On a return flight home recently I was seated by two very nerdy young men. I say that with all respect, as a lot of folks that develop software are not just cool but they play with their cell phones and computers a lot and speak another language.
Seeing an opportunity for someone to teach me how to operate my new cell phone and feeling giddy with exhaustion, I bravely initiated a conversation about their work (environmental software), made note of their interests and asked about my phone. They quickly made it clear that my phone was too complicated for anyone “my age” and they simply advised that I should not have bought it because they “would never buy one for their mom.” Strike one.
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As every person we meet is a potential new customer for the beef industry, I pulled up my boots and waded in deep to explain that I was in the farming and ranching community. Cool! They were dying to ask someone a very important question. “What are those squares on the ground?” Pardon me? I explained the squares and those men were in awe that as a ranching and farming community most of us not only owned one, but several or many “squares” of ground. The shared chants of “Wow, that is so epic dude” were softly repeated with hushed undertones of “she must be pulling our leg.”
This was further exaggerated by an immediate calculation as to the square footage of a quarter section in comparison to their urban corner condo. Under their glare of obvious disbelief I saw myself salvaging the conversation by shifting it to food.
Urbanites who have no connection to the land consider themselves foodie-goodies and experts on food. My two flight partners were no different. If preaching were a national sport, they would have won a gold medal for their pure and impassioned call to salvation which would be accomplished by avoiding bad foods, like beef. Perfect. I haven’t been home in a week, my cell phone does not work, I am too old to operate it and I have a David Suzuki and PETA pal sitting beside me!
It would have been easy to just drop the conversation or try to convince them through conventional learning that the food we produce is safe and nutritious. I could have emphasized our care of food animals and talked about production practises. Instead, I pulled technology out of my bag and waved it under their noses.
In absolute wonderment they listened as I explained the advancements in the beef and food production industries. They were enthralled with the fact that the beef industry has the software to track every event in an animal’s life, including its birthday, feed intake, treatments and movement. Quickly identifying with scanning, they wanted to know more on the identification of animals and how that carried through the production and processing system. I explained that huge databases can be up and downloaded chute side on a cell phone and how that information could be used in selling or exporting beef cattle.
The fact that we were not restricted by the volume of cattle practically had these two guys frothing at the mouth as they imagined the engineering behind that kind of software. By the time we were near to our destination, I was into “real-time” research and genomics and they were just sitting there gaping at me with their cell phones games on ignore and laptops closed.
I was thinking about that comment of being too old for the technology in my cell phone when I ramped up my argument and hit them with the advancements in investment and risk management software. Oh, the glory! I was not only in the game but had scored a home run!
My two self-proclaimed geek friends were thrilled with the conversation, announcing that this was the best plane ride they had ever had and that beef was “an epic industry.” Those two young men will now tell many of their urban friends about the leading-edge technology in the beef industry and how cool we are as beef producers, even if we can’t operate our new cell phones!
BrendaSchoeppisamarketanalystandtheownerandauthorofBeeflink,anationalbeefcattlemarketnewsletter.Aprofessionalspeakerandindustrymarketandresearchconsultant,sheranchesnearRimbey,Alberta. [email protected].
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“Whatarethose squaresonthe ground?”
