Farm4Profit Podcast

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**Farm4Profit Podcast**

Our mission is to provide farms and operators an independent and unbiased outlet for information related to increasing the profitability of their farming operation. We will be providing farms and operators of all sizes and experience levels access to the latest trends, projections, and the tools necessary to increase farming profitability. We will take each episode to deliver latest news, what’s working for active farms, and a topic of focus each episode. Remember, if you aren’t farming for profit you won’t be farming for long.

Latest Episodes:

Top 12 Snack Options for the Field Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

https://www.snacknation.com/blog/guide/healthy-snacks/

The 12 Top Rated Snacks Directly from SnackNation Customers:

Coconut Chips – Kettle Cooked Chips
Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle
Justin’s Butter Squeeze – Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Butter
Sahale Snacks Mango Tango Almond Mix – Trail Mix
Honey Gram Cracker Sticks
Fruit Snacks
Popcorn or Kettle Corn
Dried Fruit or Real Fruit
IQ Bars or Cliff Bars – Granola Bars
Pickles
Yogurt or Apple sauce Squeezes

Carrots and celery with Peanut Butter – other veggies

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Farm4Profit Media is not a financial, legal, or tax advisor. Content is provided for informational purposes only, and we serve solely as a platform for third-party opinions. Any actions taken based on this content are at your own risk.

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Profit More from a Positive Mindset Oct 07, 2019

Show notes

Please Like, Share, Review
What’s working for Ag – listener or farmer feedback
Contribute through www.farm4profit.com or farm4profitllc@gmail.com
- Featuring Joel Lange – Lange Farms . https://www.facebook.com/lange.farms
- http://www.smart-ag.com/ for automated grain cart info
- https://constantcanopy.com/ for Jason Mauck - KeyNote Speaker
How much effect does having a positive outlook on life have on farm profitability?
- A technique I learned that can help with developing a new habit I learned from another podcast. Taking care of a house plant. I know as farmers you help grow and raise all kinds of plants and animals, but focusing energy on a specific house or office plant helps build a habit. The habit for today is having a positive mind set. I struggle with this at times.
  - Pick out a plant, not a cactus, and plant it properly in a pot indoors. Place it in a fairly high traffic area so you have to walk by it. Make a mental note each time you walk buy it to have a better attitude or see the positive in things. Each time you water it, fertilize it, or rotate it for sunlight be thinking about the good side of the problems you are facing.
- Why is this important?
  - Attitude is contagious. If you have family or employees around you more than likely they are observing your perception and attitude.
    - Create the culture of your employees embracing challenges and tackling them.
  - Solve the challenges proactively before they become large challenges. This makes them seem less daunting and less negative.
    - Don’t be afraid of future problems, reframe the thinking to anticipate where problems may be coming from. (bearings, tires, over sleeping employees, etc…)
  - If you don’t know, be vulnerable. Ask for help before the challenge gets out of hand. Surround yourself with experts who will be honest with you and treat you fairly.
  - Problems are inevitable – don’t let them take you by surprise.
  - Start small and grow. Spilled drink, late employee, flat tire, self-repairable breakdown, and so on
  - Use them as teaching moments. You, employees, children, team
  - “The Seeing Eye” – training program for guide dogs and the vision impaired. “Seeing Eye has taught me to walk tall, raise my face, without fear, to the sun, wind, and rain. They have taught me to trust in myself.”
- Focus on you goals – not so much on the journey there
  - Each task or action is a step towards the goal and we learn from each one.
  - Take a step back – we’ve heard this cliché, but some of the most successful business owners and farmers thrive by taking a look at a problem from a step back. Embrace it and see the opportunities to better a process, grow an employee or yourself, and get closer to the goal.
Summarize
- The people around you will work harder with you and for you if your attitude towards challenges becomes one of growth. Work hard to anticipate and expect problems to happen. When they do take care of them calmly with a thought out process. Work to make the experience a learning opportunity and move towards the goals your farm has in place.
Challenge
- Start with yourself. Do I over react? Am I easily angered or always negative? What is something I could work on first? Buy that plant and begin framing your mind up into one that seeing the positive side of things. Next, identify a regular occurring problem that you can practice with. (Flat tires, late reports, supplies being out) Then, work on graduating up to solving the problems before they happen!
Conference Update
Submit questions and topic suggestions

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11 Field Friendly Meal Ideas Sep 30, 2019

Show notes

Field Friendly Meals – 11 Tractor Friendly Ideas

www.thisfarmgirlcooks.com

Deanne Frieders

Field friendly meals – what’s that you say?

