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inadequate working capital

Critical State – Maintaining Inadequate Working Captial

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I’ve gone on record many times saying that I believe that the lack of adequate working capital at the farmgate presents the greatest single risk to the future of many farm businesses.

Working Capital is calculated by subtracting your current liabilities from your current assets.

wrkgcap-graphic

It is important to calculate working capital correctly, not only to satisfy the requirements of your creditors, but for your own management information as well. Overstating your working capital will give false confidence. Understating your working capital could cause you to unnecessarily inject capital into the business, or to miss out on taking advantage of business opportunities.

Maintaining inadequate working capital carries many risks, both direct and indirect, such as:

  1. Relying on operating credit and trade (supplier) credit.
    Heavy, or total, reliance on outside credit to provide access to the capital necessary to run your farm is as great a danger as a reckless crop rotation. There is no guarantee that these credit vehicles will continue to be available in the future as they were in the past. How will the crop get seeded next year if there is no working capital, and no operating credit, available?
  2. Using debt to pay debt.
    Many businesses have plead their case by illustrating that the debt payments were always made on time. What they failed to recognize was that the debt payments made were sourced from an operating line of credit, and therefore using debt to pay debt.
  3. Loss of profit potential.
    By leaning on outside credit, many farmers are forced to sell grain when they need cash to make payments, revolve credit lines, etc. instead of selling grain at a point of opportune profit. Selling grain when you have to instead of when you want to can mean the difference between profit and loss.

In regards to building and protecting working capital, here are just a few of the tactics I offer:

  1. Know your Unit Cost of Production.
    This goes beyond crop inputs. It includes ALL costs to run the farm from fuel, to insurance premiums, to paperclips for the office. Knowing UnitCOP allows you to clearly understand where your profit is made.
  2. Stretch loan and lease amortization periods.
    Interest rates are low, and recently there are hints that it might go lower yet. Stretching your payback period allows you to enjoy making lower payments. This is especially helpful in a year when cash flow & profitability will be tight. Accelerate payments in years when cash is abundant.
  3. Plan with Strategy; Discipline in Tactics.
    Far too often, we see businesses that operate without a plan by simply focusing year over year on operations (getting the work done) and as such, most decisions are made in reaction to a need or want. By building a clear & well-thought out plan, decisions become proactive when employing discipline through the execution of the plan. Deviating from the plan (IE. a great deal on a new pickup!) can jeopardize working capital and future profitability.

Direct Questions

How often do you calculate your working capital? (HINT: it should be monthly at a minimum)

What is your minimum level of working capital to have available? (HINT: it should be 50%-100% of your annual cash costs)

What is your strategy to increase and maintain adequate working capital?

From the Home Quarter

Inadequate working capital causes business owners and managers to make decisions they otherwise wouldn’t. It forces their hand. It takes away their control.
Abundant working capital creates opportunity, allows flexibility, and puts control of the business in the owner’s and/or manager’s hands.
Critical State can be only a breath away when working capital is inadequate.

weakest-link

You’re Only as Good as…

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I had the Cowboys-Packers game on in the background this past weekend when I heard the comment from one of the broadcasters: “Your passing game is only as good as your 3rd receiver.” The 3rd received being the “weakest,” this suggests that even if you have the #1 receiver in the entire league along with the last and second to last receiver, your offence will suck. Interesting theory. How does this apply to your farm?

