guy I wanted to be like Dad," Peterson said. "My dad was an implement dealer in western Minnesota, so that's kind how I grew up around machinery. Being with Dad and being like Dad is kind of what it is when you're a little guy."

Peterson then discussed IRS Section 179's impact on machinery sales and shared tables of data from the past 25 years on machinery prices and purchasing trends with photo examples of tractors and their selling prices at auction.

"I think we are going to back to the old pattern we used to see, which would be a strong fourth quarter, a strong first quarter until about St. Patrick's Day and then the prices start getting softer," Peterson said.

Peterson's advice for the crowd was that sharing the history of tractors before selling them can help increase the number of interested buyers.

"There's an emotional element to buying," Peterson said. "The reason an auction is such a vibrant way to sell anything is because great auction companies put emotion to work. If you are a seller of a piece of equipment, if you can engage buyers emotionally in what you're selling, that's a good thing."

Peterson cited an example of an Ohio auction where the brother of a recently deceased gentleman recorded a video for an auction company before selling his farm equipment.

"Now you see the brother talking about the farm and the machinery and you see the barn in the background," Peterson said. "You've engaged buyers emotionally, so you're not just buying an 8420 – you're buying Bill's 8420 or Bob's 8420, and you know the story of it."

Peterson said his "number-one suggestion" is for farmers to have their loved ones use their cameras or smartphones to record them working with the machinery.

"You guys take great care of your equipment in southern Ohio," Peterson said. "Get visual evidence of your equipment in action."

As Peterson shared his love of social media, he encouraged the crowd to get involved and use it in their own work.

"I think we'er sitting here with more tools to share our story," Peterson said. "Start a Facebook page. Let's control our message to folks in the city and around us who don't know what goes into farming and how awesome this is and what you do."

Following the keynote address, Rick Williams of Rick Williams Auction Company conducted an auction of three pedal tractors with assistance from Daniels, Brad Williams, Senator Bob Peterson.

Tractors were donated by Five Points Implement Co.; Steve Thompson of Thompson Funeral Services and Sue Davis of Preferred Midwest Title/Davis Law Office; and Bane-Welker Equipment. Proceeds from the auction were to be donated to Highland County 4-H and Highland County FFA.

The highest bidders were Kevin Leach of Bane-Welker Equipment (who donated the tractor back after purchasing it); Ken Davis Farms; and South Central Power and Merchants National Bank.

After the auction, Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors President David Fauber concluded the event by thanking those in attendance and encouraging participation in upcoming Chamber events.