September 5, 2017 at 3:32 p.m.
Cows can be friends on Facebook, too
Schmitt introduces Ralma September Storm Crystal to social media networking site
Michael Schmitt of Rice, Minn. has introduced his prized cow, Ralma September Storm Crystal, to the world of social media. She now has her own Facebook page, which is a way for Schmitt to promote the dairy industry and market the Schmitts’ farm. <br /><!-- 1upcrlf -->PHOTO BY MISSY MUSSMAN
That all changed after Ralma September Storm Crystal took first place in the Aged Holstein Cow Class of the Junior Show at World Dairy Expo in 2011. Michael Schmitt created an e-mail account for Crystal and introduced her to the world of Facebook.
"Someone told me my cow is so famous," said Schmitt. "They encouraged me to start a Facebook page for her, so, for fun, I did."
Schmitt started to put up pictures of Crystal at shows on her wall to start out and wrote a brief biography from Crystal's perspective.
"When I first signed Crystal up, I put in her real birthday which fell in October of 2005," said Schmitt. "It ended up telling me since she was five years old, they wouldn't allow her to join, so I had to change her birthday."
Once Crystal had been on Facebook for a while, word got around fast that a cow had her own page. Lots of Schmitt's dairy friends and even high school friends began to request friendships with Crystal. Crystal's page recently had 216 friends and it's only growing.
"I had a friend call me and say 'wow I can be friends with a cow on Facebook," said Schmitt. "It's unique because she's a cow. She's real."
Schmitt started to look through the friends Crystal had on Facebook and noticed she had 15 friends that were not friends with him.
"Wow, there are a few people from France that are friends with her," Schmitt said of Crystal's unknown friends.
Since Crystal's Facebook debut, Schmitt, writing on behalf of Crystal, has posted on mainly her three daughters that had classified Excellent, the many visitors that have come to visit her and has even commented on some of her friends' statuses.
"When we were flushing her for embryos, we put out a request from Crystal asking for any suggestions on bulls to use," said Schmitt. "Some of her friends I know took some real time and effort and gave some pretty good suggestions."
After about a year and a half of being on Facebook, Schmitt sees numerous possibilities of things to do to incorporate education for Crystal's non-ag friends.
"I have been thinking of adding little trivia questions like, 'how many gallons of water do you think I drank today?'," said Schmitt. "I have to remember, the things I think would be redundant, might be interesting or educational to people that are not familiar with agriculture."
Schmitt has been even inspiring his dairy friends to start a Facebook page for their cows.
"I have a friend that wants to start a page for her cow," said Schmitt. "My suggestion is to make sure we create a positive image, by using posts and photos to relay the cows are happy, healthy and content."
Schmitt has his own personal Facebook page, Crystal's, and even their farm page and has realized the importance of social media for farmers.
"This whole social media thing is huge," said Schmitt. "It is not hard to reach out. Crystal's page started out as something fun, but I never knew how useful for advertising our herd and promotion of the dairy industry it would turn out to be."
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