PORTALS
When Ted Farnsworth, cofounder of the Psychic Discovery Network, looks into his crystal ball, he sees a guy sitting on a tractor tapping away on his laptop. Farnsworth's latest gig is as chair and CEO of Farmbid (www.farmbid.com), a recently launched portal for farmers.
You don't have to be psychic to sense that farming is a business ripe for the efficiencies of the Web. About 35 percent of US farmers have Net access, with many logging on in the field using laptops and wireless modems. Farmers use GPS to keep tractors on course, monitor dairy-cow estrogen cycles by milk temperature analysis, and analyze the step patterns of cattle via ankle bracelets. (An increase in the number of steps means it's time for some love, bovine-style: artificial insemination.) The agriculture industry, according to Goldman Sachs, will be a $1.03 trillion business by 2004, with 12 percent of transactions taking place online.
With horizontal auction sites like Farms.com and verticals like Poultryfirst.com already established, Farnsworth decided to create the sector's first true full-service portal. "This is not like a site for trading Beanie Babies," says Farnsworth. "We all gotta eat."
Farmbid features farm auctions, links to wholesalers, a detailed weather center, and even a "farm chat" area where users can sling bullshit. But for the man who reseeded LaToya Jackson's career, marketing doesn't end there. He and his team regularly visit farm shows, showering the Future Farmers of America with giveaways like FARMBID ROCKS LOUISVILLE T-shirts.
Farnsworth plans to plow Wall Street by year's end, and some investment firms are already interested in providing seed money. George Dahlman, an analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, says there have been efforts in the past to connect farmers, but the expense always held things back. "Farmers are eager to try things that provide them with information," says Dahlman. "The Web offers a whole new opportunity."
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