The Scholar of Business

As a farmer you are like a small business professional. You need to sell your agricultural products – crops, soil, livestock, cattle, cows, pigs, dairy, farm machinery and equipment. You need agriculture leads so that you can sell and make a living.

The good news is that it is quite easy to generate agriculture leads via the internet. The number of farms that have their own website is still relatively quite low. If you create a website for your farm you would be a technological leader in the industry. You could get the majority of web searchers that are looking for your products.

Not only could you receive organic search visitors to your site but to receive more sales leads, you could advertise in the sponsored results of search engines. The way it works is that you purchase whatever keywords you want (for example, beef, pork, wheat, cattle, crops, soil, farm equipment, farm machinery) and whenever someone searches those keywords and clicks on your link they are taken to your website and you receive the agriculture leads.

You can hire a website designer to create a professional looking website these days for under $100. To purchase ads on internet search engines is so easy that you can do it yourself (DIY). All the main search engines allow you to purchase ads, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. And, it is so inexpensive that it would cost you a mere pennies each time someone clicks on your ad.

As a farmer you are like a small business professional. You need to sell your agricultural products – crops, soil, livestock, cattle, cows, pigs, dairy, farm machinery and equipment. You need agriculture leads so that you can sell and make a living.

It is usual for grain that has been harvested to be stored in the grain storage silos. What exactly is a silo? It is a storage structure for keeping the large amount of materials like grain, wood chips, cement and cereals. Harvested grains have to be stored using effective grain storage systems to prevent the products from going bad. In fact, these great innovative structures allow the stored grains to stay fresh and at their best so that when the time is right, they can be marketed to the consumers.

Silos can be built from different materials like cement, bricks and metals. Most harvested farm products are stored in metal grain storage silos. Materials like corrugated galvanized metal and smooth metal are used to build such silos. These silos are constructed cylindrical in shape and can comes with either a flat bottomed or conical bottomed.

Although different constructors have different designs, these silos usually is designed with a man-hole at the highest panels and an outlet pipe at the lower part of the structure. Both openings can be locked tight when not in use. Normally, a good quality silo can be used for more than 30 years and it is very easily maintained.

With research and innovative technology these days, silos are not just plainly a storage space like the traditional storage warehouse. Usually, when silos are built, there are other built-in systems which assist in storing the grain easier, more conveniently and fresher. You will have the auto system to monitor the temperature in the silo, the system for the ventilation of air, the system to clear the grain, the system to transport the grain and even systems that fumigate to get rid of pests as well as drying to prevent moisture.

Harrows are a type of agricultural machinery that has been used since the Middle Ages. Disc harrows are indispensable when it comes to cultivating the soil before crops are planted. The main advantage is that they can chop up soil that has been recently plowed and thus eliminate clumps or simply loosen the soil if it has been packed. In the past, they were horse-drawn, but today they are usually towed after the tractor. Apart from disc type, there are also tine, chain, and spike harrows. Disc harrows are designed to be used for heavy work. As the name suggests, they consist of many iron or steel discs attached to a frame. Usually they are arranged into two to four sections.

We have all probably heard about the challenges and problems with plastics breaking down from trash in the ocean. Soda and water bottle containers, plastic bags, and other plastic trash and debris that washes out to see, or worse is dumped there. Terrible stuff, and the environmentalists are right about this one, it’s totally unacceptable, and yet, that what humans are doing around the planet. The Atlantic and Pacific Gyre “trash islands” as they are called swirl around and around polluting our sea.

An interesting article to read is “Plastic People of the Universe; Everything You Wanted to Know About the Biology of Plastic (but were afraid to ask),” by Jill Neiwark in Discover Magazine. You can look it up online if you wish to find a copy. The problem is that plastic breaks down and those molecules and polymer chains affect life. In the ocean it can change the sex of fish, in humans it can cause havoc for future generations.

Now then, let’s talk about plastic usage in agriculture, thin plastics which are used one time, break down quickly, and are discarded. Have you ever seen the giant plastic sheets used on Strawberry fields to hold in the moisture and give the seeds the green house effect, also keeping birds from the seeds giving them a chance to grow? Did you know that in some regions of our nation, such as the Oxnard Plain (in California) that they grow strawberries 3 seasons per year?

My gosh that is a lot of plastic, and all that ends up in the landfills. Is there an easier way? Perhaps, not, as it’s a pretty easy process, shrink wrapping a field of strawberries with a giant machine towed behind a tractor. Then coming back and unwrapping it when completed, often discarding the plastic, sending it to the dump. Is this an environmentally wise way to grow strawberry crops? After all, there is enough plastic in the world as we discussed above already, and it’s really causing problems

People who find satisfaction and pleasure in dealing with nature particularly animals, livestock and the like would definitely discover that being an agricultural inspector is a career suited for them. This is generally considered a green job because of its direct interaction and care for animals, plants and other forms of natural resources. Most important and relevant in agricultural countries or states, this job is definitely something that requires a lot of dedication, knowledge and passion for this particular craft.

The career outlook for an agricultural inspector should be plentiful. They make on average $31-$49 thousand a year.

What is an agricultural inspector?

This job is potentially endorsed and provided mainly by the Department of Agriculture as part of the agency’s advocacy for health and proper stewardship of the natural resources. In line with the nature of their work, inspectors are responsible for making sure that agri-businesses and companies strictly comply with the different regulations and laws provided by the state and federal government. These would generally be covering the safety of meat and its processes, poultry, egg, vegetable and fruits productions must likewise follow and adhere with certain standards before they would be marketed to the general public or consumers. In short agricultural inspectors are the main figures that protect the public’s welfare and health from any food-related illnesses and diseases.

Depending on the level of the inspector, there job description would differently vary from mere inspection, testing and sampling of the different agricultural products to giving of necessary supervision, training and guidance which are often delegated to senior inspectors or high level agricultural inspectors. Some of the manual works that these professionals may also do are lifting of different weights up to 100 pounds which they need to perform their tasks and obligations.

One item that every farmer is familiar with is the backhoes. Many people rely on these get a tough job done, and there are many affordable versions available. They can be used in landscaping, farming, light construction, at nurseries, at golf courses, at cemeteries, and any other location that need a backhoe to get the job done.

What types of jobs can backhoes perform? The pieces of heavy machinery can dig holes, move heavy items, excavate, and much more! These tractors also go by many other names including JCB, rear actor, and back actor. Many companies make this heavy equipment tractor including John Deere, Caterpillar, Case, and New Holland. These really get a tough job done quickly. They typically have a digging bucket on the front of a two-part arm. This part of the vehicle is often referred to as the boom and dipper, or boom and dipper stick. These terms are interchangeable, and farmers and contraction workers referred to them either way. They are typically powered by hydraulics. Some people call the metal bar that is like a hinge attached the scoop the thumb.

This piece of heavy machinery was originally produced by the JCB Company. They are in English company, that started manufacturing this piece in 1953. The first American version was created in 1959, by the Hy-Dynamic company. A humorous part of this invention’s history is known as the backhoe fade. This term refers to damage done by backhoes. If a phone line gets dug up or cut, this is the term used to describe this occurrence. It is more of an inside joke between those who work with this equipment.