View from the Cab: One smart farmer?
I feel like a smart farmer now that I have attended some important meetings in recent weeks.
University of Illinois ag economist Gary Schnitkey spoke at a recent insurance meeting in Fairbury hosted by COUNTRY Financial agents Darryl Tinges and Joe Jones. If I follow his steps to success, maybe I’ll be a successful farmer in 2019.
Those steps include: building working capital, forgoing capital investments, purchasing a high level of crop insurance, preparing a 2019 cash flow, starting to market next year’s crop, talking with landowners about cash rent, considering a 50/50 corn and soybean rotation.
“Those cash rents should come down,” Schnitkey told the crowd.
I was also lucky enough to hear about the latest planting gadgets from Precision Planting during the company’s big winter conference held on an icy morning last week near Tremont. A quote shared at the start of the event caught my attention: “If you want something you’ve never had, then you have to do something you’ve never done.”
Precision Planting’s Justin Kauffman encouraged the audience to think of challenges and opportunities that are out there. He noted the three reponses to adversity include: complain and blame, waiting for someone to fix it and taking responsibility for success.
“You are going to see some new things today that have never been shared,” Kauffman told the eager listeners.
He was right. We saw all types of new things including an automatic depth control and a brand new planter closing system customized by Precision Planting. The crowd split into groups to hear from company engineers and agronomists.
According to Kauffman, we must manage variables to get the right profitability and success on the farm. What truly matters is what is inside the bin at the end of the season.
The new closing system, referred to as FurrowForce, can be put on an existing planter.
“It is actually measure how much force is being put down,” Kauffman explained.
(The View from the Cab blog is powered by Petersen Motors in Fairbury)
