By HUGH WEATHERS, S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture
Posted: Monday, August 22, 2011
Farmers need high-speed Internet access
A lot goes into keeping South Carolina agriculture strong.
That's a rather obvious statement when talking about farming, but I am not simply referring to the cost of seed and fertilizer, or hay and grain, or fuel and repair parts. I am talking about the amount of information that has to be processed monthly, weekly, daily or even hourly, such as price changes, weather forecasts, or legislative and regulatory updates.
Any farmer nowadays will tell you that critical information such as I have described must be very timely or it can impact the bottom line as much as improperly calibrating a fertilizer spreader. And timely information in 2011 and beyond is not over the telephone or the local parts store counter - it's via high-speed Internet access.
