Stabilizing your farm for a bumpy couple years.

[mbratrud]

Make more summer fallow , that's your crop insurance. Use the equipment you have on less seeded acres and you'll get done harvest sooner to boot. But if you find yourself in a hole, Quit Digging.

on the Summer fallow, I'm not a fan. on the quit digging agree 100%

[Marusko]

Marusko I can relate to almost everything you said. May 20 2003 my brother and I bought three quarters off of a neighbour and found out about the BSE case five minutes after signing the deal. My mom was very worried about the cash flow and making payments until another lady said you could always sell some of it to get by. Luckily things worked out and we’ve grown since then. We like to lock the interest rate for the term of the loan just for peace of mind and with AFSC the rates don’t change much.

We learned to live cheap and find custom work to pay the bills in those tough years. I wouldn’t rely on agri stability to cover you but crop insurance for the grain side of our operation has saved our bacon occasionally. For the cows we always try to have an extra year or two of feed on hand which is better than any insurance available.

Staying positive and crunching the budget with realistic numbers is key while dealing with and communicating to the bank. Looks like you’re thinking ahead already. Nothing worse than running out of cash and operating loan while being forced into rash hasty marketing decisions.

Working with family does have its benefits. Hopefully it works out for you. ������

I was a kid for BSE but I remember it, and a drought the same year? Bad timing. I remember walking through hay and pasture with more grasshoppers than grass. Glad to see you made it out and I enjoy your posts here. Thanks for the well wishes.