40 The Business of Prairie Agriculture Better Farming | May/June 2024 ny eventually took over some of the operation, but it too failed to keep going. Now most of those new barns are sitting empty. Potatoes were supposed to be the magic crop in our area in the 1980s. Our provincial government invested millions of dollars in buildings and subsidies to start the industry. Failure after failure plagued the companies, and bankruptcy was a result for many of them. Often the cause of failure in the potato industry in our area was inexperience and relying too much on government support, subsidies, and projections. Why do some win and others lose? What decides who wins or loses in the farming industry? Is it management skill? Is it luck? I am by no means an expert in farming or business, but we have farmed and owned a business for over 40 years, so I will pass on a few thoughts and comments. We are grain farmers and, like many others, we have been blessed with some wonderful crops and some terrible crops. You can do everything right, and if the stars align perfectly, you will harvest a great crop and find a market willing to pay top price for your product. However, if you are blessed with drought, bugs, plant disease, heat, flooding, or low prices, you will have a crop failure. One farmer told me he had a great crop of chickpeas one year, so the next year he seeded lots of acres. With his luck, they yielded only 20 per cent of the previous year. That seems to be a common story in grain farming. Another corporate farm that farmed lots of rented land seeded a bunch of irrigated corn in our area. It turned out to be a cool year, and we are pretty far north for big corn crops. I didn’t hear any news of big yields, and the company is no longer in business. Variable products The main problem with the hog industry I saw was that they only had one product: Hogs. When that market crashed, they had no alternatives. With a grain farm you can grow many different crops, and hopefully the mix of crops will give you a successful farm. Right now, we have just changed our cropping plans due to changing prices. In our other business of auto repair, our business model has changed constantly over the years. If we were doing the same thing we did in 1980 when we started, we would have been out of business long ago. Likewise with our farm – our crops and cropping practices have changed considerably since we started farming in 1975. In farming or business, you have to see what the market wants and provide it. To do this, you must know your market and what you can provide. Some farms have struggled over the years because they are still farming Tractors, Trucks & Growing Grain Better Farming and Farms.com are accepting applications/resumes for the following position. It’s Farming. And it’s Better. APPLY TODAY TO JOIN OUR TEAM: Paul.Nolan@Farms.com FARMING JOURNALIST New full-time or potential part-time home-based role with popular farming magazine. You love farming and can write engaging, insightful stories about our industry and its farming families. You possess a professional, team-oriented attitude with strong language skills. You are comfortable proofing copy for errors and factchecking for accuracy. You enjoy taking interesting farm photos with your mobile device. If this sounds like you, please let us know!
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