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Efficiency is key “Back when Dad and I farmed 25 or 30 years ago, it took three full-time people to farm a thousand acres and tend our livestock,” he says. “Today, the livestock is gone and all of my soybeans and about half of my corn is planted no-till. I really can’t afford a full-time person with today’s small margins, so technology has made it possible to do more acres by myself. And no-till is better for the soil. Anytime you can reduce a pass across your soil, the soil stays put,” Fred explains. “It’s hard to convince some farmers that just because we’ve always done things one way that it’s not necessarily how we should do them in the future. There are two ways we can survive in farming today. We can produce more and/or produce it more efficiently. With the biotechnology we have today with soybeans and corn, we can produce more. Now we have corn with a bacterium built in that provides a natural immunity to the corn bore. The bacterium attacks the corn bore, but doesn’t harm beneficial bugs, which reduces pesticide use. Reduction in pesticides protects the groundwater and is a time-saver for the farmer. And seventy-five percent of the soybeans grown in this country today are resistant to glyphosate herbicide, or use the Round-Up Ready technology.” Global thinking “We have to think globally, too, because global export is going to be a big component of our future profitability. Corn growers must find new markets. Already 20% of our corn and about 50% of our soybeans are exported. Japan is our biggest corn and soybean customer. Mexico is our second largest corn customer. “One of the problems with global exports is the import tariffs of many countries, which makes it hard for us to get our crops to them economically. Other issues also complicate things in the European Union. While they’re actually the second largest importer of our soybeans behind Japan, our corn exports have virtually stopped since they imposed a moratorium on their approval process concerning new biotech traits more than four years ago. Even though the scientific community in Europe has declared these products completely safe, there is much to do yet to get consumer acceptance. “Other exporting countries also pose problems. Argentina needs cash desperately, so as soon as they grow crops, they dump them on the market. They’re the third largest producer of corn in the world, right behind China. Brazil is the second largest world producer of soybeans and they’ve got a high rate of inflation, too. I was in Brazil three years ago. Their trucks go directly from the fields to the ports along the coast and turn the crops into cash as soon as they can. That’s what has kept prices down in the United States. “Now we have to keep learning how to produce cheaper and cheaper. And that’s the biggest reason we have to work with no-till and reduced tillage: to save trips to our fields, to save our fuel, to save our equipment and to be able to work more efficiently…a lot more efficiently.” Equipment efficiency Fred, who just purchased a new, high-performance New Holland CR920 combine for the 2003 harvest, believes he must use equipment efficiently, too. “We bought our first New Holland 985 combine back in the early 1970s, then traded it in for a new TR™70 soon after the Twin Rotor® combine came out. I did custom work with it for eight years, traded for a TR86, and used that one for six years before I traded it in for a new one. I’m a big believer in the Twin Rotor concept. It was a big part of my profitability in my early days of farming. I had a good reputation using that combine, and I attribute a lot of that to the good design and good engineering of New Holland combines.
“I had my last combine for eight years. That’s a long time to hold on to a combine, but I knew New Holland was working on some new technology, and I was willing to wait. “Although I’ve had New Holland combines for years, I have to admit I did take a look at other combines, too. I compared the technology of what they had to the new CR combines, and from my point of view, nothing in the industry compares to it. I believe it was well worth the wait. It has the latest and best technology available on the market.” Seed business Although the business was small when Fred first got into it, today Fred’s seed operation has grown to more than $1 million annually. “It really works out well, because the busy time for my seed business is during winter after harvest. People still sell to people,” says Fred. “I’ve built my whole business around service. Some people need me to store their seed on an as-needed basis, others want it all delivered to a certain location and some want flexible terms, so I’ve had to learn how to think like a banker. Basically, I’ve built my business on flexibility. That’s why I’ve got some very loyal customers.” Looking ahead “Farmers have talked for years about how the middleman is making money at our expense. I think we’re going to have to become middlemen and become more vertically integrated, because we’re losing out on a huge potential profit margin. We’re too used to selling wholesale. Whether it’s investing in an ethanol plant or in a meat packing plant, or whether it’s growing identity-preserved crops, we just have to look beyond. We can’t compete in the world by simply producing commodity crops and depending on the government for subsidizing the difference to keep us in business,” Fred says. “We’re never going to be the world’s lowest cost producer of corn and soybeans. I think what we have to do is produce a better corn and soybean. We must figure out ways to add value to it with extra nutrition, or extra starch, or extra protein and vitamins. We’ve got to constantly find creative ways to enhance our production. “People ask me why I want to farm when there are greater opportunities to make money elsewhere. Well, I guess if your main goal is to get rich, then agriculture is probably not the occupation for you. But I really love farming. It’s my passion. It’s a privilege for me to work the soil and produce food for people.”
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