Farmers have helped each other, they have taught each other and they have learned from each other for generations. Agriculture would never have been as fast or as efficient at adopting new technologies and new production methods if farmers weren’t helping each other at every step of the way.
That’s been good for the public, of course, but it’s been good for farmers as well, since in the past, productivity has been crucial for farm survival.
As the key to farm success and survival continues moving from what’s going on in the farmer’s field to what’s going on in the farmer’s head, we need to expect that more decisions will be made behind closed doors and they will be shared less often and less effectually.
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It doesn’t have to be that way. But this is how it’s going.
The articles in this year’s Money Management issue point to the challenges, as have myriad stories in Country Guide over the past year. As one example, shrewd decision- making about life insurance can be pivotal for positioning a farm to grow despite a changing of the generations. Yet even if life insurance gets occasionally mentioned in seminars or at the coffeeshop, can you really say you understand your neighbour’s thinking about insurance as well as you understand their thinking on weed control?
The same goes for a multitude of other aspects of farm business and financial management. When, after all, is the last time you went on the financial management equivalent of a plot tour?
More hidden is the strategy that lies behind the use of business and financial tools. More farmers look at their neighbours as potential competitors for land, for production contracts and for employees, among much else, and they are reluctant to show too much of their hand.
This means that much of the business education for today’s farmers is coming from their accountants and sometimes their bankers, since those may be the only people with whom you have detailed conversations about farm management. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that, but it puts enormous pressure on your choice of advisers, and on your willingness to consider and reflect on what they tell you.
At Counry Guide, we’ve backed the setting up of formal advisory boards to help integrate professional insights into your farm management. We also strongly support setting up management discussion groups with farmers who have similar operations to yours, but who don’t live too close. You’ll see us continue to write about these and other tools in coming months.
Still, the inescapable truth is that agriculture’s growth will become more and more uneven as more and more of the decisions move indoors.
We’re on the doorstep of 2011. For good and bad, it seems to us that it will prove a pivotal year.
Let us know what you think. You can reach me any time at 519-674-1449, or at
