Farming is a lot of hard physical labor but broadband access allows the Carlson Family of Gowrie, Iowa to work smarter as part of their grain and livestock operation.
These are so many ways broadband makes access to and transferring information easier for this family's farming operation. Josh Carlson appreciates keeping connected to different people such as agronomists, buyers and sellers for livestock. His mother, Jennifer Carlson, monitors markets and appreciates the access to reporting capabilities at the local grain cooperative.
Weather stations can provide rain totals for each field location, combines collect real time harvest data in the field, and access to scale tickets at the local cooperative may be available online before the truck driver sees it. "We don’t have to drive around to every farm to see if it's ready to harvest or if it's ready to plant we have a weather station that we can look on the Internet and see how much rain each field has gotten." says Jennifer.
She adds, "You check the markets, hog prices, cattle prices, all of that stuff is important and if you don’t have the broadband you might be missing out on opportunities when to sell."
“We are so intertwined with broadband here on our operation. Without reliable broadband we wouldn’t be able to function as efficiently with what we do.” says Jim Carlson.
Webster-Calhoun Cooperative Telephone Association provides Landline Telephone, Digital TV and Internet service to 16 rural communities on a Fiber driven network just outside the Fort Dodge, Iowa area: Pilot Mound, Boxholm, Lanyon, Paton, Churdan, Farnhamville, Gowrie, Somers, Moorland, Knierim, Barnum, Clare, Thor, Badger, Vincent, and Duncombe. www.wccta.net WCCTA is Gigabit Certified and designated a Smart Rural Community by NTCA: the Rural Broadband Association. #ruralbroadband #smartruralcommunity #buildbroadbandwithus #ntca #gogowrie #gigcertified #agriculture #smartag #smartagriculture #ruraliscool