Category: Beginning Farmer

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What type of consumer are you?

woman carrying paper bag

You would have to be living under a rock these days, to not hear about how expensive groceries and food have become. I consider myself to be more of a frugal shopper than an extreme splurger, but even I find the most defeating task as of recent to be that dreaded trip to the grocery store. Not only do you want to shop economical, but you want to be efficient. These days, you can’t get a deal nor can you necessarily get all the items you desire due to the supply chain issues. Walking out of the store can be grueling, as you find yourself with minimal groceries to lug and a much emptier check book.

Flip to the other side of the equation, the producer is also feeling strapped as inputs for farming are on the rise for the same reasons as our groceries. I find many of the farmers I work with keeping a pulse on this economy to see which way the chips will fall. However, most will admit that they are rarely in the grocery store, but when they are you can find them scanning the meat section for prices on pork, beef, and poultry. This idea got me to thinking, how does the general consumer think? If they are like me, they just want to feed their family, as healthy and economical as possible, with maybe a concern for convenience thrown into the mix.

How do we do that today? Well it begins with a cut to the chase. Buy direct, buy local, and when available buy in bulk. Sounds complicated, but it certainly doesn’t have to be.

First, research your suppliers or get to know you farmer. Weather you are looking for fresh produce, honey or meat, you can always find local connection to fill your needs. Take some time to research. Would you buy an electronic today without researching? When in reality our food is costing just as much as some electronics- why would your food supply be looked at differently?

Secondly, go check out your local farm or food producer. A good one, will want to be as transparent as possible so you know exactly what you are paying for. This concept can be very rewarding on its own. Understanding how your food is produced is not a hard ask. It’s also not silly to ask as many questions as you can. You have no idea how many times I stand at the grocery store and want to ask where this lettuce came from or when was this picked. This helps you become a smart shopper and waste less food.

Lastly, buying in quantities means better bang for your buck, however have a plan. This one we see all the time. I can tell you anyday of the year, you are so much better off buying a whole beef or hog when you look at the financial side of the picture, but you just might not have room to store that much meat at one time. The same can be said about our produce in the summer. Its much cheaper in season, but its shelf life is minimal. Think about how you can take advantage of these situations. Can you buy more freezer space, can you find someone else to share a whole beef or hog with, or are you a canner or food preserver? These conclusions can often lead to ease in the kitchen down the road too, not to mention your pocket book!

So when your planning your next trip to the grocery store, take a good look at what you are buying. Are you getting what you desire? Do you feel comfortable feeding it to your family? Is it costing your entire paycheck? How defeated do you feel when you pull out of the parking lot? Surround yourself with the education you need to be a savvy consumer. I don’t know about you, but I like to have a say in what comes through my kitchen and the control to justify its worth on our shelves.

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Bring on the New Year, But Lets Take it Slow

Once the calendar flips to a new year many producers bank office time building financials while keeping records up to date, balancing the checkbook January 1st kept me pretty focused here.

Am I the only person to find the ending of one year and the beginning of a new one a bit overwhelming? Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of “a new beginning” or “a new mindset” that comes with the turning of the calendar. I just find myself swimming in a sea of where do I begin? I blame most of it on my trained career in producing farm financials. January 1st means it is time for income taxes, balance sheets, cash flows and a new set of books. Yuck! You don’t find too many farmers or ranchers that picked this profession because of their love of book keeping. However, through this same training, I developed a great deal of respect for goal setting and business planning. I have been a part of numerous goal setting sessions, I have seen farms do wrong and right by their goals, and I know a little about what works well and what doesn’t. I have also implemented these goal setting practices on our farm so I am not just telling you what may work, I know what worked well for us and what didn’t. So here is a checklist for goal setting that I hope speaks to some of you if not all.

Make your goals realistic and achievable. Don’t pick items that can’t happen or you can’t control. For example I find on our cow/calf operation often calf death loss % hits our goal list. We of course want a low death loss, but we also live in a cold harsh climate which means we can’t always control the weather or think we won’t loose a calf or 2 due to unfavorable weather events.

Communicate goals with all the people the goal affects. If your goal is to improve calf death loss, make sure whoever is in charge of birthing and calf care knows what the goal is and understands the purpose. If you have a goal but don’t relay the goal to the people who are in charge of that department it will not have a high success rate of being reached.