  1. Production: all the nitrogen in the world won’t grow you a crop if the plants are lacking other nutrients. Even something as overlooked (but gaining more attention) as micro-nutrients, a crop will grow and produce, but will it be the winner you need?
  2. Marketing: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Certainly we have progressed beyond selling our entire crop into a cash market; most producers now are using forward pricing contracts. Without them, even grain delivery is left to chance (many grain buyers won’t accept deliveries that haven’t been contracted in advance for that time period.) What about hedging accounts, foreign exchange risk, direct shipping, cross border delivery, etc? Forward pricing contracts today are the minimum, kind of like hauling a load to town and taking the price of the day was the minimum practice 30 years ago…
  3. Human Resources: “Hire for attitude, train for skill.” If you’ve done the opposite (hired for skill,) you’ve likely “fired for attitude.” Your team is only as good as its weakest link. While we can fire a non-arm’s length employee for cause, it is a lot tougher to fire a parent or sibling! Often times, we are not utilizing our team in the best way; many people who might not seem to “fit” can be redeployed, or re-purposed, in a manner or task that allows them to flourish. Training, not only your team for the work you expect of them, but for yourself to be a more effective supervisor, is indescribably critical to success.
  4. Management: “You don’t know what you don’t know…” I find myself spending time with some very successful farmers who don’t have a basic understanding of their financial statements, nor the financial ramifications of many business decisions. They are happy to garner the knowledge and happier still to be able to use that knowledge to improve profits and protect cashflow. Others do not have a game plan, choosing instead to focus solely on operating their farm, and making financial decisions reactively instead of proactively. The reduced tension that can be seen when they understand the benefits of strategy is often quite remarkable.

It’s easy to see how a small oversight in one area of your business, whether it be production, marketing, human resources, or business management, can have significant impact on your financial results. An oversight can be excusable, but negligence cannot. It is up to you as the CEO of your business to identify your weaknesses, evaluate their potential impact, and establish strategy to mitigate the risk. Help is a phone call away if you are not confident in tackling this important management function.

Direct Questions

What are you doing to identify weaknesses in all aspects of your business?

How to you engage in risk mitigation strategies?

What do you do with the weakest link?

From the Home Quarter

In football, players recognize that they are only as good as their last game. There is always someone else who is eager for a chance to take the position on the roster of a player who hasn’t performed to expectations. Reputation will only take a professional athlete so far, they still have to perform. Same can be said for your business. Your reputation with your creditors and vendors is important, and can get you through an occasional “difficult time,” but at the end of the day, they still want to be paid. It’s your performance, not your reputation, that will get them paid.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link…
Your production system is a chain.
Your marketing practice is a chain.
Your HR approach is a chain.
Your management strategy and execution is a chain.

Your farm’s success is linked by production, marketing, HR, and management. Ignoring the trouble spots makes you the weakest link…

inaction

Critical State – Inaction

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Inaction, or procrastination as it is sometimes called, is the antithesis of entrepreneurial success.

It is true that there are many other factors that can contribute to a lack of success for entrepreneurs, but in farming, the effect of inaction can have immediate and catastrophic consequences. When we opened this dialogue on Critical State, a list of excuses for inaction were provided: not monitoring bins; too cold to haul grain; can’t scout the crop for bugs/disease, we’re at the lake. We all know of these circumstances, and others, as exhibited by our neighbors, shared during a presentation at an industry event, or as we may have learned the hard way ourselves.

If it was someone else’s inaction, we can easily see the effect, quantify the financial ramifications, and then wonder “how could they let that happen?”
If it is our own inaction, we downplay the effect and the financial ramifications, and then bemoan our “bad luck.”
This is not meant as a condemnation. It’s just human nature.

In my work with my clients, I encourage (almost to the point of insistence) that management processes and standardized workflow be developed and implemented. Consider for a moment virtually any business you deal with ever. Here are some examples:

  • Your crop inputs supplier has consistent procedures surrounding safety, receiving & storing inventory, and invoicing.
  • Your grocery store works within minimum and maximum inventory levels on a week by week basis.
  • Your accountant follows a standardized workflow for receiving, sorting, & compiling your information, and for preparing your financial reports.
  • Your favorite restaurant has a protocol for greeting patrons, seating them, & ensuring they are eating in a reasonable time, not to mention criteria for food quality, safety, and handling.

