Frye: What makes a professional farm operation?

When you think of the word “professional,” what comes to mind? You might think about something looking a certain way, perhaps very sharp or put-together.

Maybe you think about the way things are done, such as following a particular method that involves certain steps or processes.

Maybe it’s more of an overall sense of how everything fits together and comes together to create a certain consistent look, feel and experience.

Each person’s definition of what it means for something or someone to be professional will be a little different.

Getting Professional

Do you consider your farm to be a professional operation? What does that mean to you?

You might think of another farm operation you know of or have visited that you consider to be a very professional operation. Maybe this is something you’re doing on your own farm.

There are a couple things that come to mind when I think of farms that are run as professional operations.

First of all, when it comes to being a professional farm operation, it doesn’t have anything to do with the size of the operation in terms of number of acres farmed, revenue generated, or number of side businesses. It primarily has to do with the mentality of the farm’s owners and leadership team.

The mentality I most often see in the leaders of the top professional farms is this: Run everything on the farm as a business.

The reality that many farms are owned by families or families in business together does not mean that the operation can’t be run as a business, where the numbers and business mindset primarily drive the decision-making.

It does mean that the leaders must be very intentional to bring a business and financial mindset into all the decision-making, even with decisions where it would be tempting to put other considerations first.

Shaping It

Another factor that’s usually in place on professional farm operations is that the leaders are very intentional to shape the farm’s culture in the direction they want it to go. The farm’s culture encompasses everything about how the people on the farm get things done.

That includes everything from how people work together, how others are treated when they visit the operation, how people communicate to the values that are shared.

It extends to how the leaders make decisions about employment and how people know whether they’re doing a good job in their role.

All of this also comes into play when it comes to the major shared business goals that everyone is working toward in the operation.

The main thing in a professional farm operation is that the fact that the farm owners are running a business is always top of mind.

By shaping their own mindsets first, and the farm’s culture next, they can help ensure that the operation attracts other like-minded people, such as employees, landlords, lenders, suppliers and advisers.

This often leads to a feeling of consistency throughout the operation. That’s because no matter who others from outside the operation are interacting with, they can still tell the level of professionalism from whoever they interact with in your operation.

That’s an attractive thing to others on the outside. It can, and should, bring feelings of pride for the farm’s leaders that they’ve created a professional farm operation.

2023 Markets

Professional farm operations make sure they have goals and a plan when it comes to their marketing.

Have you set up marketing goals for 2023? Now is the right time to be creating marketing plans for this year and beyond.

A market adviser can help with providing education, marketing tools and market planning for your unique operation and your future goals.

Farmers have found that getting some third-party perspective from our market advisers has helped ease their minds.

The advisers help farmer clients with planning and execution around marketing decisions and help keep them up to speed on the current rapidly-changing grain market situation and how it impacts their operation.

Get a free two-week trial of our marketing information service, MarketView Basic, at www.waterstreetconsulting.com. Your free trial includes regular audio and video updates, technical analysis, recommendations and more.

Or, learn more about our market adviser programs and offerings at www.waterstreetconsulting.com.