Capital Region Business Journal

Background: Grew up on a dairy farm in Oconto County. Has been a farm broadcaster professionally since 1987. Recently celebrated her 15th anniversary in the Madison market. Named the 2003 Farm Broadcaster of the Year for the Western United States.

A: Number one and two are definitely programming and public outreach. There aren't many farmers standing around in my office, so I need to go out and see them. I am also responsible for my department's business plan and budget. I'm responsible for growing my network, so I go out to radio stations that have shown interest in having me on the air and negotiate how much time they want to give me and what content are they interested in and come up with a plan to make it successful for them. I'm very finicky about giving a station what they want, not what I have to give. If it's a hot country station, I keep my tempo up to fit with their format and I keep my format tight so they're not slowing down too much. If it's talk format, I change it up and offer them a little something a little different.

A: When I first started in this business, I concentrated primarily on the farmers � what information they needed, what events they went to, how to keep them as listeners. My agribusiness clients at that time would have been implement dealers, dairy cooperatives, and feed and seed stores.

I also try to make sure I'm picking up the younger farmers. So I tailor my program to fit them � fast paced, to the point, very specific as far as what's happening with policy, what's happening with their markets and what's happening with their money.

Madison is a unique market for a farm broadcaster to try to survive in, so I also need to reach out to other lifestyle sections � like people who have a real passion for the land but work in 9-to-5 jobs away from their farm. I want to try to help them understand what goes on Monday through Friday while they're in the office.

And I want to reach out to the community-supported agriculture. You're seeing more and more of that in Wisconsin, the roadside markets, the pumpkin patches, the apple orchards and the on-farm visits. I have to think outside the box as far as how to reach them, keep them engaged, bring them information that's important to them without losing my core audience of farmers. With that, my agribusiness advertisers have changed to include law firms, banks, insurance companies, computer software companies and distance-learning opportunities.

A: Because we have so many radio stations ... and because it's such a tailored type of programming that's designed for a very specific listener, generally advertisers pay a bit of a premium. I may have three minutes on any given radio station to get all my information across and their commercial will be within that report, so it's very specialized.

A: "The Fabulous Farm Babe" nickname started out as a joke. When I came to Madison there was a sports personality called the Sports Babe. She was colorful. The Farm Bureau guys started introducing me at their meetings as "our Fabulous Farm Babe" and it stuck. Now it's turned into my brand. It's on my truck, on my Web site and on merchandise. I have to be a little careful with that particular branding idea because I don't want women thinking I'm condescending.

We have baby bibs that say "I'm a farm babe too." From my perspective, it promotes my brand, it broadens my demographic because grandparents buy it for the kids, people who see me on TV or hear me on radio but may have no connection to agriculture think it's a novelty, so they spread it around.

A: We're talking about doing a farm women's expo on topics like distance-learning opportunities, software programs, health care and employee management. But also fun topics like cheap and easy home makeovers for the farmhouse. We'd make it informative, fun and targeted specifically for them.

And next year I'll be down on the Capitol Square broadcasting from the Dane County Farmer's Market throughout the summer. On Saturdays, listeners will be able to hear me talking to the vendors at the market.

A: Women hold a tremendous amount of responsibility. They may be responsible for the financial management of a multimillion-dollar dairy facility. They're the child rearers, the accountants. They constantly look for educational opportunities, and they may be responsible for off-farm jobs to make sure the family has health-care coverage.

A: I have never seen so many people who want to get into agriculture. But they have a whole different way of looking at it. For example, some are just buying a facility and not worrying about a land base because of the price of land. They're coming up with all kinds of different business plans. A dairy farmer can take the raw product they produce, add value to it by making their cheese on the farm and then tell the story when the consumer comes to buy it.

Or a family farm today could be 2,000 cows with four brothers and dad all working it. Nothing's cheap these days, and they want to be able to have a vacation, and they want their kids to go to swim lessons and be in volleyball and soccer. Why do they have to compromise their lifestyle because milk is at the same price it was back in 1963? Consider the people running the pumpkin patches and the apple orchards and roadside stands, and I have a hard time describing what a farmer looks like these days because they come in so many different makes and models.

A: Urban sprawl is devastating agriculture. Imagine you're a farmer trying to buy 40, 80 or 100 more acres to keep your operation viable, and you have to justify $2,000 to $5,000 an acre. If you're in a more urban area, there's no way you can beat out Realtors or land developers to keep your farm going. More and more farmers are considering selling their home farm and moving to a less-densely populated area to try to get started again. But that's tough. Look at the roads we've developed, not just around southern Wisconsin, but statewide. Where do you think that land is coming from? We're not putting it across swamps; we're putting it across prime farmland and making farmers farm around it. We all understand the need for transportation. That's part of what helps make Wisconsin successful. But if you're a farmer and you can't find land nearby that can replace that, you're getting squeezed. And without a doubt, that will ultimately be what breaks the back of Wisconsin farmers if we don't figure out a way to work around it.

A: Go to any rural community, and they know whether agriculture's on an up or a down. When agriculture's up, farmers buy pickup trucks and expand services such as satellite TV and Internet. Farmers are still very much people who like to buy locally. Farmers support the local pharmacy, implement dealers, doctor, hardware store, lumber yard, car dealer and grocery store. Mom might get a new dishwasher or new siding on the house. You see that kind of thing happening when the farm economy is up. It's not extravagant. When they've got dollars, they're more than willing to spend it.

A: Farmers are trying to be savvy that way, but to cut out the middleman, you usually have to have a little cash yourself. So farmers are pooling the resources they have to find a new market and cut out the middleman through cooperatives and going together on ethanol facilities. Farmers can also do on-farm manufacturing of cheese, for instance, but as any business person will tell you, when you assume more responsibility, you usually need more capital investment. There's lots of potential. We're only limited by how creative we can think.

A: We have a lot of value-added products and specialty crops all around us � mint, ginseng, cranberries. The catch is continuing to look for new products consumers will get excited about and help support the market. It begins and ends with the consumer. The dairy industry is a perfect example. If the dairy industry had decided everybody in the United States only wanted whole milk in paper containers, how much milk do you think we'd be drinking today? We now have strawberry and blueberry flavors, resealable plastic containers and fast-food restaurants adding milk as an option to kids' meals. That's where I get excited about agriculture. We seem to be getting it now.

A: I was raised on a 200-acre dairy farm in Oconto County. We had about 40 cows. My uncle and his six boys farmed across the road. My mom was the herdsman, and dad also had off-farm jobs. They would sell a bull calf when I needed money during college. When you grow up in ag, everybody feels like family. When I do public appearances and meet people, I could be talking to my uncle or cousins.

A: When you grow up on a farm, and your whole family is in farming, and your husband is an agronomist, it's hard to know where the job ends and your farm background lifestyle begins. I enjoy going to county fairs and farm breakfasts. I also go to parades and drive an antique tractor I restored with my dad. I don't know what we would do for entertainment not related to agriculture.

'Fabulous Farm Babe' is passionate about her job

Interviewed by Debra Morrill

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