Following a set plan of action almost completely eliminates the risk of inaction. Grain will never heat in a bin if you check it on a set schedule with a short frequency. Crop pests and disease will not bring catastrophic damage to your crops is you scout regularly with a short frequency. And yes, hauling grain in very cold weather is not fun and it does bring about other unpleasant challenges. However, if you, or someone you know, has been unable to move grain on time due to no space at the elevator, no trains, etc, then you know how that can affect cash flow, which leads to late bill payments, or poor revolving of the line of credit, etc. If that LOC has an interest rate penaly for late payment, your profit could disappear to cover that interest penalty. Still think it’s too cold to haul grain?

Direct Questions

Every decision has consequences, be it positive or negative. How do you accurately weigh the consequences when making operational decisions?

Describe how the pleasure of inaction now is more positive than the risk of harm later.

How do your operational decisions impact your financial outcome? If you have trouble making this connection, please call me immediately.

From the Home Quarter

Entrepreneurs are renowned for their tenacity and vigor in achieving their goals. Yet many entrepreneurs fail for many reasons, one of which is inaction. But cut yourself some slack: every entrepreneur does not instinctively know exactly what to do and when to do it, many need guidance. Enter people like me who help our clients in areas where they are not instinctively excellent. One of my favorite phrases is, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” But being oblivious to better ways can become an excuse for inaction. As a farmer, you take far too much risk for margins that are too thin and unpredictable to leave anything to chance.

Overspending

Critical State – Overspending

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Cash in the bank is a good thing. Spending it because it is there is the scourge to many farm’s financial strength.

Years ago, when I was still in banking, I was doing what can be argued young bankers should, or should not, do…I was listening intently to some well tenured, long-in-the-tooth bankers. It was good because of the insights they brought. It was not good because of the cynicism they had. One cynical comment in particular stayed with me; it was when that grizzled old banker said, “Farmers hate having money in the bank…as soon as it’s there, they go spend it!”

Maybe that comment showed his lack of insight into how a farm business is run. Maybe he was fairly accurate in his conjecture in how it relates to the psychology and mindset of a farmer. Although, I believe that “hate” is the incorrect descriptor for how farmers really feel about cash.

You may recall reading Spending Less is More Valuable Than Earning More in this commentary a few months ago. I regularly read comments in ag publications and on Twitter about how “farmers are good at making money, but trying to keep some is the hard part.” Not for everyone…

Investing in your business is something not to be taken lightly. Every year, month, week, and day, farmers battle with the decisions of what to grow, how to fertilize it, what to spray, when to spray it, etc. With almost the same frequency, many farmers are also looking at the tools to get the job done (ie. farm equipment.) “Newer, bigger, better” seems to be the name of the game when it comes to equipment. And less frequently, farmers consider expanding the land base. Whether to rent or to purchase is but one of the questions pertaining to land.

It is my belief that the issue of overspending would not be an issue if more discipline was used in ensuring that all expenditures met an ROI (Return on Investment) threshold. I’ve learned about the following instances in the last year that clearly show a lack of understanding the concept of ROI:

  • disastrous chickpea crops despite as many as 6 fungicide applications (at $15-$20 each, that’s an extra $90-$120/ac in inputs)
  • $90/ac rent paid on 640 acres that has only 420 acres available in the entire section due to excess moisture (so he’s actually paying $137 per cultivated acre)
  • inability to make loan payments because the operating line of credit is maxed out.

I have gone on record many times in my prognostication that credit, specifically operating credit, will be difficult to maintain (and likely impossible to get) in the not-too-distant future. Those operations that do not run on cash, therefore relying on operating credit, will face insurmountable hardship when credit policy changes.

Control your own destiny:

  1. Build working capital reserves, specifically CASH;
  2. Discontinue relying on operating and trade credit to cash flow your farm;
  3. Sell your production when it meets your profit expectations instead of when you need to make your payments (cash in the bank allows you to do this!)

Direct Questions

How would you describe the rationale employed when determining how to deploy resources, specifically cash?

As a percentage of your annual cash costs, what is your minimum cash balance to keep on hand?

