The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
January 23, 2013 column
It has been quite some time since Mark and I slipped away for an overnight farm meeting.
Our feed guy had been after us for years to come to a Producer Conference, but it was always held during the coldest week in January and when the kids went back to school.
Finally this year everything fell in place for us to go. Jonathon was able to cover chores and milking.
The weather forecast was for mild temperatures here while a major storm barreled over the eastern coast.
Before Mark could even think of some other reason not to go, I signed us up to head south to Morton. I didn’t know and didn’t care what workshop topics were. I just knew we needed a morning off.
I forgot how much I learned when we got away from the farm for a couple of milkings. You hope to learn from the expert speakers, but maybe you learn even more from meeting other regular people sharing stories and ideas around banquet tables or in the hallway between sessions. That was definitely the case for us.
You know the speakers are good when we both stayed awake through their presentations! The speakers provided great information about culling rates, hoof care and transitioning cattle.
One speaker talked about financial decisions on the cost of raising replacement heifers and culling. Looking around the conference room there were active producers and hopeful producers (students from Ridgewater College) taking in all the information. We were all listening to the same information, but I’m pretty sure we were interpreting it differently based on our history.
As the students listened intently, they nodded their heads in agreement with the speaker as he explained about costs on return of investments.
“Why are you freshening a low end heifer?”
“With low milk prices, how do you decide where to cut expenses?” “You should only be spending this much/cwt on labor.”
“What are your parameters for culling?”
These are many of the same questions our kids have been asking us.
While the information/data is like a shiny new object capturing their attention, our experience over the years may have taken some of the “shine” off the information.
There are many intangibles that don’t fit into a spreadsheet or plug into an economic equation. The speaker kept talking about average costs, average prices and average returns. Then he said “you can die by the averages.”
When milk prices drop there are two theories of attack. One is to hunker down and ride out the storm. You can cut back on inputs, but these changes may also cut back on your production generating even tighter financial constraints. The other theory is to make every input work to its maximum potential. Increasing feed costs for example may generate more milk and more money, but will the gains outweigh the inputs? Just because it is a new way of solving a problem doesn’t make it right or wrong, just different. Sometimes you need an old solution to fix a new problem. We just need to keep talking to find the best solution to the problem at hand.
The speakers provided great information to discuss but what they actually generated were more questions than answers for us at this moment. Which way do we go? Do we move forward, stay the same or leave? How do we get to where we need to be?
It feels like we’re spinning in circles and not moving in any real direction. It feels like we are caught in limbo, neither here or there; just in between.
Over dinner, Sean and I talked about our farms’ pasts and futures. We talked about our struggles as we took over the farms from older family members. How do we make it work for our children if they want to return? What struggles will they face and are they committed to sticking it out over a very long haul?
Yes, they can say they want to return and they definitely have plenty of ideas of how we should change but are we ready to let go? Are they ready to invest and have “some skin in the game?” My head was spinning.
Later outside the hospitality room, I was picking Dave’s brain about expansion and working his children into their operation. He kept reassuring me it is ok to grow, change, build or expand to help the kids come back to the farm. “Go for it” he said. Then he laughed and added “of course it’s always easier spending someone else’s money!”
Ten years ago I wish someone had told us to go ahead and make the changes we needed to for us. Not because the kids might come back, but for ourselves to continue in a business we love. We didn’t make any major building changes because we thought we would build what was right for us at the time but would hamper any changes the kids would want to make in the future.
We didn’t want to lock them into something that wouldn’t work for their future plans. So we made do with what we had.
Now we have older buildings and older bodies. Both are showing signs of wear and tear.
We may not want to make any changes, but will be forced to make changes when things can no longer be fixed with duct tape, baling twine or Advil.
By slipping away for this conference we learned so much. The speakers provided thought provoking information.
Other producers offered insight into challenges we all face.
But the most important lesson of our quick getaway..shut your phone off if you want a chance to sleep in!
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As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.
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