North Carolina Extension Agent Makes A Case For Twitter

In eastern North Carolina, cotton agent and Martin County Extension Director J.B. Coltrain uses Twitter to reach a small group of farmers interested in highly localized information: when to plant cotton and when moth counts reach a level that makes it advisable to use insecticides.

I cited Coltrain as a quick example this winter during a couple of ag conferences where I was asked to review new communications technology and how it applies to agriculture. Time was short, and I tend to talk too long, anyway, so I only briefly mentioned the fact that a North Carolina agent was using Twitter to file field reports but didn't go into further detail.

He actually does more with Twitter than just send out insect and crop reports. In the off-season, Coltrain uses the Twitter feed to announce production meetings and share information about such topics as cotton variety characteristics.

Even though Twitter is quick, easy and free, Coltrain hasn't dropped older methods of communication, like the recorded telephone messages he’s used to reach growers for years.

“I wish I could tell you that all Martin County farmers use this wonderful service, but they don’t. In spite of the fact that they have to do nothing once they set it up, that setting up part is the killer,” he says. “The dozen or so farmers who follow my tweets were basically set up by me.”