Modern-day Farm Chick’s Social Media Journey Began with a Talk to Grandma
Knowing the importance of bridging the gap between from farm to table, Annaliese Wegner toyed with the idea of starting a blog to take her dairy good message mainstream. But since Dairy Carrie was in the same state as her and was making a big splash advocating for dairy, Wegner’s blog idea stayed just that—an idea.
“Truthfully, I didn’t know where to start,” she says. “I didn’t want to be judged, ridiculed, or even worse, have no one care.”
Deep down, Wegner knew she wasn’t alone, knowing that more dairy farms needed to stand up to advocate, but she stood idle in the fear of rejection. From time to time, she would share Dairy Carrie’s blogs and others who blogged with her maternal grandparents who are a bit removed from agriculture.
“After I shared a post about animal abuse with my grandma, she immediately called me and began praising me,” Wegner said. “Grandma told me how well informed it was and assumed I wrote it. I, of course, corrected her, but it kind of got me thinking, I really could do this. I could blog.”
And, deep down, Wegner knew that she needed to make time to advocate her agriculture story.
“I thought at least I can keep my grandparents in the loop about me, or farm and farming practices if I started a blog,” she says.
From there, she set up a blog on wordpress.com and began blogging about all the happenings on the farm. Wegner shares that she started writing about what she knows best—the things that she assumed everyone just knew.
“Like how often we milk cows, how we provide our cows with fresh bedding, how we work with a veterinarian,” she says. “Really the basic stuff.”
Wegner was raised on her family’s 1,500-cow dairy in Baldwin, Wis. After high school, she attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and graduated with a degree in dairy science. She was also active with the University’s dairy club, which set the stage for where she would meet her future husband, Tom.
After graduation, Wegner followed Tom to his family’s farm in Ettrick. They later married and have a set of four-year-old twins, Lane and Sage. Annaliese and Tom farm alongside his parents, Jeff and Betty Wenger. Together, they milk 700 cows three times a day and all are actively involved on the family farm.
The busy schedule of taking care of twin children, as well as help with caring for the cows, gave Wegner the idea to share her blog post through social channels, like Facebook and Instagram. This is where she realized that the things she assumed were basic, were in fact not.
“My Facebook friends, which include many of my rural classmates and acquaintances, were surprised to learn about our everyday farm practices,” she says.
Wegner then decided to share more and soon developed her own Facebook and Instagram named Modern-day Farm chick.
Today Wegner’s social accounts tally up to more than 121,000 Facebook followers and nearly 33,000 Instagram followers. The fourth-generation farmer says that every single farmer puts a face to farming.
“We cannot rely on a handful of farmers on the internet to carry the load,” she says. “Change starts right here in our very communities. My whole philosophy through my advocating journey has been, ‘I might not change the world, but I could change the world for one person.’”
Wegner says if she can make one person feel more comfortable about the choices they’re making in the grocery store or feel more connected with farmers, the time and devotion she puts into advocating is well worth it.
The Modern-day Farm Chick’s mainstream blog and social channels have done more than keeping grandma updated on what is happening on the farm. It has answered tough questions and highlighted the bright spots about dairy farming life. Wegner plans on continuing to share her dairy life through the lens of her phone to her thousands of followers with the hopes to continue narrowing the gap between farm to table.
Four Tips for Sharing Your Farm Story:
- Pick an idea. There are many ways to share your farm story. Start with one idea and then go from there. No matter what you do or how often you share, you are making a difference.
- Avoid jargon. Be yourself when you’re telling your dairy story. Whether that is being laid back, funny – be you, but also remember that followers don’t understand phrases, like, ‘she has a beautiful discharge, I’ll breed her later’ or ‘she died, pull her around back.’ Be open and honest, but also make it understandable for all the followers.
- Find common ground. Figure out how you can relate to people. Ask yourself what else do you have in common? After all, we are more than farmers, we are coaches, foodies, sport enthusiasts, parents and more. Talk about other things and then figure out where your farm content fits in. Put yourself out there. Join new groups. Find a common thread.
- You don’t have to be an expert on everything. There may come a time when someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer and that is okay. Be honest and do your best to point them in the right direction to find the answer.
- Be positive. There is going to come a time when someone makes a negative comment about you or agriculture and it is going to tick you off, but you need to remain calm. Getting fired up, calling someone names, or talking negatively is not going to get your message across. You truly catch more flies with sugar.