Write goals down. Seems simple, but this is the most critical step of reaching the goal. Nobody is accountable is you don’t write them down. Also even more important, it is too easy to bail out on a goal if you don’t put pen to paper. Writing goals down allow other people to be a part of goal success.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the goals you want to set in place. Keep goals simple and attainable but at the same time beneficial to the farm operation. Make a set of farm goals, personal goals, and family goals for each generation involved. Try to limit goals to less than 5 to start with or you will fall into an overwhelming state. Also try to consider the uncontrollables such as weather when generating goals to keep success rate realistic.

Goal setting is such a critical component of setting the profitable successful farms and ranches apart from the rest of the herd. Keeping a clear vision to work towards everyday while holding employees, family members or business partners accountable for your farms success is such an essential piece of farm management today. Mental health is so much stronger and positive moral for the farm operation can be half the battle in today’s agricultural industry. Communication is created and the journey can be enjoyable if the shared end result is farm profitability and success.

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The Night Before County Fair

Our little Cloverbud, walking and washing his 4H project on the first day of summer vacation.

Tomorrow is the first day of the county fair, the first county fair our eldest child is participating in as a 4H Kindergarten, Cloverbud. Ever since school got out we have been working with this calf for his Cloverbud project. Notice I said we? Yep, my son and of course my husband and I have to be just as committed, actually more than our 4H member. A 5-year old is pretty limited on capabilities involving halter breaking.

Now I grew up on a dairy farm and showed dairy cattle as a Cloverbud for exactly one year. However, I went on showing cattle until I graduated from college in the open class dairy arena. I took part in county and district dairy shows for years where I would work several head of cattle to show. Needless to say, I had developed a strong passion for showing cattle yet I can’t say it was due to 4H rather than a passion for working with dairy cattle. My childhood memories of 4H were very haunting and intimidating. Meetings were not informative on my passion and I felt very uncomfortable as I was on the spot during meetings. So I dropped the 4H part and learned showing from friends, neighbors who showed dairy cattle. It wasn’t until I discovered my passion for agriculture would lead me to a predominately, agricultural 4 year university that the hauntings of 4H would come back. The regrets I had for not having the 4H background all my college friends held was unsettling. I was certain 4H participation would have provided me with stronger communication skills. So when our son was born and began to show interest in all things farming, I decided we needed to get him involved in 4H.

I wasn’t prepared for the world of 4H parents. The thing is I had already been witnessing through my job and I also had some vivid memories of parents at the fair from years past. The reality of 4H is that parents are heavily involved from work load to financial responsibilities and sometimes they may offer a little too much input. It truly is no different than the parents coaching softball every weekend and wanting their kid to be the best player ever. Only add some animals with feed and supplies, along with about a years worth of projects and demonstrations into 5 days. Don’t forget there are still the normal chores at home to do too and you should probably take the week off from work. Yes the realities of being a 4H parent, no wonder most of them look cranky! I think as the parent we see a value in our children participating in 4H and the fair and that value is so tremendous we allow this week of the year to reign a little havoc on us.

The reality of 4H is these kids have spent the past several months if not most of a year, preparing animals or projects for this week. What would they have been doing or what else could they do that would teach them responsibility if it weren’t for their involvement in 4H? I give special kudos to the kids who take on livestock projects that don’t live on a working livestock farm. The extra commitment involved in that situation is noteworthy. As a beef producer we should be telling these kids thank you for taking time to learn about my industry and for teaching the general public about cattle while you are at the fair. If it be at the State Fair in a few weeks, or this week at the county fair please do our industry proud. And to you mom and dad, hang in there, these kids are miles ahead of the kids playing softball all summer or the kids who aren’t involved in anything. I have witnessed this many time as a 4H judge. I always walk away thinking wow, where are these amazing kids all year? Oh yeah, they are at home working with their fair projects!

As a rookie 4H parent, bring it on! If my kids pick up half of what some of these 4H kids have in work ethic and communication skills I will chalk it up to this being a successful stressing moment. All that matters now is the fair box is loaded in the pickup with care, in hopes that feed and bedding is already at the fair, the calf is nestled all snug in the barn, while visions of my husband stressing will be here all week long!