Day 1: Where Can a Website Take You?

Today is Day 1 of a 30-day blogging series initiated by Holly Spangler of Wallaces Farmer / Farm Progress magazines to help create understanding between farmers and non-farmers.  Holly will be blogging about 30 Days of Five Things.  For example: Five Things an Honest Farmwife Admits. Five Things You Need to Know at the Grocery Story. Five Things to Tell Your Friends about GMOs. The list just goes on…

Sounds like a blog worth reading, right?  I’m looking forward to it.  And I’ll admit, my own desire to create blog posts that people want to read every day is causing me a little anxiety.  I tried brainstorming a list of topics.  I’ve fretted about unique story ideas, but I finally decided that I’m simply going to write about 30 Days of Farming, Food & Family – because that’s what we do on TheFieldPosition.com.

Each Tuesday we’ll continue to post Larry Sailer’s “Musings of a Pig Farmer.”  Now that harvest is wrapping up across Latham Country, we’ll replace our Wednesday Crop Report feature with an (Almost) Wordless Wednesday post to describe our soybean production process.  Throwback Thursdays will give you a look into the Latham archives as we show how our seed company, as well as farming in general, have changed over the past 65 years.  Each Friday we’ll continue to feature a farm family and a favorite recipe.

Since it’s the first Friday of November, I’m pleased to feature one of the farming community’s leading bloggers.  Judi Graff, aka FARMnWIFE (@farmnwife on Twitter), describes herself as “a wife who farms in the middle of the Midwest. I love to show farmers and ag businesses how to make a website work for them. From simply telling your farm story to creating new business opportunities, it’s amazing where a website can take you.”

Oh, the places Judi has gone!  She first launched a website in 2007 to show her three kids showing their cattle.  Since her children are homeschooled, many visitors to her Kids Cattle website were others whom homeschool their children but aren’t familiar with farming.  These “city moms” saw Judi’s posts about cattle shows and started asking questions about farming, which led Judi to start blogging in 2007.

Then in 2009, Judi started the “Big Green Combine” blog about the purchase of a pre-owned John Deere combine after her family had harvested for 15 years with red ones.  That blog documented the harvest season, which turned out to be one of the most challenging seasons. Rains fell frequently that fall and harvest wasn’t complete until Dec. 13, after the ground had frozen, and they could reenter the fields.  The “Big Green Combine” blog became a written history of the Graff family farm and will provide insight into the family’s heritage for generations to come.

A short time later, Judi started another site for her family’s farming operation.  Because it became extremely challenging to keep all blogs current, she joined them together.  Now all past and current posts may be viewed at Graff Land and Livestock.

“My focus for blogging is really on telling our farming story and recording events for generations to come.  It’s our family’s heritage, and if we don’t record it, it will be lost,” says Judi.  “If I can do some advocating along the way, even better.  Blog on, baby!”

Due to her experience with most blogging platforms, other farmers began asking Judi how they could get started.  That led her to create FARMnWIFE, where she helps farmers and ag business owners make their sites productive.  She also gives presentations to social media and ag organizations like #140conference and AgChat.  I had the pleasure of meeting Judi at one of these gatherings, and today I’m honored that she is sharing one of her family’s favorite recipes with us on TheFieldPosition.

“This recipe is always requested at family gatherings. It’s so silly how easy it is, but everyone loves it!” says Judi.

Simple and delicious…  That’s my mantra in the kitchen.  You can bet I’ll be whipping up this casserole for our family’s Thanksgiving potluck.  Thanks again for sharing, Judi!