and adapt faster than his or her
competition. One way to facilitate
that, he said, is to network both in
and out of agriculture in a quest
to learn and identify better ways
to produce commodities as well as
manage the farm business.
Klinefelter said the primary
difference between the top farmers
and the rest is timing — when to
expand, cut back or redeploy on
investments, marketing decisions
or business activities.
“Unfortunately, the average
producer tends to change or act
only when he or she feels the heat,
rather than because they see the
light,” Klinefelter said.
He urged farmers to operate
their businesses in a mode of
continuous improvement and
suggested that they understand
the macro issues that affect their
operations, including economic,
political, social, cultural and
weather issues.
The best managers, Klinefelter
said, are also able to identify their
own strengths and weaknesses as
well as developing contingency
plans for multiple “what if”
scenarios.
Finally, the economist
emphasized that top farm
managers reject the status quo.
18
HEARTBEAT | SUMMER 2015
“They know someone,
somewhere has a better way of
doing things,” he said. “This
might mean totally changing the
direction of the business. … They
have learned to face reality as it is,
not as it was or they wish it to be.
And they know any differentiated
product with a market premium
will be commoditized if enough
people copy what they’re doing.”
Darren Frye, president and
CEO of
Water
Street
Solutions,
shared his
insights
on honing
family farm
Darren Frye
success
— both financial and personal —
through better communication.
Emphasizing that human
resources are a farm’s most
valuable assets, Frye urged farmers
to define their values and to
align themselves with employees
and others who share those
values. That includes, he said,
communicating such values to
prospective employees to create a
cohesive team that’s on the same
page.
“If your overall values are not
exactly the same as other family
members, that’s okay, but you need
to agree on your business core
values,” Frye said.
Values form the foundation
of a farm business, he continued.
“Your core business values are the
basis of your objectives and they
help you stay on course to meeting
those objectives.
Frye suggested farms begin
with a written business plan
detailing the operation’s current
status, where it’s leaders would like
to take it and how they will get it
there.
He said that, too often, farm
families work together 18 hours
a day but never discuss what they
would like the farm to look like 10
years down the road.
In family farm
communication, Frye said it’s
important to be honest with each
other, make sure you have all the
facts, deal with issues in a timely
manner, attack the problem rather
than the person and act instead of
react.
“If you can’t communicate
effectively, you can’t make good
decisions,” Frye concluded.
Lowell Catlett, futurist and
dean of the New Mexico State
University College of Agriculture,
painted a bright and vibrant
future for American agriculture