Along the Fencerow

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BRADLEY GOERING
The work of production agriculture is a tough business in which to be involved-as is any business in any community.

For some crops, we’ve seen an upswing in price which has been a long time in the making. Subsidies to the farmer so consumers can continue to buy cheap, safe food have kept farmers afloat in recent years.

In the competitive world of agribusiness, progress is viewed as a highly valued outcome. But keep something in mind: Change is inevitable, but progress is not. Progress on the farm is made through the attitude and vision of the owner or partners.

A farmer asked me an interesting question the other day: “Can I still compete in agriculture by producing and marketing the same way I’ve been doing business for the past 20 years?”

Before answering, I thought for a moment and came up with an answer a college economics professor used: “It depends.”

Has progress been made on the farm during the past 20 years? Has cash flow been increasing, decreasing, or the same? If it is the same or decreasing, we’re in trouble. Inflation, the cost of living, and increases in business expenses will take a big bite over time.

On the farm, what do you want to preserve? What do you want to change? Or what is it that you want to create?

To generate dollars in production agriculture, farmers have several choices.

One is to get larger to cover more acres. The downside may be buying larger equipment and finding the land to rent or purchase.

A second option: continue farming the same number of acres and see where you can become more efficient.

A third option: niche markets or alternative crops may provide opportunity. The caution light with value-added farming can be the extra costs involved, or the difficulty with markets.

One farmer with whom I worked in the past month wanted to see if he was generating more dollars with small square bales. I developed a spreadsheet with him, we did several scenarios for his farm, and he made his decision.

The final figures surprised him.

Another farmer wanted to compare wheat-seeding costs with a spreadsheet using planting time, cost of seed, pounds per acre of seed, and plants per acre.

Again, he was surprised that paying attention to detail could save him between $6 to $10 or more per acre depending on certain factors.

Efficiency can pay for farmers who decide not to increase the acres they farm.

Bradley Goering can be reached by telephone at 620-327-4941 or by e-mail at bgoering@thecsb.com.

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