From the Home Quarter

In a business within an industry that is renown to have multiple cash and cash flow challenges, it is not unusual to learn that adequate (or abundant) cash on hand is not common. And so when cash is available, the need (or temptation) to upgrade this or replace that can be too much to handle. Disciplined decision making, backed by a sound strategy, is often the difference between successful, highly profitable farmers and surviving, occasionally profitable farmers. Which would you rather be?

For guidance, support, or butt-kicking in developing your strategy, and the discipline to stick to it, please call or email my office.

Reinvent yourself _whats next

Reinventing

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The Olympics have now come and gone. The excitement and the drama, the anxiety and the relief, have all subsided. Real life makes its triumphant return.

Imagine for a moment what “real life” will now be like for young Penny Oleksiak. At the tender age of 16, she earned a spot on Canada’s Olympic team. In her first Olympics (please note that…her FIRST Olympics) not only did she perform well, she medalled. Not only did she medal, she won 4 medals: 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze. Now unofficially dubbed as Canada’s “Best-Ever Summer Olympian,” where does she go from here?

The pressure to be better 4 years from now at the next Olympics will no doubt be tremendous. Will she be expected to win 6 medals? All golds? What?

Imagine for a moment what “real life” is like for a phenom like Connor McDavid. At 19, he’s entering his sophomore season and is no longer a rookie pro-hockey player. According to a Google search, he’ll earn $832,500 US this upcoming season (approximately $1,071,000 Cdn at current exchange rates.) He lives life under a microscope, in the spotlight, and by being a part of the Edmonton Oilers, he is certainly a big fish in a small pond. (Enough metaphors for you?)

The pressure to be better this season, and each season going forward will no doubt be tremendous. Will he be expected to score 30 goals? 40 goals? Eclipse Gretzky’s records? What?

These are examples of two exemplary young Canadians who have worked harder, and overcome more challenges, than almost everyone in order to achieve what they have.
What happens if they can’t follow up to their early success? What if the pressure gets to them? What if they fail to meet expectations? Fear is an incredible demotivator…

Neither of these 2 young athletes will disappoint. Even if their future success is pale in comparison to what they have already achieved to date, no one can take away what they have accomplished before 20 years of age. So what if they have long and successful careers? No matter how you slice it, they will be ready to retire in the next 15-20 years…old hags in their mid-30’s.

While it is easy for us as “regular people” to glorify the thought of retiring from a professional sports career before age 40, living the good life for the rest of our days, it’s just not that easy, nor is it real. While physically my prime is behind me, now in my 40’s I have more to offer, more to contribute, and can make bigger and better change in the world than I could have as a 20-something.  Mine has been an evolution. But for young athletes, it’s a reinvention.

What does someone who was at the peak of their career, and earning power, in their 20’s do once they’ve retired in the 30’s or 40’s? How does one reinvent oneself when one was once at the top of the world? It’s got to be awfully bloody difficult to overcome the mental and emotional hurdles that threaten the efforts of these people to reinvent themselves, to find new purpose, to contribute, to make a difference…

I certainly do not envy them…

You, as a business owner, will hopefully have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. That is to mean that you’ve lived long enough to be able to enjoy retirement! It is not something to fear and loathe, it is something to celebrate and enjoy! Do not bemoan living long; it beats the alternative.

Direct Questions

Life will change, and your ability to adapt is your key to success. How are you planning to reinvent yourself for when the time comes? Who are you looking to for help?

From the Home Quarter

If you’re a farmer getting on in years, and if farming is all you’ve done, then you are likely facing a reinvention in the future. But as a farmer with decades of tenure, at least you are not reinventing yourself during a possible mid-life crisis, like a young athlete who was once on top of the world…

 

Redmans

Vision (by guest contributor, Dean Robinson)

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Preface:

The following is provided by a guest contributor, Dean Robinson. Dean is a principal in the firm Redmans, a family business advisory practice in New South Wales, Australia. Dean and I are part of the same community of professionals and became instant friends at a recent event. Dean’s recent blog post, Vision, hits home as it relates to strategy and execution in family business. I hope you enjoy!

