We're on a mission this year at FW to improve our market prices and trends information because farmers keep telling us it's critical stuff. There's work going on behind the scenes to find out exactly the best way of doing this online and in print. This includes spending quite a lot of money on reader/user research... you can never do enough talking and listening to the customer... even if it does cost a fortune.
One of the key things to emerge from research is farmers wanting more interpretation of what's happening in the markets and what it all means for the farm business. So we've taken a leaf out of the BBC's book and tried to emulate the Beeb's popular business editor Robert Peston and his blog with regular updates from the FW equivalent our Global Markets and Economics Editor Philip Clarke.
Phil has started his own blog and he aims to provide analysis, interpretation and commentaries so the business information that's available is made more relevant and understandable to UK farmers. ,
You can chip in with your own thoughts on what's happening by responding to Phil's blog and it would be great to give him some feedback as to the usefulness of what he's doing. This is unchartered water for us at fwi and it would be good to get some encouragement and constructive feedback to spur us on. What areas of business would you like Phil to cover? What's got you baffled or confused? Let's see if we can cut through the minefield of bureaucrat and banking speak and make some sense of it for you.