If you haven't disconnected your slow dial-up Internet for high-speed access, necessity may do it for you.
"Internet speed is essential to my farm operation," says Robert Blair, a 1,500-acre farmer in Kendrick, Idaho. "I'm always receiving or sending e-mail with larger and larger files—whether it's product info, field maps, yield data. My dial-up took forever to download one document. I found I was spending too much time in my office just with basic e-mail and checking markets, so I switched last spring."
Making the switch easier is the growing number of providers offering the same high-speed broadband to rural customers that's found in urban areas (see sidebar). Price packages are also more attractive with the average cost at about $40 to $60 per month.
According to the August 2007 USDA Farm Computer Use Survey, 55% of U.S. farms have Internet access. While dial-up (47%) is the most common method for connecting to the Internet, there has been rapid growth in DSL, cable, satellite and wireless.
Since 2005, the number of users with DSL doubled to 27%. Collectively, cable, satellite and wireless virtually doubled too, and are now found on 7% of U.S. farms with Internet access.
"Studies show larger, more successful farms are more likely to have a high-speed connection to the Internet," says Robert Paarlberg, executive director of the Broadband Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to bring high-speed access to rural America.
"While the growth is at least partially due to size, I think the greater influence comes from affordable connectivity," he continues. Paarlberg expects the biggest jumps in connectivitiy to come from wireless and satellite—technologies that don't require a wire to be run to the farm.
Satellite was the main and only option for Blair's rural Idaho location. "I looked at several options and chose Agristar for the simple reason that they were able to provide agricultural markets, weather and news along with the service—so I can read while catching up on e-mail," he says. "Everything is right there, and their expansion capability is attractive too."
Saving time adds value. Blair has already reduced his office time since he has been using broadband. "I save a minimum half-hour per day, or 14 hours a month. And if you take my labor rate of $10 an hour ('Hey I'm cheap,' he laughs) it more than pays for itself. It is worth its weight in gold to me, and it frees you up to do more things around the farm that need to be done."
Colfax, Ill., grower David Kennedy said good-bye to his dial-up and agrees with the timesavings. "The timely information we receive over e-mail—whether it's a crop scouting report from my local fertilizer dealer or market advisory report—helps us manage the crop and market it too. So that has helped our farming operation," he says.
Both Kennedy and Blair claim high-speed access also has improved their marketing. "Because it's easier to not only check prices often, you also can find concise analysis," Blair adds. "The speed alone is worth the cost," Kennedy says. "It's a real timesaver."