Today I’m sharing meal ideas to serve our farmers when they’re working in the field. Sometimes we

eat outside, sometimes we pile in the Suburban tots in tow, and other times it’s a pass and go meal.

Even if you’re not a farm family, these are some healthy, easy to prepare recipes!

A field friendly meal has a few requirements, in my opinion.

 Fork friendly – no knife required. Bite size pieces are key.

 Easy to prepare.

 Be filling but not make them want to take a nap at the wheel. Auto steer in tractors is great but

naps are not!

 Healthy and well rounded. Part of my goal in feeding our farmers is to help nourish them when

they’re working long hours. That’s not to say an occasional Snickers goes along for the ride,

but you get my drift, right?

My experience is by the end of harvest the cook is tired of guessing, tell them what you want or like

and they will appreciate it.

1-Make Ahead Pepperoni Sliders – This one is a little bit of a splurge, so I keep it reserved for the

days when everything is going wrong. We all have those days, right? If I see the tractor repair truck

heading our way or I need to go on a parts run, this recipe comes to mind. It can be made ahead and

is my pick up meal, like a cheerleader in sandwich form.

Mother in law – hot ham and cheese

2-Sloppy Joe Bowls – No, I haven’t lost my mind. Sloppy joes in the field sounds messy, for sure.

That’s why you’re throwing it on top of some rice for an easy, wholesome meal. Serve with some

fresh fruit and you’ll have some happy diners. This one’s freezer friendly, too so make a double batch

and freeze some for later!

Mother - puts the sloppy joe over cornbread

3-Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Teriyaki Bowls – This one’s a family favorite! I cut the pineapple and

chicken into bite size pieces. It’s a perfect bowl of chicken, veggies and fruit and it’s made on the grill

so your kitchen stays clean, yipee! Serve it over brown rice for a complete meal.

4-Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry – Stir fry is so forgiving! A few ingredients and you’re good to go. Don’t

have something called for on the recipe? Just sub something else out. I promise, no one will mind

and in 30 minutes you’ll have a delicious meal on the table, errrr, tractor.

5-Turkey, Provolone and Pesto Panini from This Farm Girl Cooks – Deli turkey and jarred pesto make these

sandwiches a breeze. They taste even better at room temperature, in my humble opinion. (COLD)

6-Turkey Ranch Club Wraps from Life in the Lofthouse – Simple, easy to prepare and a crowd pleaser. If

you’d like, you can switch out the flour tortilla for a low carb or whole wheat tortilla. (COLD)

7-Citrus Chicken Quinoa Salad from Sally’s Baking Addiction – This make ahead salad actually gets better as

it sits and the flavors intensify. Don’t let the word “salad” scare you. The quinoa and chicken have plenty of

protein to keep you satisfied. Serve with some pre-roasted veggies and it’s a healthy, wholesome, filling

meal! (COLD)

8-Ham or Egg Salad Sandwiches from Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids – This is a great way to add some veggies

to the typical egg salad. I love that they’re a mayo substitute, too! (COLD)

Mother inlaw – cold meat stacked

9-Easy Tex Mex Pasta Salad from Chelsea’s Messy Apron – Delicious and super simple. I mean, the title even

says EASY! That’s enough to sell me on this bow tie pasta salad with corn, beans, tomatoes, cilantro and

avocado. If one of those things isn’t your favorite, simply leave it out! (COLD)

10-Italian Pinwheels from Tornadoughallie – Pepperoni, ham, provolone and some other goodies made

these an easy lunch idea. Kid friendly, too! (COLD)

Bonus 11-Leftover Pizza – This one’s random, but I know my farmer loves a cold slice. I don’t think he’d object to

this for occasional field meals!

There you have it – 11 field friendly meals. What’s your favorite go to meal?

