Tools in your marketing tool box - Do you get good market info?

[rockpile]

To Lee,
Doggone it Lee, as I read through this thread, you really began to offend me. As I was groping in the wind working on my drills and tractors, my grain truck, and fighting to keep the dust out of my already weatherbeaton eyes, I did not want to hear that 'wuzzy' buzzward - 'farm manager' one more time this spring. You are right - that information is everything, and I'll be the first to champion that the internet is 'the' tool for market information. But, you have to be persistant and never accept the word of any 'one' party to put your plans together. The more I hear, the more respect I have for Charliep, I think he's got it together. Lee, you are right in saying that many sources of information that too many farmers use comes from dubious origins. I think the worst I've seen is the coffee shop. The next has to be commodity organizations. You have to be skeptical of overyone who has a vested interest. But, the information is there.

Now, Lee, tommorrow, I have some real dirty work to do in the morning. Hopefully, in the afternoon I will be in the air-conditioned comfort of my tractor with the stereo on. I will be assessing the latest market and planning information that I have accumulated. But, please don't insult me by tagging me with a label like 'farm manager', just because it seems so 'today'. I have always been a 'farm manager' (30 years plus), but I really take pride in being just a 'farmer'. Some day, maybe not in my lifetime, but someday, I know in my heart that that simple word will garner all of the respect in the world.
P.S. Missed you for coffee at X-Mas, catch you soon.
Rockpile

[melvill]

Hi Rockpile. It's unfortunate that you felt offended by the term "farm manager". I'm not quite certain I understand why, either. However, if you ever get chance to stop in for coffee, I'm hope I don't miss you 'cause I suspect this'll be part of the rather interesting discussion.

I use that label for a couple of reasons: 1) My wife's uncle, who you read about in this thread, hated the word "farmer". To him it suggested someone who worked long and hard but wasn't particularly astute at business. 2) I hear more and more of my clients refer to themselves as managers rather than farmers. I've asked a couple of them why. Their answer was that they see farming changing with successful farms being run by people who see themselves as business managers rather than "huers of logs and drawers of water" (my phrase not theirs).

I have some background that illustrates that point. When I was very young my father took over my grandfather's hardware store that, due to my grandfather's age and health, wasn't in good shape and hadn't been in quite a while. My folks ran it as well as the farm. He tells me he learned some hard lessons in that business because he tried to run the store like his father had taught him to farmr - "work" hard and the business will take care of itself. Well it turned out that long hours and good displays and large inventories didn't make the "business" take care of itself. Dad had to make some significant changes to his management of the store in order for it to survive. He applied that business philosophy to the farm, too. I'm not suggesting that my forebearers were perfect business managers but it's interesting to look back. That's where I picked up my philosophy of farming is "business management and production".

I believe that, like the changes in management approach that were required in the family hardware store, we are now (or have been for a while) at a point where very strong business management skills are required for sucessful farm businesses. One of those skills is my first love (wel,l second love after my wife and kids and horses and music), marketing.

Oh, oh, probably got under Rockpile's skin again. <grin> I'll hear about it at coffee some day.

Rockpile, hope you're enjoying your air conditioned tractor cab. You and I both remember doing field work with older tractors and having to stop because the dust was in our eyes so bad you couldn't see where your last pass was. Quite a change, eh?

Lee

[rockpile]

Hi Lee,
Sorry that I may have confused you. I tried to stress that management and marketing skills are inate to a successful farm operation. What I tried to cynically ridicule was that somehow you cannot mask this necessary element of an integral component of a farm operation with fresh new buzzwords and re-packaging of what people already knew. During the seventy and eighties, ag specialists roared that we had to become 'production' managers, that we had to be on the front bumper of production technology to succeed. After hearing that, many of my neighbors spent themselves into bankruptcy by being inovative and leading edge producers. Then when that didn't work, the era of 'farm manager' became the new mantra. Well, the funny thing is, that those 'old' guys who are still in business, and doing quite well despite todays' market conditions, myself included, have always had these skills in their back pockets, but like the 'gambler', knew when to hold it, and when to fold it. That is true management. In other words, you cannot provide a simple text book approach to solving how to manage a successful farming operation in this country. You have to have it in you to begin with, and you have to accept what you are dealing with. You must educate yourself in every aspect, including textbook marketing, of farming your farm, but you have to be skeptical of everything out there, because, after all, we ourselves are a marketing opportunity for someone else peddling something, or working on our behalves to maintain employment, and you as the farmer are on the very end of the stick. I feel sorry for anyone who equates the word 'farmer' with 'hewers of wood', because to me that word has to be earned and means that you have successfully accomplished all aspects of that profession. If you have to find other words to explain what you are doing, then that tells me you are deficient in the far too many parts of the complete package.
Regards, Rockpile

[cowman]

A lot of management is plain old common sense. I have a neighbor who is a very successful manager. Some people think he is lucky but in reality he does his research very thoroughly and then takes a very calculated risk and works like hell to make sure it succeeds. This is what management is really all about.

[melvill]

Hey Rockpile, want to know something really scarey? You and I are starting to agree on some things. You said, ". . . . that management and marketing skills are inate to a successful farm operation." You are absolutely right. Those two skills (plus financial management skills) are innate to a "successful" farm operation. Of course there are a number of different ways to define "successful".

In my work in extension, which I began in 1974, I've run into farms that one might argue are "successful" because the owner has survived (but only just barely) but strong marketing or financial management skills weren't a part of the operation.

I recently approached some producers offering to give a short workshop explaining how the the new Wheat Board Producer Payment Options work and some strategies for using them. This was in an area that grows mostly CWRS wheat. The reaction I got from the three guys I talked to was that they weren't interested. One went so far as to say he wasn't interested because " we should let them marketing boys at the Board do their job". These guys will survive on their farms because of many years in business and very high equity from having bought their landbase many years ago. I wonder what would happen if they had only been farming for 15 years and didn't have low debt.

You're right. A successful farm (manager) has a well rounded set of skills including production, financial management and marketing.

BTW, I think you should invest in a cell phone and a laptop computer so you can particpate in these threads while you're in the cab of your tractor.<grin> I recently was at a feedlot where the pen riders took little Windows CE computers with them when they were ridin' the pens.

Lee

[ValueChainFX]

All the efforts that are put toward the end result in the marketing place are part of a new Global strategy that is in the back of many peoples minds at the moment. Each person in the supply chain from producer to customer wants to see a more effective system that can make our products more stabale and each participant gets true value from their own efforts. Even though you may believe this is a difficult thing to do, the solution is simple but the participation is not something most want to be first at! My experience has shown me that we can secure customer contracts well up front, we can produce for those contracts and we can improve the system to produce them at higher margins and less cost! Go figure! We shall see what the future brings!