|
| There were some posts about whether or not a farm should be growing (based on bringing in a family member, etc), and it occurs to me that growth has little to do with good business and often the lure of growth takes down many successful businesses. It makes sense that perhaps a business run to conservatively could use a boost from some youthful thinking, but the 'new thinking' has to be about improving the business, not reaching some futile size goal.
Most would agree that there is little to be gained by farming 4000 acres for the same $ as farming 2000 acres - the coffee shop doesn't hand out trophies or checks for biggest farmer award.
Overall though we do business in a changing environment where new products and methods are continuously becoming available. Many of these changes can greatly improve our business or just about take it down (ie. cover crops seem to be coming on, but if your landlords think you're doing a bad job because the fields are green in the fall it could be a problem). Our job is to continually evaluate our business to eliminate inefficiencies, improve profitability and look for opportunities. Almost everyone looks at land acquisition as equaling improvement - just like the beginnings of no-til, roundup beans and triple stack corn (selling your big tractor or traits in old varieties don't always work very well). Obviously it's not the same thing.
The real answer is that running a business is a long, slow, boring process (by today's standards). Too much change too quickly means you will be doing something different eventually. The words of some of our latest wildcats like 'just trying to stay competitive' are meaningless in the face of bk, death threats, etc. Yet, there are still folks willing to follow their path - after all it's exciting and you get your name in a magazine. If you look at really successful, large operations, it takes many years and several generations to achieve what they have. Sure they may farm 10K acres now, but for a long time they probably farmed 250 acres, grew animals and even had off farm work. It takes a lot of discipline to not have family members chop up the farm every time someone dies. Again, not exciting, just sticking to long term goals.
It's not secret that opportunities in ag are slim, so we get the urge to make opportunities. This is a mistake - don't take your neighbors farm away from him and his family - it won't improve your business like you think it would. What you can do is put yourself in a position to capitalize on opportunity when it comes up (and it will). Do a good job of running your business, make good decisions and, most importantly, learn how to deal with adversity (folks notice that).
Thanks,
Pat | |
|
Running a business
