DOLLARS & CENTS
Today’s Agriculture in
Quotes and Sayings
Growing up on a dairy farm in upstate New York, only 30 miles from the
Canadian border, I was always happy to see signs of spring. I remember
the New York Yankees’ games playing on the barn radio, and the feeling of
pure joy on opening day. Of course, that also meant the days were getting
longer, which was also exciting. My favorite baseball player at the time was
Roger Maris, and my dad’s was Yogi Berra. It was the thought of Yogi and his
“Yogisms,” or paradoxical life phrases that prompted my recent connection
between agriculture and many commonplace sayings.
These odd and
Dr. David Kohl energizes agricultural sometimes humorous phrases still offer truths, especially in today’s agricultural
lenders, economic environment.
producers
and
business
professionals with his keen insight
into the agricultural industry through
extensive
travel,
research, and
networking around the globe. He
is a Professor Emeritus of Agricultural
Finance
and
Small
Business
Management and Entrepreneurship
at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
Dr. Kohl has traveled over 8 million
miles in his career and conducted over
6,000 workshops and seminars for a
variety of agricultural audiences.
Additionally, Dr. Kohl’s personal
involvement
with
agriculture
provides a unique perspective into
the future trends of the agricultural
industry and economy.
The worst mistakes are made in the best of times.
This winter I heard an agricultural lender say, “I watch closely what my
producers do in the good times because it indicates their resiliency and
flexibility in the challenging times.” What a great observation! Often, the
management mistakes made during prosperous times become critical in the
down part of the cycle. While it is tempting, far too many producers believe
that good economic cycles are a new normal, or something other than the
top of an economic cycle. Then, complacency creeps into the mindset as well
as the management practices. In some cases, the standard of family living
increases, or investments are made into nonproductive assets. For others,
overzealous capital asset purchases in machinery and land become the critical
issue later. Of course, for many, a combination of all of these lax practices
is common during profitable times. Agriculture has always been and will
always be a cyclical industry. And cycles become especially challenging when
deepened or elongated such as today’s reset.
Good times don’t last forever, nor do the bad times.
Good economic times can feel like a consistent rain streak during a hot summer,
or a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day,” that continues on day after day.
There is another old saying that when the lower one-third of any industry
makes money, tough times are ahead. Like most resets, this elongated cycle
will leave only those producers with efficiency, resiliency and adaptability in
sources of income, revenue, marketing and risk management, and a systematic
program to grow the bottom line. The ability to plan, strategize, execute,
and monitor performance on a monthly or quarterly basis will be critical.
14 HEARTBEAT | SUMMER 2017