– Kim

=====================================================================================================================================

One of my big criticisms around modern Australian politics is that we no don’t have a clear vision for where Australia is heading as a country. For me, the Hawke, Keating and Howard Governments were all clear on vision. Each government set a future, then trod down the path towards it. Yes, there was some anguish. At times, decisions were made that were unpopular. However, in each of those governments, we had Prime Ministers who saw the bigger picture and understood there would be hiccups along the way. In my opinion, the years since 2007 have been devoid of the big vision.

Which leads me to family business. Unfortunately, too many of them are also unclear on their vision. They unlock the doors each day, take all comers, deal with issues like the Rural Fire Service deals with a bushfire outbreak, then lock it all up at the end of the day, ready to do it all again tomorrow.
In many respects, you can boil this down to three problems:

  1. Lack of a clear business strategy; or,
  2. If there is a business strategy, lack of implementation of it; or,
  3. If there is a business strategy, and it has been implemented, a lack of commitment to it.

A business that lacks a strategy doesn’t know where it is going, an obvious statement I know. However, the number of family businesses that lack a clear and documented business strategy is surprisingly high. This means they’re running all over the place, usually being all things to all people and creating stress for themselves in the process.
If a family business has developed a business strategy, the place where it falls over the most is in the implementation phase. Any client we have worked with on the development of a strategy that says they don’t need our help to implement it has always failed to implement. Without exception. Once the strategy planning day is done, they go back to what they’ve always done, which is generally be reactive. The only thing that works for implementation is accountability. Plenty of school children would not do their homework if they didn’t have to hand it in the next day. The same applies for family business owners.
Finally, if there is a strategy and it has been implemented, any lack of commitment to it from anyone in the management team can de-rail it. Everyone needs to be on board with the direction. If your business strategy is to produce widgets, you gear your factory up to produce more widgets, then find that you’re really not that interested in the widget market after all, you’ve just blown significant resources in the business and potentially taken resources away from parts of the business that work.
My questions to you are:

  1. Do you have a clear strategy for your family business that you can articulate succinctly and with passion?
  2. If you have a strategy, what is your process for implementing it and who is holding you accountable?
  3. If you have a strategy and have implemented it, is anyone undermining the strategy? If so, what are you doing to bring them to account.

This Week’s Tip

Lack of Strategy = lack of direction.
Lack of Direction = business anarchy.
Anarchy – a state of disorder due to absence of non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems (Oxford Dictionary.)

 

 

canola field

Critical State – Debts Get Called

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Imagine, if you will, that it is a nice harvest day in late August. The combines are serviced and running, warming up to head to the field. You’re in the house grabbing a quick bite and filling your water jug before embarking on what looks like a long afternoon of harvesting. The phone rings, it’s the bank. They tell you they’ve made the decision to reduce their market exposure in ag lending in your area, and that you’ve got 30 days to “find a new lender.”

While I hope this is an imaginary situation for most of you, it is a true story for a client of mine from my banking days. It wasn’t my bank that “de-marketed” them; that happened years earlier, but it left a sour taste in their mouth. They had cash flow challenges like almost all grain farms did coming out of the 90’s, but their file was not at risk of going south. There was no indication in the previous weeks or months that their loans may get called, so you could only imagine the shock, the disappointment, and the anger at getting that type of phone call at the beginning of harvest. How could they find the time to seek a new lender when the combines had to roll?

Here are some terms that borrowers need to understand:

