AdFarm's "Farm Daze" tours.

Early this August, the Kansas City office of AdFarm closed its doors for two full days. During those days, no creative was presented, no invoices were sent and no hours were billed.

The time was an investment into agricultural insights. The agency rented a charter bus and took every AdFarm employee on a two-day tour of area farms, ag retailers and agribusinesses across Missouri.

As a practice, every two years the various offices of AdFarm head out on these tours. Called "Farm Daze" because of the in-depth information to which the employees are exposed, the outings give every employee the opportunity to live farming, to see the products and services they promote in action and to talk with the customers they are trying to reach. With offices in Kansas City, MO; Fargo, ND; Guelph, ON; and Calgary, AB, implementing the expeditions can be daunting, but agency leaders say the trips pay out 100-fold.

Because AdFarm is the only communications agency that is completely focused on agriculture, most of their employees already have a strong background in agribusiness and farming. But Bob Wilhelm, Managing Director of AdFarm's U.S. Operations, says the farm tours are deeper than just an introduction to agriculture.

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"We're laying the groundwork for marketing insights," says Wilhelm. "We provide a premium service to our clients not because every employee simply thinks about agriculture every day. It's because they've all lived it. Our Farm Daze tours are about continuing to live agriculture: meeting the people, asking in-depth questions, seeing the operations and building on our considerable foundation of industry knowledge."

Because that foundation has served AdFarm well, the company has grown significantly over the past several years. Wilhelm says special attention to activities like Farm Daze has not changed, although the focus of the tours has shifted. "When we began these tours some years ago, they were more focused on visiting production agriculture operations--farms, ranches, and feedlots," explains Wilhelm. "The original Farm Daze events were really general ag field trips. But as we grow our business, we're responding to the growth and development of agribusiness in how we structure our agency and our Farm Daze tours. Now we seek more specialized and deeper understanding of the markets, of the economics and inputs, of the distribution, of the commodities and their processing as they move toward their end use."

Those specialties were subtle, but evident to Jamie Johnson, a Team Lead in the Kansas City office. He was part of a small group who were asked to attend both the Kansas City and the Fargo office Farm Daze tours. He says while every U.S. AdFarmer would definitely benefit from both programs, he appreciated how each was tailored to the unique client and business focus of each office.

"As someone who is fairly new to the organization, I was blown away by how far each tour drilled down into specific topics on individual ag disciplines and markets," explains Johnson. "While I was up in Fargo, I learned more than I ever expected to about sugar beets, sugar production, barley and pulse crops.

"But on the Kansas City tour, the focus was definitely different. We learned about ethanol production, crop protection product distribution, agri-tourism, value-add crops, large animal operations and still had the chance to visit with growers in more traditional corn and bean operations. While there were similarities between both tours, each was specialized to fit the markets and clients that each office handles."

THE ADFARM FARM

One of the most highly anticipated stops on the Fargo tour is the farm of Fred and Jane Lukens. Besides being a farmer, Fred is also an AdFarm employee. In addition to his own land, he leases acres to the agency and performs the farming operations for what is known as the AdFarm "Farm U.S." (There's also an AdFarm "Farm Canada" outside of Calgary).

Every employee of AdFarm has the opportunity to buy a stake in this farm and its sister farm in Calgary. Everyone has the option to buy up to four shares per farm at $25 each. Profit or not, each year every investor gets a small sample of the anticipation and worries involved in the farming experience.

"From copywriters to account executives, you can be sure that everyone on that tour was learning as much as possible about that operation," says Fargo office Account Manager Leah Brakke. "There's no better way to learn about farming than to invest your own money in a crop. We had art directors asking questions about production practices and hail damage. It's always a great reminder of how we set ourselves apart in the agency world with our full focus on agriculture."

The highlight of every Fargo tour is probably the final stop inside the Lukens home. Here, Jane Lukens treats the large group every tour to a selection of 17 different types of pie.

"The tour itself is all about the farm and farming, but most of the talk on the way back is always about the pies," says Brakke.

HEARTLAND EXPEDITION

Where the Fargo tour was an intense production farming experience this year, the expedition out of Kansas City was flavored with an assortment of stops exploring off-farm agribusinesses.

After an early-morning departure and overview on the bus, the first stop was at Mid-Missouri Energy, a grower-owned cooperative ethanol plant. There the group followed the corn from truckload to lab through processing into alcohol, modified cattle feed and C[O.sub.2]. Along the way, they learned about the scientific, agronomic, environmental and economic aspects of the plant itself. A few even learned how modified cattle feed tastes to people (they wouldn't recommend it). Fortunately, they were able to wash that taste out during the next stop at nearby Baltimore Bend Winery where a little midday wine tasting followed a program on grape production, wine bottling and goods marketing.

The next destination of the day was AGRIServices of Brunswick, MO, a full-service agricultural retailer, distributor and grain storage and transport facility. Wilhelm says the question and answer session with the site representatives was a virtual feeding frenzy for information.

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"We made this a tour stop because it was so relevant to our business with its connection to crop protection, plant nutrients, feed products, grain merchandising, storage and transportation," says Wilhelm. "This facility handled products of just about every client in the Kansas City office. So our people had a breadth of questions throughout the AGRIServices tour. And I could tell that our guides were surprised at the drilled down, deep questions that were coming from these ad agency people."

Day two of Kansas City's "Farm Daze" began at Fahrmeier Farms, originally a traditional row crop farm that now consists of greenhouses, fruit and vegetable production, a vineyard and diversified livestock, including cattle, goats and hogs. With livestock and animal health a key business of AdFarm, the day's agenda also included a visit to an adjacent cattle feedlot operation.

END WITH DESSERT

Even with the deeper focus on all facets of agribusiness, AdFarmers still had the opportunity to see U.S. agriculture at its traditional, iconic best. The final afternoon of the tour found them sitting at shady picnic benches on the lawn of a white farmhouse with long views of corn and soybean fields for miles in every direction.

Neal and Linda Niendick hosted the final stop for the group in Wellington, MO. There was barbeque, sweet tea, homemade peach cobbler and hand-cranked ice cream to enjoy. In addition to the hosts, several farmers from the area joined the group--and AdFarmers had an opportunity to ask questions and gain insight and perceptions from the farmers for the next few hours. There were lots of questions about the products and offerings of AdFarm clients, as well as key issues for input decisions.

On the drive back to Kansas City, the AdFarm team discussed much of what they had learned and heard during the tour.

Wilhelm, though, talked about what Farm Daze could hold in the future: "As AdFarm's operations continue to expand, look for future Farm Daze to include things like a cotton/fiber tour, a California horticulture tour, an aquaculture industry event, and learning more about commodity associations. Wherever agriculture is, AdFarmers are interested in knowing more."

Dan Danford, AdFarm