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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Only 14% of Iowa farmers lack Internet access, but one-fifth of those who do choose not to use it

Seventy percent of the 1,276 Iowa farmers participating in the 2011 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll said they use the Internet to get farm-related information. Weather was the most popular type of information, with 84 percent of farmers saying they check it online. Market information was second at 78 percent, while general agricultural news drew 75 percent and information about crop production 68 percent, J. Gordon Arbuckle, Iowa State University extension sociologist and co-director of the study, told Iowa Farmer Today.

Of those with Internet service, 60 percent said they have high-speed access, with 27 percent of those using digital subscriber lines, 14 percent on satellite, 13 percent with a wireless/cell phone service, 12 percent using cable television and 12 percent a standard phone line. Only 14 percent of those surveyed reported no access to high-speed Internet and 21 percent of those who had it available said they chose not to use it, Arbuckle told Iowa Farmer Today.

The average age of the farmers surveyed was 65, and 51 percent earned more than half their income farming. (Read more)

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