  1. Demand Loan: this is a loan that provides the lender with the right and opportunity to demand full repayment of the loan at anytime. While there still may be time remaining on the loan term, notice of demand to repay the full balance is an option the lender can exercise.
    Structuring your borrowing to include no demand loans does not guarantee that you wouldn’t face a situation as described above. Demand loans are typically listed as a current liability in your financial statements which makes your working capital look offside.
  2. Effective Annual Interest Rate: interest payment terms, specifically interest compounding periods, affect the actual dollar amount of interest you pay on a loan. Interest that is compounded more frequently will cost more than less frequently (this also applies to your interest bearing investments: more frequent compounding pays you more interest and vice versa.) Lenders are required to calculate and disclose the annual effective rate so that borrowers can have a standardized figure to compare.
    Consider 5% interest compounded semi-annually; the effective annual rate is 5.0625%. Consider 5% compounded quarterly, and the annual effective rate becomes 5.09453%. The difference between the posted 5% and the annual effective rate in these two examples is the compounding interest.
  3. Covenants: as the term implies, covenants form part of the binding agreement between you and your lender. Breaching a covenant could put your total borrowing at risk of being demanded by your lender. Covenants can be for anything from minimal financial metrics to submitting financial reporting. Sluffing these off will hurt your lending relationship.

Direct Questions

What information do you require from your lender to give you more knowledge and comfort?

How are you being proactive in managing your relationships with your lenders?

From the Home Quarter

Receiving notice that your debts have been called instantly puts your business at critical state. While having an excellent relationship with your lender does not guarantee that you won’t be the victim of a corporate de-marketing decision (like my former clients above,) it will put you at the top of the list of clients to keep if there is ever a culling program initiated by bank HQ.

Goals and Strategy _corn rows

Goals and Strategy

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Never trade what you want most for what you want at the moment. It only leads to failure.

Those are profound words. While “failure” is not absolute, I believe in this perspective failure means “failure to reach your goal.”

What is your goal in business? What are you working for? Some business-people in primary production agriculture have defined their goals: one aggressive young farmer I know has made it clear that his goal is “to leave the land for the next generation in better condition then when he got it.” His desire for a newer tractor or more land never trumps his goal, and therefore his decisions reflect his goal.

I often speak to farmers who describe their goals as ” reducing debt” and “improving profitability” yet they trade those goals, whether consciously or unconsciously, for what they want in the moment (typically additional equipment)…which usually increases debt and can often have an adverse effect on short term profitability.

Does that mean the farm will fail? Does that mean the farmer is a failure? No. It means that there is failure is reaching the goal of reduced debt and increased profitability.

This leads me to circle back; ” What is your goal in business? What are you working for?”

We touched on this a few weeks back in Growing Farm Profits Weekly – Eat to Live or Live to Eat. It is no one’s place to tell you your goals are wrong. Just be honest with yourself about what’s really important, and expects results accordingly.

I work with farmers who acknowledge the need to have strong business goals that align with their personal goals. All of them are grateful to have some help to clear the air when making decisions and to take the emotion out of the equation. I have done the same in my own business: I have an advisor who I’ve hired to help me wade through the issues, and the emotional roadblocks, that could potentially affect my business.

Here are the Growing Farm Profits™ 3 Keys to Reaching Your Goals:

  1. Start with with a goal in mind, and set tactics later. Starting with tactics enters into a never-ending cycle.
  2. Plan for adversity, strategize how to adjust, and respond as required.
  3. Stay on course; get any and all help you need to keep from straying off the chosen path.

Direct Questions

What information do you need to allow you to clarify your business and personal goals? Who is helping you get it and sort through it?

Who do you lean on to help strategize when mapping your business and personal goals?

How do you manage the desire to trade what you want most for what you want in the moment?

From the Home Quarter

It is not unusual for farmers to get caught in the cycle of “head down, shoulder to the plough, get the work done, plant the crop – harvest the crop – sell the crop – repeat.” And after 20-odd years of doing just that, and finally looking up, most find that they’ve built something they never expected or planned for. Now facing the thought of planning for life after farming, many are asking “What now?”

Beginning with an end goal in mind is a critical key to successfully reaching that goal. Stay on course, and do not trade what is wanted most for what is wanted now.

farming should be like baseball

Farm Management Could Take a Lesson From Baseball

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If you love statistics, then you probably love baseball. Where else can you know with certainty that your starting pitcher has a propensity to throw more fast-balls than breaking pitches to left-handed batters at home during afternoon games in June under sunny skies with a slight north-west wind? While this is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek poke at the nauseating volume of stats that originate from the game of baseball, such statistics and the subsequent use of those statistics have real world applications.