Made with love,

Mother My Mother In-law

TaterTot Caserole Soup in Thermos

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Time Management and Delegation Sep 23, 2019

Show notes

Time Management - delegation

Introduction
Reminders:
- Like, rate, review, share
- Send to questions farm4profitllc@gmail.com
- Register for the conference
  - Remember to go out and nominate your farm or someone else’s farm for the Farm Business Award – application at www.farm4profit.com
What’s working for Ag – Sean Blomgren – Blomgren Seed
- Boone County dealer since 1989 carrying Monsanto Hybrids – Dekalb and Asgrow
  - Self Introduction
- Talking about USC Seed Treating Solutions
  - High quality seed treatment gives the grower the opportunity to customize their chemistry to the challenges they may face or the goals they have in place for their crop.
  - Not a one size fits all program – prescribing to each individual farm.
- What about this seed treater has been “Working for your business” – boosting your bottom line?
- How is this seed treater different from others on the market?
- How can a farmer incorporate this type of seed treating on their farm to boost their bottom lines?
Main Topic – Time Management - The only thing we can’t make more of is time.
- Prioritizing and delegating are two key word concepts that play a big role in gaining more time. The problem is both of those are very difficult disciplines to master.
- Brick Theory – Think of your brain as a truck hauling a load of bricks. Every time you think of something that needs to be done or accomplished you add another brick to the load. Every time you complete a task you take the brick off the load. Most of the time the pace of the bricks being added to the load is faster than the pace we can complete them and unload.
  - One thing you can do is have a running list of task to be completed. I use ever note or a shareable note system on my phone. The point of doing this is to keep your mind free of distraction allowing you to be more efficient.
  - Studies say it takes 15 minutes to refocus on a task once you have been interrupted. If you have a process in place to write down tasks or store tasks it will minimize distractions.
- One you have a list of tasks take the time to review them and prioritize them using three categories.
  - Time sensitive – what must be done first in order for other tasks to fall in place, or because of the time of year (planting), or to keep from something costing more money
  - Will it generate more revenue – or will it become cost savings?
  - Does it need to be completed by me or can someone else do it? – Time is money and your time isn’t free. This concept of figuring out what your time is worth could be a podcast episode all by itself. Could a hired man or subcontractor handle the task will little guidance?
- Place the least desirable tasks first thing in your day. By doing this you get the things done early before you have a chance to push them off. Also, if you can have someone else do the work for you that frees up more of your time to do high value tasks resulting in a better return on your time investment.
- Just because you hire someone else to do it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t cost you more to do it yourself. The key is to be productive while the others are taking care of the task. Examples
  - Book work – could be your least favorite and trained professionals may do it faster
  - Lawn mowing – could a lower wage per hour handle this
  - Repetitive chores – is this a task you could check in on once a week or every 4 days
  - Purchasing livestock – genetics are valuable, don’t let someone else screw up the future of you farm.
  - Field prescriptions – who knows your field better than you do
  - Field work – what other management tasks could you be doing for more money
Summarize
- Unpack your mind of the floating little reminders by making lists or task buckets. Then you can organize those tasks by importance and what skills are needed to complete them. Take advantage of a fresh day to knock out the less desirable tasks. This also gives you something to look forward to after they are done, a more fun task. What is the true cost of doing a project yourself versus hiring it done? The whole key is to make sure your time is spent doing the things that will make your farm more profitable, sometimes that is just thinking and planning for the future.
Challenge
- Write down everything you do for 3 weeks. This will seem like a pain in the ass but it will be a good exercise to see how much is repetitive and what can be delegated or removed.
- Calculate hourly rate- If you never find yourself with a shortage of things to do take a moment to calculate what your time is worth per hour. What would someone have to pay you to get you to show up. Then break down the tasks on your to do lists by if you would pay someone that much to do it or not. The outcome is if you wouldn’t pay someone $30/hour to do that task then you shouldn’t be doing the tasks, hire them done.
- Build up employees – by assigning responsibility to employees with potential you help them grow and become more productive. Ultimately getting more out of them for your dollar driving higher levels of farm profitability.
Conference Update/Reminder – 12/6/2019

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8 Ways to Increase Farm Profitability Sep 16, 2019

