Happy birthday to you

Agriculture.com guys break out the cake

We served ourselves sheet cake this week to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the launch Agriculture Online. In the fast-changing environment of digital media, we thought it worth pausing a bit to take stock of where we’ve been and where this whole A-train is headed.

One quick impression from the fifteen-year flashback: What goes around comes around.

The Internet world today feels a lot like it did in 1995—familiar in its uncertainty. Back in ’95 a lot of people were skeptical about whether many farmers would ever use the Web. We hear the same sort of questions today about farmers using new tools like social media or the iPad. We shall see.

A farmer friend told me when launched Agriculture.com that if we knew how this whole thing would pan out, we’d soon be sitting on the beach relaxing with a drink and watching the sunset.

We aren't sitting on the beach this week, but we did pause to reflect on a few things done that might be worth remembering. Our forums have helped people solve problems, like fixing a tough machinery repair or figuring out the farm bill. Folks have bought and sold millions of dollars worth of equipment in the classifieds. They’re received good advice from trusted markets and weather advisors. We’ve even helped a few marriages happen because of meetings on Agriculture.com.

Thanks to all of you for staying tuned to agriculture.com. We’ll keep working at it, and plan to be launching of number of new features soon that will kick off a new era for the website.

Oh, and for fun, here are a few of the trivia questions we posed at the staff party this week. Answers at the bottom. First one who gets them all right, well, I expect you’ll become about as rich and famous as we have. See you on the beach.

1. Who was Agriculture Online’s first marketing advisor?
a. Ray Grabanski
b. Roy Smith
c. Joe Victor
d. Mike McGinnis

2. On what browser was Agriculture Online first displayed?
a. Droid
b. Explorer
c. Netscape
d. Firefox

3. What country’s farm magazine publisher first partnered with Agriculture.com?
a. France
b. Russia
c. Mexico
d. Canada

4. What farm organization was first hosted on the Web by Agriculture Online?
a. FFA
b. National Pork Producer’s Association
c. Practical Farmers of Iowa
d. American Farm Bureau Federation

5. Who was Agriculture Online's first weather provider
a. AOL
b. DTN
c. Freese-Notis
d. Accu-Weather



Answers: 1, b. 2, c. 3, d. 4. a, 5. c