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Now
is the best time ever to be a
farmer…BUT, now is also the most
challenging time ever to be a
farmer! In your efforts to “keep
up”, we hope you tune in to Ag PhD seen each
week on RFD-TV. While much of what you
see on television will talk about things that are
beyond your control, including news, weather,
and grain markets, you won’t find much of tha
on Ag PhD. Instead, we focus on the things
you CAN control. Our goals are to help you
put more grain in your bin and more money in
your pocket. Here’s a little about how and
why we do it.
Ag PhD has been on the air for almost 6
years now, but the story began a long time
before that. My name is Brian Hefty, and I
host Ag PhD with my brother Darren each
week. In addition to our farm operation, our family also owns
a business called Hefty Seed
Company. Hefty Seed is one of the largest seed
and ag-chemical retailers in the Midwest with
stores in South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota.
If you farm, you’ve undoubtedly been to a
meeting held by your local ag-chemical retailer.
Chances are, the meeting consisted of a good
meal, a few drinks and a rep from a pesticide
manufacturer telling you how great his product
was. We used to do this, too, until about 10
years ago.
One night, after a small meeting involving a
chemical rep and a few farmers, it finally hit
us…we had just sat through a three-hour
meeting and got NOTHING that we could use
to truly help us in our farm operation! So that
winter, we did something we had never done:
We held our first Crop Production Workshop.
It went from 9 am to 4 pm, with a noon meal,
no
drinks, and no chemical reps…just Darren,
our father Ron, and me. We put together a 40-
page book with helpful reference guides and a
lot of information about how to raise better
crops. We covered much of what was in the
book and answered questions. The other thing
we did that we hadn’t done before was to NOT
talk about our company. We simply talked
about what we did on our farm and what
worked well for other farmers in the area. To
this day, we continue to follow the strategy that
we set forth in that first workshop: provide
unbiased information on the things farmers
need to help them produce better and more
profitable crops.
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The
response to this “new” type of work-
shop went over so well, that we continued to
do more and more each year, but there was still
so much information we wanted to share, and
so many farmers who wanted to learn more.
That’s when another idea hit us. One day, a
local ag television show asked us to advertise
on their show. We turned them down, but
right after the meeting, my Dad said the
words that led us to where we are today: “We
could do a TV show!” Now, my Dad has
been a farmer all his life, and hearing those
words come out of his mouth were pretty
surprising. Fortunately, we started getting
some information about how we could do the
show and just as importantly, who would air
it.
After those questions were answered, we
played with the format for a while, but we
eventually settled on the things you still see
today on Ag PhD. The last segment (and the
most popular segment) of every show is the
“Weed of the Week”. During the “Weed of
the Week” segment, we’ll show you how to
identify and control a weed that you may have
on your farm.
Another segment on each and every show is
called “Farm Basics.” After a short time on the
air, we realized that many non-farmers were
watching the program (or at least the first few
minutes of it). Since we live just outside the
largest city in South Dakota, it has always
disturbed us that people living 10 miles away
know absolutely nothing about agriculture.
Unfortunately, many city people believe that
farmers are uneducated, backwards, harmful to
the environment, and that we only work in the
spring and fall. Not only that, but many non-
farmers feel that farming is simple and anyone
can do it well. Since less than 1% of the
population farms, these problems will continue
to grow unless we as farmers educate those
who do not farm. That’s why we do Farm
Basics. The first few minutes of every show
eatures a common farming practice, put in
anguage the non-farmer can understand. The
esult…the most frequent comment I hear
rom non-farmers about Ag PhD is, “I had no
dea farmers had to know that much stuff! I
could understand the first part of your show,
but the rest of it was way over my head.”
Believe it or not, I hear this comment day after
day. So we hope we’re helping to educate
people about the value and importance of the
American farmer.
My brother Darren and I host Ag PhD each
week on RFD-TV. We still farm about 2500
acres, and just like you, we’re constantly in the
hunt for more grain and more profit. It’s out
here, we just need to learn how to achieve our
goals. Hopefully, Ag PhD can help you achieve
yours. We appreciate the great people at RFD-
TV for airing our program each week and
Thank all our viewers for their support.
Contact Information:
Ag PhD
47504 252nd Street
Baltic, SD 57003
(605) 529-5413
info@agphd.com
www.agphd.com |
