Over the years, 16 more stations were added and the program can now be seen in every Georgia TV market, plus many areas of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. In 2000, the Monitor began airing several times a week on RFD-TV broadcast each week is Wednesday at 8:30 PM.

"The Georgia Farm Monitor was created by Farm Bureau to fill a need for information to our farmers and also to tell the farmer's story to consumers," Wayne Dollar, GFB president, said. "We continue that tradition today as our staff travels the state and visits other parts of the nation to cover stories of interest to farmers and consumers. We still feel it fills an important need in 2004, and being on a network that covers al of rural America is an honor and a tremendous opportunity," he added.

While the program focuses on agriculture with the Georgia farmer in mind, national agriculture issues, consumer information and feature stories about rural life and interesting people are also part of the program each week.

The largest state east of the Mississippi, Georgia is quite agriculturally diverse with some twenty major commodities. Agriculture is also big business, with more than $57 billion dollar economic impact to the state's economy.

Here are some commodity examples:

Georgia is number one nationally in poultry and number six in egg production, with a combined total farm value of $2.3 billion a year.

Georgia has cattle (1.3 million head last year) and hogs and pigs (345,000 head)

There is a major equine industry worth $248 million to the state's economy. It's estimated there are several hundred thousand horses in Georgia, mostly in metro Atlanta.

Georgia farmers grow everything from cotton (1.6 million bales in 2002) to 40 percent of the nation's peanuts (1.3 billion pounds) to tobacco (55 million pounds) to corn (33million bushels) to 100 million pounds of those great-tasting Georgia peaches. North Georgia apples (10 million pounds worth) and South Georgia blueberries (17 million pounds) and watermelons (510 million pounds) are always popular, as are those famous Vidalia Onions (14,000 acres of them) and a host of vegetables. Georgia produces almost a quarter of all the squash in the US, worth $44.3 million. And Georgia is the second in the nation in pecan production.

"There's plenty of variety for us to cover, and we think that adds to the show's appeal," said co-host Paul Beliveau. "We also try to tell the farmers' story each week. We want the show viewers how agriculture has become more efficient despite burdensome regulations, and how using the latest technology, the American farmer grows safer, better tasting food on less land and fewer inputs and fewer people," he said

The Monitor Staff

The Monitor staff has plenty of broadcast experience, with ties to agriculture.

Paul Beliveau is co-anchor and executive producer. He worked as a journalist, news anchor, news director and director of operations in radio and television around the country before settling in Georgia. The then spent 15 years at WMAZ-AM-FM-TV prior to joining Georgia Farm Bureau and the Monitor staff in 1985. And, yes, he does have a tie to the land. His granddad and dad grew up farming and his other grandfather worked for an agricultural board in a New England state.

Denny Moore writes, produces, reports for and co-hosts the show. Denny is an Emmy Award winning writer, producer and host who has worked at TV stations across the country. He joined the Monitor after spending over twenty years in a variety of television positions in Atlanta. Denny grew up around the farm community. His father was a John Deere dealer for most of his life and owned a family farm with his brother and father. After spending so many years in the broadcast industry, Denny is glad to get back to his roots and be around people who he calls "the salt of the earth"

Rick Treptow, the show's assignment editor, spent many years as a TV journalist beginning in the 1970's at WMAZ-AM-FM-TV. He started his news career shooting 16mm news film , graduated to videotape and now uses digital format For almost 20 years now, he has logged thousands of miles criss-crossing the state, spending time with farmers to produce stories for the show. He is also the Farm Monitor's voting member of the National Assoc. Of Farm Broadcasters

Michael Edmonds came on from the production side of the local FOX network affiliate, WGXA-TV. Michael creates graphics for the show and directs the taping of the program, and also does occasional stories. He edits the show for broadcast each week along with the producers.

Jeff Sutton comes from a sixth generation Kansas farm family and has a passion for telling agriculture's story. Jeff holds a BS from Kansas State University where he majored in Agricultural Journalism and minored in Animal Science. in the honors program at k-state, Jeff focused on International Agriculture. He's won national awards from alpha gamma rho, Chicago mercantile exchange, national cattlemen's foundation, and agricultural communicators of tomorrow. Jeff worked with the national 4-h council in Washington dc, as well as with farmers in Mexico and Paraguay. before joining the farm monitor, Jeff served as Coordinator of Public Relations for the Georgia Beef Board.

"We have a dedicated staff who believe in farming and rural life and they do a great job of telling that story each week," said Beliveau.

"They appreciate viewer comments and we answer all e-mail," he added.

If there's a story you'd like to see or a subject you'd like covered, e-mail news@farm-monitor.com or go the old fashioned way

Georgia Farm Monitor
PO Bx 7068
Macon, Georgia 31209
news@farm-monitor.com
www.farm-monitor.com