JANUARY 2018 SEEDWORLD.COM / 11 Kansas each week. The Hildebrand family enterprise, consisting of two brothers and their children, got its start in 1910 when Hildebrand Reed’s great-grandparents first bottled the milk their four dairy cows produced and sold it door to door to their neighbors within the community. This busy farm life wasn’t always the path she envisioned for herself, however. “Growing up on the farm, I appreciated the life I had, but it wasn’t until I really took a step back (from the farm) in college and then living in Austin, Texas that that appre- ciation really magnified. I lived in Texas for three years and as soon as I started think- ing more about settling down, marrying my then boyfriend, and starting a family, my perspective changed. I knew that the farm was the absolute best place to raise a family. I wanted to come back before I had kids, knowing that was what I wanted for their future. Coming home was a gift to my kids.” And taking time away from the farm to pursue other career opportunities gave Hildebrand Reed more than an apprecia- tion for life on the farm; it opened her eyes to opportunities the operation could capitalize on. While in Texas, Hildebrand Reed worked with several small businesses to create marketing and branding strategies and campaigns. Coming home, she knew that she had more than labor to offer her family’s business, but also knew that getting an older generation on board for those expenditures would be tough. Hildebrand Reed says that she didn’t start off asking for a marketing and com- munications budget because she knew that they would most likely be vetoed before she could show the value they would provide the business. “I love the farm, but we run it like a busi- ness, because it is. I added another com- ponent of that business, one that really hadn’t been identified as not being there until I presented it. I slowly introduced the idea of branding and marketing and how we could be more effective in our out- reach. It was a really slow process, I started small with things like business cards and began to grow to larger campaigns.” Today, Hildebrand Reed handles all of Hildebrand Dairy’s communications and marketing strategy and focuses on help- ing to grow the reputation of Hildebrand Dairy as both a great place to work and a brand consumers can feel comfortable purchasing from. The outreach and communication doesn’t stop there, though. Hildebrand Reed is also a volunteer member of CommonGround Kansas, a national grass- roots organization that connects farm women to consumers across the country. “When I first came back to the farm, one of the things that was quickly and excitedly handed over to me was con- sumer relations. When we created our own product, we knew that we would have the opportunity to talk directly to our customer base. I’m not sure that my parents anticipated the loud voice of that minority that we opened ourselves up to,” says Hildebrand Reed. “I have always felt comfortable talking with our customers, but CommonGround helped hone those skills, especially in tough conversations.” Creating Advocates Statistics compiled by the American Farm Bureau Federation find that the millen- nial generation, those aged 34 years and under, include roughly 257,454 farmers. These farmers, collectively, are the great- est communicators the industry has ever had in terms of transparency and con- nectedness and are helping to provide the public relations for the 2.1 million farms across the United States. This isn’t news to the dozens of organi- zations committed to helping millennial farmers find their voice in sharing the stories that matter to the family farm. Missy Morgan, a staffer for the national CommonGround program, an effort that started as a partnership between the United Soybean Board and National Corn Growers Association, says that the growth and out- reach the program has seen in a few short years has been nothing short of amazing. “Across organizations, women on the farm are recognizing that their voice does matter. When CommonGround launched in 2011 to connect women farmers with urban moms, we started with 14 farmers in 5 states. Today it’s grown to include more than 200 farmers in 21 states,” she shares. Morgan observes that farmers who participate share a common goal: to be For Millennials getting involved in the seed and agriculture sectors, the time-honored sight of a sprayer doing its work represents a wealth of new possibilities that those who came before them may have only dreamed of. PHOTO: COMMONGROUND