Show notes

8 Ways to Increase Farm Profitability
December 5, 2016 Nick Horob
Farm Financehttps://www.harvestprofit.com/blog/tags/farm-finance#categories>
As we’ve mentioned numerous times, we like to talk about actionable ideas that you can implement in your operation.
Here’s a list of eight things that you can do to strengthen your operation for 2017 and beyond.
8 - Meet With Your Local Grain Merchandisers
Most grain merchandisers I know are a wealth of local market knowledge. Most are willing and enjoy sharing this information with their farmer suppliers. Here are a few things to ask them about.
* Inquire about local basis patterns. Basis follows certain local patterns and grain merchandisers can identify certain times of the year for you to target your basis “sales”.
* Ask them how they manage their spreads. This is an intermediate/advanced topic that many producers should learn more about. Futures spreads play a large role in the P&L of a commercial grain facility. You owe to yourself to learn about them.
* Ask what you’d need to do to be the producer they call when they really need bushels. You want to be the person they call when they are filling a train, a short sale, etc. Ask them what it would take to be that producer for them.
Schedule a meeting with your local merchandisers this winter.
7 - Study Your 2019 Split Tests
Most successful producers I know conduct split tests throughout the growing season. It’s your job to sit down with anyone involved in your agronomy decisions (including sales people) to evaluate and learn from your tests.
As you likely know, every growing season is different. You don’t want to completely change your plan from year-to-year based on results that were based solely on a year-specific weather issue. You should try to identify trends in your tests from year-to-year rather than making a rash decision (eg. to completely throw out a company’s seed).
“If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” You’ve measured it, now learn from it and improve it!
Also, I’d be completely open and share your results with neighbors and peers. Knowledge is going to spread regardless so why not learn as much as possible as soon as you can.
6 - Don’t Buy Shit You Don’t Need
No explanation needed! That includes stuff from us. If you don’t think we’ll add value to your farm, certainly don’t buy our course or software.
5 - Shop Your Chemical Plan
Resistant weeds are costing producers a lot of money these days. They need to be dealt with but it’s my opinion that some producers are scared into buying an A+ mode of action (A+ = expensive!) when a B-quality mode of action (or generic) will work just fine.
My recommendation is to solicit a bunch of advice this winter on what chemical plans are working best in your area with a focus on both effectiveness and cost-efficiency.
4 - Set SMART Long-Term Goals
In a business with as much uncertainty as in farming, it is difficult to make confident decisions. During good times, it’s easy to think that they are here to stay and vice versa (today!).
These goals can include anything but they should follow the S.M.A.R.T guidelines below.
* S - Specific
* M - Measurable
* A - Attainable
* R - Relevant
* T - Time-based
Becoming a better grain marketer is a good goal in theory but it’s not a SMART goal as it’s very hard to measure and it’s not time-based.
Having more working capital is another good goal in theory but it’s not a SMART goal as it’s not specific or time-based.
Write down your goals and track them! Our favorite old friend, a spreadsheet, is great for simple goal tracking.
3 - Send Personalized Letters to All of Your Landlords
Most landlords love to hear from their tenants. They also want to hear how the growing season went on their farm this year.
I’d send two personalized letters to your landlords every year. One in the summer and one in the winter.
Include details relevant to their farms, such as:
* Dates
* Pictures
* Details of Improvements
* Suggestions of Improvements
* Yield maps
* Fertility tests
* Thoughts on the current ag markets
* Flex rent hints
* You get the point….
You should be using these letters as an opportunity to solidify your business relationship while building and strengthening a personal relationship.
Landlords typically don’t give you a lot of advanced notice when they are looking for a new tenant. If they do, they likely already “have one foot out the door.” Spend a few hours a couple times per year building a relationship with them.
The key here is to be consistent with your communication. If you promise regular newsletters but fail to deliver, you’re doing more harm than good. If you start, keep it up!
2 - Build and/or Update Your Balance Sheet
This is very relevant to setting SMART goals. You owe it to your operation to have an easy-to-use balance sheet in place so you can track your goals and evaluate finance/risk management decisions.
At the end of the day, your farm’s balance sheet is a no-BS view of your farm’s finances. You should know it backwards and forwards.
Don’t rely on the bank to do this for you. You should be in a position to bring a completed balance sheet to your bank with “ownership” (understanding) of every line item.
Most of you are likely already doing this but it’s important. So keep it up!
Before #1, sign up for our free e-mail newsletter below if you haven’t already.
1 - Have a “Living and Breathing” Farm Budget
I’ve thoroughly reviewed the financials of farms raising crops on 1+ million acres.
The #1 trait I’ve seen in the most financially successful operations is the ability to make unemotional, numbers-based farm business and risk management decisions.
It’s true that grain markets don’t care about one producer’s cost of production or balance sheet, but….
…..it’s our opinion that farming is more profitable and productive (and fun!) for proactive, numbers-focused operations.

