Life of a Farm Blog: Appalachian Man Hawks Indian Tractors from McCreary County

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Pine Knot, Kentucky has become a most unusual nexus for American farming, corporate blogging, and an Indian tractor company best known for assembling Wilys Jeeps in India during WW2 and for its co-founder, Ghulam Muhammad, a former Governor-General of Pakistan who cashed out of the company when India and Pakistan split.

Here’s how the connection works:

First, you take the company, Mahindra, an Indian corporation and one of the top three tractor sellers in the world; a company intent on expanding its market share here in the U.S. market.

Next, you have the medium: the internet and blogging. With corporate blogging being touted as absolutely essential for businesses of all stripes, Mahindra saw an opportunity to blog about their product. But who would run it and how?

That’s where Pine Knot comes in. You see, the company decided to find an above average, Average Joe who loves to use your prod, has good writing skills, and is willing to put them to use hawking your wares. And it just so happens that Mahindra found that average Joe (actually Joel) in Pine Knot, the home of one Joel Combs, a jack-of-all-trades chicken farmer whose preferred tool is his trusty Mahindra Tractor. Pine Knot, located in southern McCreary County, is known more for mining and logging than commercial farming, but an evangelist is an evangelist, wherever he lives. What’s more, the region may not offer large tracts of farmland, but its land is relatively unspoiled, free of sprawl and enjoys a respite from some of the hot button issue affecting other American farms, like migrant workers and corporate farming.

Mix all the above ingredients together and… presto; you get the blog Life of a Farm. Life of a Farm has received some incredible reviews on the web, mostly from corporate blog critics who rave about what Mahindra and Combs have accomplished.

Here’s Salon.com:

The title: “170 Acres and an Indian Tractor” (An obvious play off the old post-Civil war phrase: 40 acres and a Mule... I love it!)

On Combs’ writing: “[A]fter scanning a year's worth of postings looking for nuggets … I am forced to admit that, unexpectedly, I kind of like [Combs]. Either this is a masterpiece of creative writing, or Joel Combs is a real guy with a pretty real life.”

On mixing marketing with real life observations: “the most perfect mixture of flat-out commercial on-message marketing and real-life co-parenting woes I think I've ever seen.”

And here’s The Viral Garden , a blog by a marketing guru about corporate blogs:

On Combs’ blogging style: "For the most part, Combs' posts detail his daily work on his farm, including the projects that he is undertaking, many of which are aided by his use of Mahindra products. But he also keeps his readers up to date on other topics such as the Kentucky weather, and the progress that his children are making in school. But above all else, the content is focused on his life on his farm, and its content that appears to be resonating with the blog's readers. The blog also pulls pictures from a Flickr account, and Combs does a nice job showing not only Mahindra products in action, but also what his life is like on his farm. The post formatting and structure isn't always perfect, but I think that is almost a plus, because it comes across as being authentic. Combs isn't a blogger writing about life on a farm, he is a farmer blogging about his life."


On Combs’ readers: "Life of a Farm Blog has one of the more active comment sections I've seen on a company blog. In fact, it has a perfect example of a community on a blog. Combs' does a great job of replying to almost every comment left, and is very warm and friendly in doing so. You can also tell that the blog's readers have great empathy for Combs, as most make a point to either relate their own experiences on their own farms or attempt to help Combs' better complete his current projects. It might be a stretch to say that Life of a Farm Blog's readers are devoted to Combs, but it's obvious that they are quite fond of him, and his responses make it obvious that he greatly appreciates their comments."

The blog’s even lodged on the radar screens of some bloggers who pride themselves on being Desis (Des-sees), part of the Indian diaspora in America.

Here’s Sepia Mutiny on what the blog accomplishes: "I have to say that this blog makes for some very interesting, enjoyable reading. It’s clear from the writing and the photographs that Mahindra USA has sponsored a real-life, young family farmer from a deeply rural part of the country — southern Kentucky, about 60 miles from Knoxville, Tenn., as he develops his land and builds a home on it with the aid of his trusty Mahindra 6000 tractor.

Read a few entries … and you will get a rather compelling glimpse into family farming, and one that is quite forthright about the struggles that family farmers face in a country where agriculture is so heavily controlled by large corporate interests. Joel… is a sympathetic character and a frank writer, and seems quite sincere in his affection for his Mahindra tractor."

And what it means to Indians: "It’s worth getting your tractor geek on and poking around this site to hear perspectives — not just on tractors, but on the farming life — that y’all city macacas don’t usually get to hear. It’s also noteworthy how easily an Indian brand has spread in this salt-of-the-earth, so-called “redneck” community, while resentment against desis grows in the suburban office parks of the nation."

For me, the most intriguing thing about what Combs has accomplished is how duplicable it is. (BTW, in saying this I'm not belittling what he's accomplished. He's obviously gotten the enough pros' kudos for you to see that he's taken this thing to a level not often seen for this type of blog. But even if others can't do this as well as Combs, they can still do it.) The essential ingredients are:

1. Average, every day Joes (or Janes) who can write well and love Appalachian living.

2. Appalachian farm space.

3. A blog.

4. A nice family backdrop.

5. The passion and interest in putting them all together to market a product or service.

Entrepreneurial coaches helping clients with family based products should take note: Aside from the skill in writing and the passion and interest for blogging, all of the above are present in spades in Appalachia. As for the writing and blogging, these are skills that can be taught to creative people, another area where we’re blessed in the mountains.

Combs deserves credit for what he’s accomplished here. Not just because he’s helping sell Indian tractors from Appalachian Kentucky, but because he’s selling Appalachian Life in the process.