FARMERS ON THE INTERNET.

How many farmers are on the Internet? What sites are farmers using? In 1995, Farm Progress Companies began an annual study on Internet usage to answer these questions.

The most recent study of more than 32,000 producers who produce 500+ acres of corn, soybeans or cotton shows that 63 percent of producers surf the Web.

"Every indication points to large, middle-age to young farmers are those who access and use the Internet," says Dave Wilson, vice president of marketing services for Farm Progress.

The survey results show what farmers are logging on to the Internet for:

News / Information   47%

Market Information   44%

E-mail               39%

Weather              37%

Other                33%

Gov't Information    11%

Buy Input            10%

Chat                  7%

Sell Grains           6%

In addition, a survey conducted by AgWeb.com shows more than 50 percent of producers use the Internet to gather information and conduct business on the Web. Again, the trend seems to point to large producers as the leaders in Internet adoption and usage, and further growth is expected. "Advertisers want to directly reach the biggest farmers, and the Internet is now the way to do that," says Robert Hill vice president of AgWeb.com.