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Making Small Changes Can Have a Big Result Sep 09, 2019

Show notes

The laws of small changes
Introduction
What’s happening
Reminders:
Like, rate, review, share
Send to farm4profitllc@gmail.com
Register for the conference
Jason Mauck of Constant Canopy - Keynotes
What’s working for Ag – listener or farmer feedback (Nathan Anderson)
Networking: Building, maintaining, and utilizing human networks.
Creating friends of the farm rather than enemies
Having those around you that you can ask for help, borrower equipment, trade services (grain bin moving story)
Continued learning through others
Hosting or attending field days to learn about best practices and meet others with more experience
Connecting with area politicians
Taking advantage of paid lobbying trips, talking to those in DC, get in conversations with those who have little in common with you.
Breaking the stigma of an “Independent Family Farm”
Farmers should be very dependent on others. That is the way is used to be with shared equipment and labor. Becoming “Interdependent”
https://practicalfarmers.org/
https://www.iowafarmbureau.com/
https://agsolver.com/

Topic of the Week: Why do small changes matter?
People don’t fear or resist change in general. It has to be exciting, clear, and obtainable to get the human psyche on board. People cut their hair, buy new equipment, try new food all the time = change
It’s intimidating to think about cutting something out of your life completely. Instead of eliminating something completely to save costs take a look at the budget and find small areas of savings.
5% less spent on utilities (call and ask for a break), less in interest expense (call and ask or pay down quicker), inputs like wages, seed, chemicals, fertilizer (application rates or dealer price lowering), family living expenses (eat at home)
Sell or produce for 5% more – more sources of revenues
What would it take to boost your yields by 5%? 200 bushel is 10 more bushel 50 bushel is 2.5 more, 3 lbs per day rate of gain is just an extra 15 hundredths daily
What would it take to sell your crop or animal 5% better than you have in the past?
Use a broker? Follow a plan? Set target dates?
Could you grow your gross revenues by 5% by doing something else?
Custom farm, contract or sub work, become a dealer, network referrals, board position?
If you could grow or raise your commodity for 5% less cost at the same time as selling it for 5% more your actual net profit increases. The profit you produce doesn’t just increase by 10% though it will be more! $50M into $62.5M is 25% more while $5 into $15 is 200% more (chocolate bars)
Buy 100 chocolate bars for 95 cents each and sell them for $1 apiece. This leaves you with 5% margin or $5 profit at the end of the day. However, if you find a 5% off coupon and by them for 90 cents each and sell them for $1.05 you have a profit now of $15 or 200% more than before.
Summarize
This doesn’t just apply to purchasing and selling. Making small changes in habits, mental and physical health, management techniques and more will pay off.
Management, health, and more to be covered in future episodes.
Challenge
What are some easy areas for you to make 5% changes in your operation? Where are the harder areas of changing going to be? Focus on assigning a dollar of impact figure to each category and focus on the areas of largest impact first. They may not be the easiest or most fun but will be the most rewarding.
Conference Update - Jason Mauck of Constant Canopy will be one of the Key Note speakers

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Email address: Farm4profitllc@gmail.com

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15 Ways to Make Your Farm More Profitable Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

This list is from INC.Com. Written by David Finkel a professional business coach.
Here is a quick list of the simple things you can do to increase your company's gross and
operating profit margins.

