01/18/06 Mega-farmer myths and realities

01/18/06 Mega-farmer myths and realities

For all the talk of sustainable agriculture, going back to small farming operations, there are still several in the ag loop that believe that the industry is headed in the direction of the mega farmer. The definition of a mega-farmer is a farmer who had annual sales of $1.5 million dollars or more. Many of these farmers are construed to be in production ag & corn, beans, and wheat farmers of the plains and Mid west. So with those stereotypes in mind, Farm Futures Magazine conducted an investigation into what a mega farmer is, and what are the characteristics of such an operator. Senior Editor Bryce Knorr says reporters interviewed both producers with mid-size and mega operations. The findings are published in this month's edition of the magazine. And he says one key for the success of mega-farmers is their possession of a thick skin. KNORR: You're going to be willing to take some criticism. Most of them are going to have employees, and you got to be willing to deal with employees, and also fire employees. And we found out that a fairly large percentage of these fellows actually had to fire family members. That's all part of the deal. Part of the package when you become a very large farmer. And like any successful business person, mega-farmers are, well, successful business people. KNORR: They had to have excellent business skills and that includes excellent marketing and financial characteristics. So they pay a lot of attention to finances and have good accounting systems to make sure they know where all those nickels and dimes are going to. And like most business types, the mega-farmer is an entrepreneur, involved in many different operations outside of farming itself. KNORR: A particularly popular one is trucking. Of course, that makes sense for many farmers. They need to haul their produce to market. However, they want to keep those trucks busy. So many fellows have branched out into different types of trucking operations, in some cases construction, typical as a lot of these businesses are ag related businesses. The investigation also breaks down the myth that mega-farmers, once they reach that status, are nothing more than office junkies, who never get behind a tractor. KNORR: And what we found is that two out of every three of these fellows is really actively engaged in production agriculture. They're not just pushing paper and sharpening their pencil. They're out there combining corn and planting the corn in the spring as well. And here's one other myth buster for you about the mega farmer. Knorr says they don't all necessarily live in deeply rural areas. Most of those mega-farmers interviewed for the story say they live in counties where the population contains 100,000 people or more.
Previous Report01/17/06 Accurate data from producers?
Next Report01/19/06 R-CALF still hot about C.O.O.L.