“In agriculture, if we don’t tell our story, someone else will, and they’re not telling it right,” says sixth-generation rancher Tucker Brown.
Most Americans have never set foot on a cattle operation, yet millions scroll past videos every day telling them how livestock are raised, what antibiotics do and whether beef belongs on their plate. Increasingly, that information isn’t coming from veterinarians or producers. It’s coming from influencers, activists and algorithm-fueled accounts that often get the facts wrong.
At the same time, consumer curiosity about animal welfare and food safety has never been higher. Nearly 70% of U.S. consumers say animal welfare is very important to their purchasing decisions. However, there exists a gap between what people think happens in cattle health and what is actually occurring on farms.
Meet the Experts: Real-Life Ranchers and Vets on Instagram
Ranchers Brown and Emma Coffman recently sat down at a Stockmanship and Stewardship event to discuss the importance of online advocacy, building trust and making an impact through educational content on social media.
Brown is a rancher at R.A. Brown ranch in Throckmorton, Texas. With nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram, he has been using his platform to educate, entertain and build trust with consumers for over seven years. Although admittedly, Brown’s purpose for posting shifted from his original intent.
“At first, it was just to help me sell more registered bulls,” he says. “But what ended up happening was there were more consumers watching my stuff than bull customers, and so, this trust was being built between consumers and myself and other ranchers.”
Coffman, the founder and owner of Double E Ranch Advocacy, is a first-generation agriculturalist. Her passion for public agricultural education began when she discovered just how much information was never communicated to consumers.
“When I started getting an interest in agriculture through 4-H and FFA, I had a lot of questions,” she says. “I realized there was a lot of what I thought was very simple, basic one-on-one information about how our food is grown and the labeling behind it that we weren’t talking about to consumers.”
Both Brown and Coffman agree the people with mud on their boots and dirt on their hands from the farm should be the ones to answer consumer questions where their food comes from and how it’s grown.
Bovine veterinarian Dr. Erika Nagorske, who has amassed almost 17,000 followers on Instagram, takes a highly educational approach. She’ll often post about unique cases asking vet students for their diagnosis, following up with the answer a couple weeks later.
“The reason why I keep doing it is the educational piece, especially for veterinary students. I love teaching vet students and I really like teaching producers who want the extra information,” Nagorske says. “Nobody wins if the vet doesn’t explain what they’re doing and what they’re thinking. It’s a teaching platform.”
Brown, Coffman and Nagorske view what they do as a way to increase public understanding of where their food comes from and the role of veterinarians in agriculture.
“In the ag space, it’s so hard. I think we always complain that nobody understands us,” Nagorske says. “I grew up in a city, fell in love with the industry, and I want to share it. If we don’t share it, we can’t complain that people don’t know.”
Getting Started: 4 Tips for Effective Ag Social Media
Are you thinking about sharing on social media? Coffman and Brown had the following recommendations:
- Remember the why: Your goal should be in the front of your mind
- Don’t worry about being polished: Being relatable is more important
- Use your personality: People often connect with the human before the information
- Keep it simple: Answer one question per post
“It’s really about trying to take complex subjects, bring it down to a baseline level and then build your advocacy off of that,” Coffman says. “And don’t be afraid to repeat yourself.”
In cattle production, there are a number of commonly asked questions. Coffman advises going back to these topics with varying approaches to get the message across. Further, there are a lot of everyday on-farm activities that consumers have never seen before. Above all, conveying the information in a way the audience will understand is most important.
Winning Trust: How to Handle Negative Comments Online
As with all social media, there is the potential for negative interactions. How you handle them can be very impactful.
“I always suggest that when you get a negative comment on what you’re sharing … to respond with facts rather than emotion,” Brown says. “It helps you look better, helps you be more relatable and more trustworthy to the 90% of watchers that will be silent.”
The goal isn’t to “win,” but to build trust, he says.
In the end, the public only sees what we share. Misinformation thrives in silence, not in the presence of experts. When agriculture professionals speak openly, transparently and compassionately on social media, the industry benefits.
“When we tell the truth, ranching wins,” Brown says. “That’s all you have to do. You don’t have to come up with a story. All you have to do is tell the truth.”
For these professionals, transparency means allowing the public to see the core values of their work, a view Nagorske summarizes by focusing on veterinarians’ dedication.
“I want them to take away the deep rooted passion that veterinarians have for animals. Even if it’s livestock. Even if the end goal is to consume them,” Nagorske says.