Speed up your design cycle (Decision Making). This can allow you to accomplish
more tasks in half the time, potentially increasing your profits over 30 percent. The
faster you can make a decision the more efficient your team can become.
Eliminate tasks and activities that don't add value to the company or customer.
Every dollar you save by eliminating the cost of things that don't add value to your
company drops directly to your bottom line.
Increase pricing. If you bill hourly, review your billing rates and push them higher. If
you charge per product, look for ways you can command a higher price. Could you
bundle more value into a package? Improve your marketing and sales scripting to
effectively sell at a higher price? Or could you just boldly increase your pricing? Most
farms/businesses set their prices when their business was first launched, and since
they were so hungry for business, they set pricing levels low. Over time, the business
likely only made nominal increases to pricing every few years, but rarely did the
owner ever sit down and fundamentally rethink his or her pricing model. Well take a
close look at your pricing now.
Regularly review your administrative and operational staff levels closely. Let your
revenues grow faster than you’re hiring. If you have underutilized staff create
methods of task that can add to your bottom line.
Shorten your sales cycle. How can you close your sale faster? This will decrease
your sales cost per transaction and free up a lot of hidden cash flow that previously
was locked up in your sales staff. – biggest ones are early season discounts, interest
expenses, and product condition.
Increase the dollar value of every sales transaction. Ask, How can I get each
customer transaction to be for a larger dollar amount?" What upsells, cross sells, or
resales could you strategically implement? What package offers could you test and
introduce?
Do the trucking yourself
Manage quality (in the meat, grains, etc)
Deliver to final destination
Deliver on their schedule
Beware the steep cost of attrition/retention. Customer retention is a strategic
expense if spent wisely. How can you increase your customer retention?
Landlords
Private Meat Sales
Grain Merchandisers
Employees
Feed your winning sales people more leads (even if that means you starve your
lower performing sales people of leads.) This is not a time to be "fair", but to be
strategic. If every lead you give to John is worth $2,100 and every lead you give to
Sarah is worth $3,200, then you've got to take this into account when you divide

leads. Be transparent about this and let it be a spark to help John learn how to
increase his own dollar value per company lead given to him. Think of this with
employees. If one employee is better at a task, give them the option for overtime and
send the others home. More worth your money.
9. Strategically map out systems. Look for ways to educate your staff on the ideal use
of their time with your product or service.
10. Shift a cost from a fixed to a variable expense to give yourself greater flexibility.
This is a way to protect your cash flow. It is extremely important for unproven
tactics and strategies. Flex leases, variable rate loans (inverted now), basis
contracts.
11. Shift a cost from a variable to a fixed where the value is proven. Make this shift
only when you can negotiate a substantial price savings by doing so. Fertilizer, seed,
insurance, interest rates (now)
12. Consistently look for ways to lower your fixed overhead. Scrutinize your base
expenses to eliminate non-strategic expenses that just don't add value to the
company or to the customer.
13. Negotiate hard. Take the time to plan out your negotiation strategically. Create
competition for your dollars. Create a list of concessions you want, with extras for
you to trade off. Research the market to better understand the best deal you can
expect. Even hire an experienced negotiator to help you make the purchase on the
best price and terms you can. If the asset you're buying for your business is large
enough, the ROI on your negotiation work can be immense.
14. Get clear on all the costs of inventory: cost of capital; storage; insurance; etc. This
will help you make informed stocking levels. – placing insurance premium
equivalents into a reserve account can add up over the years and create a pool of
income generating self-insurance.
15. Set optimal inventory levels and stick to them. Constantly be on the lookout for
ways to safely reduce your inventory levels. If you have inventory you're unlikely to
sell, scrap or donate it so that you can free up the space and write off the inventory.