I’m sure many of you have seen the movie Moneyball. (I’m sure most of you have because I watch VERY few movies, and even I’VE seen it.) As the story unfolded, there many beautiful examples of how the management team of the Oakland Athletics baseball club used statistics to improve their team. In this specific scene (I can’t recall who the player was) Assistant GM Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) explicitly instructs the player to “take the first pitch” during every at bat.  The reason was because through the use of statistics, and tracking the data, management knew that this player got on base more often when he took the first pitch. In the movie, it worked, and this player’s on-base-percentage increased almost immediately.

What would have happened had this team’s management not had, or used, such important information? The player may have been released, sent down to the minors, or traded to another team, the manager (bench boss) may have been fired.  Spread those “uninformed decisions” across the entire roster, and failure is sure to proliferate.

Livestock and dairy farms have been heading down the road to improved data management for years already. Average daily gain is not a new concept in beef operations. Robotics in dairy parlors bring a whole new level of data management. In conversation with a farm family that is investigating the benefits of robotics in a dairy parlor, I’ve learned that through RFID technology and a robot milker, they will be able to record and monitor milk volumes and milking frequency (a cow can come to the robot for milking whenever she chooses.) The management team can then compare results across the herd to determine which cow(s) is producing more or less than others cows under similar conditions. Informed decisions can then be made.

Grain farms having been catching up in recent years. With field mapping technology we can create yield maps; overlay that with crop inputs applied and we can tell which areas of each field are more profitable than others.

But that is way ahead of where most of the industry is generally at. By and large, many farm operations still don’t know the true profitability of a specific crop on their whole farm, let alone any given field.

The progression of profitability management, which requires stringent data management, begins at the crop level, advances to the field level, and reaches the pinnacle at the acre level.

Imagine:

  • determining which crops to exclude or include in your rotation by clearly understanding which crop makes you money and which one doesn’t;
  • deciding which fields to seed to which crop, or even which fields to renew with the landlord or which to relinquish based on profitability by field;
  • controlling your investment in crop inputs by acre to maximize your profit potential of the field, the crop, and your whole farm.

None of this is new. All the farm shows and farm publications dedicate significant space to all the tools and techniques available in the marketplace to facilitate such gathering of useful information. Equipment manufacturers and data management companies have invested enormous volumes of time and capital into creating tools and platforms to collect and manage your data. But like any tool, its value is only apparent when it is used to its full potential.

Almost all of the farms I speak with achieve greater clarity in the profitability of each crop in their rotation. I have a 13,000ac client that has taken several major steps toward measuring profitability by field. They have found that the extra work required to COLLECT this information is minimal. The extra work required to MANAGE this information is greatly offset by the benefit of clearly understanding that some of their rented land is just not profitable under any crop. Do you suppose they are looking forward to relinquishing some $90/ac rented land that just isn’t profitable enough to pay that high rent?

Direct Questions

Which of the crops in your rotation are profitable? Which are not? How profitable are they? Do they meet your expectations for return on investment?

Collecting the data is easy; managing the data takes some effort. What effort are you prepared to invest to make the most informed decisions possible?

How are you fully utilizing the tools available to you? If you’re not, why would you have them?

From the Home Quarter

Baseball collects gargantuan volumes of data on players, plays, games, and seasons. Much of it seems useless to laypeople like us, but to those who make their living in “the grand old game,” the data is what they live and breathe by. Agriculture should be no different. We should be creating consecutive series’ of data on our fertility, seed, chemicals, equipment, human resources, etc, for each year we operate, for each field we sow, for each person in our employ. Management cannot make informed decisions without adequate and accurate information. Now, with all the tools, techniques, and support readily available to help farmers collect adequate and accurate information, the last piece that may be missing is, “What to do with all that data?” While it can be boring to analyze data and create projections, I can assure everyone that the most profitable farmers I know all share one common habit: they spend time on their numbers, they know their numbers, and they make informed decisions based on those numbers.

