Facebook success

During the third week of July in Livingston County, Southern rust was found and confirmed in corn. This was the first confirmed case in the state for the 2019 growing season. I wanted to get the word out fast to our counties producers. I used conventional ways of putting information out (i.e. newspaper and mailers,) but also chose to get the information out with social media. I put together a short post on our Livingston County ANR Facebook page and a group e-mail to my grain producers list using the information and photos from some great information our college had put out.

“Southern Rust has been confirmed in Livingston Co in corn. For more information contact our Extension office. We will continue to monitor disease, but it is important to stress to farmers that they have time to make thoughtful decisions on fungicide application in our area. The good news is that the cooler temperatures next week will slow down southern rust development, so with the very low levels we have detected so far, farmers do not need to make hasty decisions. As a reminder here are the fungicide guidelines summarized from the southern rust publication.”

The social media post was an immediate success. Normally most Facebook post have several hundred people reached, less than a hundred engaged and maybe one or two shares. The southern Rust post this year expanded Livingston's County ANR page to 6783 people reached, 829 engagements and 38 shares just for this one post.