Does your farm have a Facebook page?  Have you ever wondered what it takes to have a successful Facebook page for your dairy farm?  Well, look no further!

There is no question that Facebook has changed how dairy breeders connect with other breeders around the world.   Facebook has replaced the old print publications of the past. To find out the latest news and information, many breeders have either stopped advertising or have reduced how much they advertise in print publications and now leverage the power of Facebook to get their message out to the dairy community.

The following are the top 10 dairy breeder Facebook fan pages.   They have been evaluated based on, readership, engagement and the use of best practices.  Please note: In order to qualify for this list they needed to be an actual Facebook fan page and not a personal account.

10. Vanzetti Holstein

1,108 Likes          167 People Talking About This    18 Posts Per Month        Joined Facebook on 08/25/2010
https://www.facebook.com/VanzettiHolstein/

The only non-north American breeder page on our list, Vanzetti Holstein are from Turin Italy.  They have over 180 cows milking in two Lely robots.  Always sharing great content from around the world, their Facebook page has become very popular with those who follow them.

9. Ferme Jacobs

4,279 Likes          152 People Talking About This    16 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 11/21/2010
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ferme-Jacobs/178581908819047

Doing an excellent job of sharing their many successes from the show ring, Ferme Jacobs has developed an extremely strong and loyal following for themselves. (Read more: FERME JACOBS: SUCCESS IS ALL IN THE FAMILY!)  For those that follow the North American show scene, the Ferme Jacobs Facebook page has become a must see, especially during World Dairy Expo, where the team at Ferme Jacobs produces many outstanding videos of their trip, highlighted last year by winning Supreme Champion honors with Maya (Read more: Ferme Jacobs 2013: A Journey of Magic, Maya and Mastery!).

8. Mistyglen Holsteins

1.952 Likes          107 People Talking About This    25 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 05/16/2010
https://www.facebook.com/mistyglenholsteins/

Posting some of the most beautiful farm scene pictures on the web, Mistyglen Holsteins, recently installed a new Robotic milker and documented the whole process on their Facebook fan page. (Read more: Mistyglen Take Two: “Siblings and Robots Inc.”)  Mistyglen’s Facebook page does an excellent job of demonstrating to non-dairy breeders what a positive Dairy farming operation looks like.

7. Kingsway Farms

2.245 Likes          141 People Talking About This    20 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 07/17/2111
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kingsway-Farms/117682868266883

Never afraid to shy away from a great conversation, the McMillan family of Kingsway Farms in Hastings Ontario does an excellent job of sharing their success and developing reader engagement.  Snapshots of the next great ones can regularly be seen on their Facebook page as well as many great conversations about what sires are getting the job done, or insight into what many breeders are talking about.

6. River Valley Farm

4,477 Likes          584 People Talking About This    30 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 05/21/2010
https://www.facebook.com/RiverValleyFarmIL/

A 300-cow family farm focused on developing breed-leading cow families that deliver genetics that producers around the globe can believe in and trust, River Valley Farm does a good job of building their brand through Facebook.  With their recent agreement with Select Sires and the 7JE5000 stud code series, River Valley has certainly added Facebook as an important component of their marketing strategy.

5. Deer Hill Ayrshires & Brookview Ayrshires and Holsteins

Deer Hill

1,368 Likes          125 People Talking About This    20 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 03/18/2011
https://www.facebook.com/deerhillayrshires

Brookview Ayrshires and Holsteins

1,060 Likes          280 People Talking About This    30 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 07/02/2011
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brookview-Ayrshires-and-Holsteins/224288867604948

For those of you that think you need to be a Holstein breeder in order to have success on Facebook, you need to look at Deer Hill Ayrshires from Maine, and Brookview Ayrshires and Holsteins from New Zealand.  These two herds do a fantastic job of regularly posting and have built up an extremely loyal following.  Both do an excellent job of posting unique content that is non-promotional and very engaging.  (Read more: The Magic of Francesca)

4. Ferme Blondin

6,442 Likes          567 People Talking About This    30 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 07/07/2010
https://www.facebook.com/FermeBlondin/

Ferme Blondin certainly knows about the power of using Facebook to drive genetic sales.  Dann Brady and the team do a great job of sharing what genetics they have available, while not boring you with nonstop sales messages.  They use a good mix of content to make sure that breeders are up-to-date, but not tuning out.  With some of the best genetics in the world, their following has indeed reached the International marketplace cost effectively through Facebook. (Read more: FERME BLONDIN “Passion with a Purpose Builds Success”)

3. Milk Source

5,556 Likes          3700 People Talking About This  15 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 07/21/2010
https://www.facebook.com/MilkSource/

Milk Source, LLC operates dairies, animal-care facilities and cropland in Wisconsin, Michigan and Kansas.  With both genetics to market as well as consumers to build brand awareness for, Milk Source has a variety of content on their Facebook fan page.    With cows like Blondin Redman Seisme-Red getting ready for World Dairy Expo, Milk Source has built a broad and diverse following on their Facebook fan page.

2. Sandy-Valley Farms

2,976 Likes          645 People Talking About This    22 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 01/19/2012
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandy-Valley-Farms/340355645989352

Possessing some of the best genetics in the world, might make some dairy breeders get lazing with their marketing strategy, Not Sandy-Valley Farms.  (Read more: Pine-Tree Monica Planeta Is the New Genomic Super Star Maker) Instead of just posting their outstanding results, Danae Bauer and the team at Sandy-Valley do an excellent job of using photos to help build engagement.  Danae has done such a great job of this she has recently started her own successful photography business, Farmgirl Photography.  (Read more: DANAE BAUER: Capturing the Passion)

1. Luck-E Holsteins

8,205 Likes          833 People Talking About This    12 Posts Per Month  Joined Facebook on 03/07/2010
https://www.facebook.com/LuckeHolsteins/

With one of the top type herds in the world, Luck-E Holsteins has done a fantastic job at marketing their genetics through Facebook.  It’s not just luck for the team at Luck-E they have put a great deal of effort into developing the largest following of any Dairy Breeder Facebook fan page in the world.  With many outstanding classification and show results to share with the world, Luck-E Holsteins certainly has figured out how to use Facebook to market their genetics to the world.  (Read more: Luck-E Holsteins: The Harder they work, the Luck-E-r they get!)

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, check out what others are doing and tweak these strategies to make them your own!

What do you think about the above Facebook pages? Please leave your comments below.

To learn how to get your farm on Facebook download this free guide.