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The Power of Knowing Your Breakeven Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

Landon Friesen @landon707 on Twitter

• What is your cost of production?
o This isn’t unique to farming. It is important in all types of businesses.
 Coors light has to know what they have in each 12 pack otherwise they won’t be around to make more.
 Just like in our introduction…..If you aren’t farming for profit you won’t be farming for long
o If someone asked you break even how accurate will your answer be?
 Your number needs to be flexible and include all expenses supported by the farm. (family living)
 It will start off abstract or a wild ass guess
• Early predictions will be estimates as all parts can change
• Fuel, time, extra passes, interest hikes, sales, hired labor
 Change the information as it becomes fact is key. It will seem like less work throughout the year if you make more little changes rather than sitting down for hours. Especially during the busy growing season. Some of the top producers we talk with have scheduled time each week to focus on this part.
• After you lock in inputs
• After you make field passes
• After you make grain sales
 Make you more confident in your sales
• Early season sales are made to be above the rough target or sell into an overall profit model.
• Later in the processes you can be more accurate in recording the margins generated from sales
• Again, be careful chasing the peaks in the markets. Remember farmers never go out of business selling for a profit
 Will help with acquisition/expansion scenarios
• Time to upgrade combines?
• Should I rent that extra 160 acres?
• Can I buy the land from my land lord?
 Effects some of your costs of production
• your interest rates – detail pays
• Negotiations with land lords and sales people
• Summarize
o Having the knowledge of what your breakeven is can make you a more confident producer. Livestock to crops one really should know what they can sell the finished product for to cover expenses and make profit. This allows a producer to be more confident in making quick decisions which could result in higher levels of profit. Get detailed and keep it updated throughout the year. Don’t be afraid to share it with others to help catch areas that may be overlooked.
• Challenge
o Where are you keeping your breakeven information now? Are you prepared to say yes when the crush plant or processing plant calls with a cash bid? How could you make sure your information is more accurate or more detailed? Who else knows what your breakeven is? Take time to focus on the answers to those questions to help drive you to be a more profitable farmer.
• Conference Update
https://www.farm4profit.com/uploads/8/6/6/6/86663378/farm4profit_farm_business_award.pdf
https://www.harvestprofit.com/

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11 Rules of a Successful Farm Business Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

https://smallfarmnation.com/rules-for-starting-a-successful-farm-business/
Small Farm Nation – Get Growing
They have a podcast and this list is from their 11 Farm Business Rules episode
So, it seems that more and more people share the dream of running a sustainable family farm.
Now, these guidelines, which they call 11 Business Rules for Starting/Running a Family Farm,
Farm Rule #1 – Your Farm is a Business, Not a Hobby
Most likely farming is in your DNA and you know it’s a farming business, not a weekend hobby. But, remember if you aren’t farming for profit you won’t be farming for long.
If you want a hobby, that’s fine. That’s called a homestead, if anything, and you can look elsewhere for whatever income you want.
But here’s the thing. If you want the farm to produce your income, it’s a business.
Rule #2 – Nail Down Your Competitive Advantage
If the business is easy to get into for you, it’s easy for someone else to do the same.
There are a number of ways you can gain an advantage regardless of what specific farming strategy you choose. Then, have a strategic reason for every farm enterprise you operate, and every farm decision you make.
If your motive is profit, and it should be because this is a business, right, then you have to assess what the most profitable farm enterprise is for you and your market.
If it did nothing positive for our bottom line, think about removing the enterprise
Just make sure you can answer this simple question. Are you ready?. Here it comes: my farm’s defensible competitive advantage is ___________________________
Rule #3 – Select the Best “Go to Market” Strategy Before You Start
If you have something to sell, there’s a lot of ways to sell it, right?
who are you going to sell to and how are you going to reach them?
You have to define your go to market plan
Rule #4 – Avoid Debt at (Almost) All Costs
So, I say almost, because debt can be used intelligently to gain leverage. But that doesn’t mean most people use debt intelligently.
Balance sheets are divided into assets and liabilities. Assets-good, liabilities-bad, right? Because that’s something you owe
But would I use debt to buy a tractor to make my farm life easier?
Because I can’t quantify the income I’ll generate as a result of that purchase to service that debt. So no way. I’ll get that tractor when I can afford to buy it. With cash.
There’s enough to worry about in farming. Design your farm business to run without debt so you don’t add that level of stress.
Rule #5 – Bridge the Gap Between What the Land Needs and What the Market Needs
This is both a business and an ecological rule
Rule #6 – Balance Profit With Passion
Okay, so we’re talking about a business, right? Not a hobby.
So the point is, measure everything that affects profit.
You absolutely need to know your cost of production, down to the nickel. What does it cost you, ALL IN, to produce that product
Rule #7 – Understand the Full Impact a Farm Business Does Have on Your Family
Employees need direction which means someone’s in charge. That means there will inevitably be disputes and disagreements.
The point I’m making is that there is no separation between work and home life on the farm. It is ALL farm life. All the time.
Rule #8 – Know the Difference Between Profit Margins and Cash Flow
If running a business is new to you, this next statement may sound strange. But there are lots of ways a profitable business can go out of business. Or file for bankruptcy.
There have been plenty of businesses that had attractive profit MARGINS but poor cash flow management. And they went bankrupt, because they couldn’t come up with the cash to service the debt.
And, there have been even more companies that grew too fast, so they went under.
CASH IS KING
Rule #9 – Protect Your Ass-ets
I’m not a CPA or lawyer so I’m not giving legal advice. See your experts for that. But, in any business, you gotta protect your personal assets, especially in this litigious society.
And, beyond legal structure, get the right insurance to protect you.
Rule #10 – Quit Your Day Job
Close the door behind you, burn the bridge and quit your day job. If you want to have a successful farm business—or any business—get rid of your crutches.
Go out and do it.
Rule #11 – Start Marketing Before You Start Farming
I mean, how can you start marketing before you start farming?
Start selling part of your (insured) crop before you grow it. Giving yourself 2-3 marketing seasons to catch great sales prices.

