How the Hadricks used social media to change ag story-telling

It’s very important and all the buzz these days – tell your story. If you are in agriculture, you need to tell your story.


For Troy and Stacy Hadrick, cow/calf producers near Vale, S.D., telling their story is not just something they do in passing. It has become their absolute passion – many would say their second and most important career.

For the couple, telling their story was at first a necessity – their livelihood on the ranch depended on it – then it became ingrained in their soul.
The Hadricks have told their unique story around the country and consider it their pleasure to accept invitations to come speak whenever they are asked.
“We want to show other farmers and ranchers how to communicate – how to prepare a 30-second elevator speech,” Stacy said, adding producers need to have a prepared short speech to tell the public about what they do, whether they are asked questions at a church buffet, on an airplane, at a grocery store or after a meeting.
For example, Troy said his “30-second elevator speech is ‘My name is Troy Hadrick. I am a fifth-generation American rancher. Every day, my family and I work hard to raise the beef that your family eats.”
Stacy added, “We’ve got to be ready to talk. There is just 2 percent of us in agriculture. You’ll find talking eyeball to eyeball is a really cool thing.”
Those in agriculture really need to go into schools and talk about agriculture to youth, Stacy said.
“You will be a rock star to those kids. Why aren’t you taking the time to shape future generations?” she asked.
A good elevator speech will definitely make a difference in how the public perceives agriculture, Stacy said, adding it really made a difference in their own lives.
After all, how many ranchers have a steer that may have caused the futures market and calf prices to go south? Or that have had a story written about them in the New York Times that caused someone to call and ask to buy that same steer to raise on a refuge and “live out its natural life.”
But the Hadricks didn’t just bow down and go back to the ranch. They fought back – and now they are teaching others how to fight back and win.
In their presentation, Troy wears a cowboy hat and takes a microphone stage left; Stacy stage right. One talks, then the other in a fast pace. Their quick-on-the-draw presentation is both humorous and sad – the audience is sucked in like grasshoppers on a fresh hot field of alfalfa.
Troy tells the story of how they got roped into being advocates for agriculture. A New York Times food writer named Michael Pollan wanted to write a story about a steer from birth to dinner plate at Stacy’s parents’ ranch in 2002.
Pollan came out and “ate dinner with us and lied to us.” The story that ran said the Hadricks “abused their livestock, polluted the air and grew food that made people sick,” Troy said.
But it got them mad enough to take the reins of their own story in tow.
“We got burned by this guy and we’re not going to let him do it again,” Troy said, adding Pollan got one thing right, “I am a muscular post of a man.”
After giving a speech, they started a website (www.agvocatesforag) that tells their story and of how others in agriculture can tell their story, too.
“There is this thing called Facebook. I thought maybe we can use Facebook, and start Advocates for Agriculture and it would show up on your wall, and I could hit ‘share’ and it would go out to friends, and it wouldn’t cost us anything,” he said.
Troy explained one person in 10 tells the other people how to vote, where to eat and what to buy and those in agriculture need to tell their side.
“Everytime we get a chance, we try to change people’s perception of ag. We tell our story,” he said. “If you are not at the table, you are probably on the menu.”
They also started to use YouTube, but again, it wasn’t because they set out to do that.
Troy said he heard that a certain Australian wine company had donated $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a group that spends only a small fraction of its money on the care of animals.
He was angered because this wine company depended on farmers to grow grapes for them, and the HSUS was trying to put ranchers out of business.
So he and Stacy decided to put a little video on YouTube. They took a bottle of that wine and went out in their bull pen and poured it out and explained why they were doing it.
Troy linked their video to the company’s web page.
There were 800 views the first day; 2,000 to 5,000 the second day and many more in the following days.
Next thing they knew, an Australian television network was calling them and wanting to interview them. The interview played for 15 minutes in Australia.
“Fifteen days after this thing started, the company emailed them that they would no longer donate to HSUS. They were going to donate $100,000 annually for three years, and they cancelled the following two years.
“We changed the future of donations, and we didn’t leave home to do it,” Troy said. “You can broadcast your story anywhere.”
Stacy said she challenges other producers to tell their own unique story.
“Never forget you have a influence on what others think of agriculture. Let’s tell our own story.”
For more about the Hadricks, go to www.advocatesforag.com.

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