The Southwest Agricultural Conference wraps up today with its final guest speaker Greg Peterson.
The US-based farmer is best known through social media for creating parody videos with his brothers, something fellow guest speaker Jerry Carroll says is a way of educating and attracting a younger demographic.
Carroll spoke during Wednesday's conference, educating people about the farming industry through comedic skits.
At the Southwest Agricultural Conference listening to one of the guest speakers Jerry Carroll. #ck #agriculture pic.twitter.com/OT6Svew4TS
— Natalia Vega (@Natalia94V) January 4, 2017
During his speech Carroll shared stories from his past, not just to poke fun but also to talk about safety on the farm and the high's and low's seen in the industry.
"There's just so many people that are removed from agriculture now and all they [know] is what they see on social media and on television," says Carroll.
Having been a farmer all of his life, Carroll says there are some challenges they often face.
Most recently those challenges involve cattle prices, climate change, and getting the younger generations involved in farming.
"The up's and down's of it are just low commodity prices," he says. "Equipment costs are up all across the board and in the United States in particular for people who farm, health care costs are through the roof."
In addition to owning a hundred acres of farm land in North Carolina, Carroll also speaks at about 50 different events each year.
"It's like anything else -- you make time [for it]," says Carroll.
He adds, the farm is pretty self-sufficient, but while he's away at shows he has help from family and friends.
"Always on my card it's going to say farmer first because I can't think of any occupation or anything I would rather do or be a part of," he says.
Having Carroll and Peterson as guest speakers generated a lot of traffic, as the two-day conference sold out quicker than usual.
RELATED: Mixing Comedy With Agriculture
