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Farm Horizons • April 3, 2017 • Page 13
Photo by Starrla Cray
The 25th annual Carver County Dairy Expo in Norwood Young America Feb. 20 was an opportunity for people in ag-related businesses to network and learn.
things on their farms – not everything – and they get some really good deals this way,” Bewley said.
Another part of being adaptable is resilience, which Bewley defined as“ the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”
Bewley said farmers are usually resilient by nature, as“ something goes wrong on a farm every day.”
A few tips for becoming more resilient include learning from crises, remaining flexible, expecting the unexpected, using existing buildings and equipment in creative ways, doing things oneself instead of hiring to have them done, and diversifying crops / animals / products / informational sources.
Knowing when to invest Small farms have a smaller margin for error than larger operations, and farmers need to be careful how they invest their resources.
Bewley said he’ s seen operations with“ high cost, low output,” which doesn’ t work. Sometimes, farmers will overinvest in things like parlors, land, and“ toys”( equipment and technology), and under invest in important things like cow comfort( including cow cooling) and preventative health care measures.
He advised farmers to have a CFO / CEO mentality, and encouraged them to become familiar with their return on assets, operation expense ratio, and other financial and economic details.
In the ups and downs of farming, Bewley encouraged small farmers to stick to their business model, and to spend their energy on things within their control. •
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