Tuesday, November 6, 2007
143-1

An Unseen Audience: Communicating Corn Production Information Via the Web.

Lori Abendroth and Roger Elmore. Iowa State University, 1009 Agronomy Hall, Agronomy Extension, Ames, IA 50011

Increasing use of the internet by agronomists, producers, and agribusiness for crop production information drove the creation of the Iowa State University Extension Corn Production web site (www.agronext.iastate.edu/corn). Launched in November 2006, it has quickly become a valuable resource for agricultural clientele in Iowa as well as across the Midwest. News releases, timely agronomic information, diagnostic tools, and a image gallery provide numerous resources and methods of communicating to a wide audience. The primary goal for the site is to educate users with the science of agronomy and how they can apply research findings and recommendations to their current situation. Web statistics are used to mathematically document the traffic to the web site and how those numbers, such as total attendance, time spent, number of pages per visit, document the usefulness of the web site to deliver information faster and better than nearly any other medium.