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Humble Learning - Be the Dumbest Person in the Room Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

Try to be the dumbest person in the room
 What’s working for Ag – listener or farmer feedback
 Storing Grain in grain bags with @steveconaway1
 You can’t learn much from those you know more than.
o It’s a challenging concept, it’s humbling, it’s scary, and it must happen!
o In order to generate new ideas and bring new concepts back to the farm you must reach
out of your comfort zone. Pairing new or different concepts with your years of
experience could take your farm to the next level.
 Just because you have years of experience it doesn’t mean you are being the most effective. Think of it as a coffee shop in town has 25 years of experience pouring coffee that tastes awful. They may be great pourers of coffee and never make a mess, but the product they are serving isn’t any good. However, if they meet up with the owner of the across town shop who has high reviews on the quality of coffee they could learn the source of the beans. They now then are great coffee pourers with a great product too just by humbly networking with someone who has been perceived as better at it.

o You must approach these conversations and experiences with an open mind. We tend to get defensive about the way we do things and resist admitting they could use improvement.
o Doesn’t have to only be with another farmer. Could be a farm manager, an ag industry professional, or salesman. Just look for those who you respect and command the respect of others to learn from. This most commonly happens while joining ag related boards or attending meetings to network.
o Remember most of the time we are the most critical of that which we don’t understand. Rather than criticize something be curious and see if you can learn more about it.
o Then take the new concept, technique, or idea and learn as much as you can about it. Then it becomes less about what someone else said and more about the research you have done.
 A good technique for focusing on a new concept is the 3-2-1 method. Focus a 90 day period of time on the idea and seek out 3 books or articles to read, 2 more people ask about or learn from their experience on the topic, and try to get to 1 class or field day to see it in action.
 Example: Someone shares how vertical tillage has been a solution for certain areas of their farm. Find 3 pieces of research, articles, or books to read about the benefits of the practice. Talk to 2 neighbors or network users about their experience, and try and line up a demo or see a tool in action.

 Summarize
o The goal is to start identifying those in your industry that you view as successful. You may not what your farming operation to look exactly like theirs, but something about their business you see as a step in the right direction. It could be their understanding of finances, mechanical ability, or cleanliness of fields. Then swallow a bit of pride and put yourself in a position to learn from them whether it be through casual conversation or
an organized meeting. Once you’ve learned about what helps them achieve the success they have conduct your research and begin implementing profit boosting techniques to your farm. Kaizen is the word the Japanese use for Constant and Never-ending Improvement. Adopting this mentality with help boost your farm’s profitability.

 Challenge
o Identify 5 techniques, skills, or practices that you see as successful in another operators business. Of those 5 find a way to learn about two of them in the next 30 days. Then begin the 3-2-1 process on each of them and take the steps necessary to implement 1 of the techniques, skills, or practices on your farm to boost productivity or ROI.

 Conference Update
o
 Submit questions and topic suggestions

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