You collect the information. I can help you use it. I’ll make tractor calls (as opposed to house calls) during seeding…as long as you have a buddy seat. Call or email to set up a time.

Shaking Hands

The Farmer-Banker Dating Game

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When I went back to college in my mid-20’s, a mature student by definition, it was because I found a course and career path that would allow me to bridge my passion for agriculture & farming with my finance minded brain. My goal, as my friends and family will attest, was to be the kind of ag-banker that was a partner, not a foe, of the farmer.  My view at that time, which was a time that we were in the depths of a very real farm crisis at the end of the 1990’s, was that farmers “generally” had a poor view of bankers. I aimed to change that perception.

Now as a management advisor, I still aim to bridge that gap. I invest myself into building good relationships with bankers so as to have a list of qualified partners whom I can refer in to my clients for financing requirements. Here are the top 3 points to remember when considering a new bank relationship.

 1. Perfection is Not Required on the First Date

The initial meeting is a first date. Think about it: you’ve met someone you’re interested, you’ve had an interesting conversation that identifies some common interests, and you eagerly and excitedly agree to go on a date. On that first date, it’s a lot of “what do you do for fun?” and “what kind of music do you like?” If you’re really getting into it, you might discuss your date’s political views! You aren’t deciding on the first date if you will or will not marry this person; you’re just hoping to learn enough about him/her to decide if you want a second date.
The initial meeting with a new prospective banker is a first date. You’re getting to know each other. The banker wants to know how your farm is doing financially, how you manage & make decisions, and what you vision is of the future. You want to know how the banker manages his/her client relationships, how the bank would deal with a farm like yours, and how everyone would expect to work together should you take your relationship “to the next level.” On a first date, no one expects perfection. Each person on a first date easily overlooks the little nuances that may, or may not, become an issue later on. No one needs to be perfect on a first date with a banker.

 2. Be Aware of Where You Are At, Where You Have Been, and Where You Are Going

The greatest risk to derailing any chance of a second date is for you, as the borrower, to not have an adequate grasp on the effects to your business from past issues & business decisions. Bankers appreciate accountability when it comes to “what happened” in the past. Own your choices, both the good one and bad ones. Describe what you are doing to rectify your poor decisions from the past and what you are doing to ensure those same choices aren’t repeated. Have an idea (at least) of a vision for what you want your business to look like in 5 years, recognize what it will take to get there, and understand what you need to do in the near term to take positive steps towards that vision.

 3. A “Partnership” Mindset

While taking your relationship with your banker to the next level has been described by some as a “marriage, I agree in figurative terms only. Your relationship with your lender is a partnership, however, and proactive & productive efforts must be initiated by both parties.
While I believe that your banker relationship is akin to marriage figuratively, I do believe that it is a partnership literally. In almost every presentation I’ve made through the winter and spring, I have described the partnership as follows:

“If you have a Debt to Net Worth figure of 1:1, that means your debts are level with your net worth. At that point your creditors have equal skin in the game as yo do; your lender’s ‘investment’ in your business is par with yours. You have a 50/50 partner.”

There are many farms with Debt to Net Worth figures that are 1:1 or higher. Where do you stack up? Do you have a “partner” by the definition of equal investment in your farm? It is only decent and respectful for both parties to behave in the relationship like a partnership.

Direct Questions

What is your mindset with it comes to your relationship with your lender? Is it friend or foe? Necessary evil or business partner?

How prepared are you, as the CEO of your company, to discuss your current situation and share your vision of your farm?

Are you excited for a dance or two on a first date, or are you expecting your date to be on bended knee by the end of the interaction?

From The Home Quarter

This is penned in large from the message that my old boss from my banking days used to lean on: early interactions between bankers and borrowers are like courtships; everyone spends time getting to know the other(s) and jostling for position to make the best impression. It takes time to build a trusting relationship, and like any first date, if either party pushes too hard too soon for too much, a second date is unlikely.