D2o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 23,1983
Farming-A Troubled Business
You’ve heard it all before so I’m
not telling you anything new.
Squeezed profit margins, adverse
weather, and indifferent political
climate, unfair competition from
overseas, tight and expensive
credit, extremely high capital
costs in relation to income, and
problem on top of problems,
surpluses. In the 2S plus years 1
have been an extension agent, I've
seen this cycle repeated several
tunes. However I don’t ever
remember a period of time when
the outlook has been so rough as it
appears to be now. This is what 1
wrote in 1982. Now in 1983, all I can
do is repeat it because 1983 ap
pears more bleak especially for the
dairymen than 1982. There a few
bright spots for other fanners. The
PIK program has increased the
price of com at least on a tem
porary basis.
Squeezed Profit Margins producers know very little about
This is the worst culprit because financial end of their business.
Ag Showcase Day featured event
FAIR HILL, Md. Scheduled as
the mam agricultural event at the
30th annual Cecil County Fair next
week is the Ag Showcase Day.
Complete with educational
sessions and demonstrations,
publicity director A 1 Miller said Ag
Showcase Day promises to be an
outstanding event. Demon
strations on com silage har
vesting, ag bagging, no-till gram
seeding, and authentic con
ventional tillage plots begin
Tuesday at 10 a.m. and run until 3
p.m.
“The entire fair board is par
ticularly excited about this day,”
Brockett’s Ag Advice
By John E. Brocket!
Farm Management Agent
Lewistown Extension Office
it both causes and is caused by
some of the other problems. In
addition, it takes a lot of the joy out
of farming. Who wants to work for
a negative return except a self
comfirmed masochist?
Records
I’ve said it before and will contmue
saying it. Your only salvation is
records so you know what it is
costing you to produce an item and
why. For example: I have worked
with several hundred dairymen in
the past years. Some are
producing milk for less than ten
dollars per hundred. Others are
eroding thier capital base because
it is costing them as much as
twenty dollars per hundred. A
dairymen will not be able to sur
vive in business today unless he
can get that cost down too the milk
price. Example two: I have been
working with some pork producers
since changing my area in 1980.
I’m convinced that most pork
Miller said. “It is our hope that
events such as this not only inform
farmers but bring them together.”
Other events at the fair, which
begins Monday and ends Saturday
at Fair Hill, Md., include a
demolition derby, tractor pull,
battle of the rock ‘n roll bands,
Oscars’ amusements, dairy and
livestock shows as well as other
activities.
New events, Miller said, are
shows by the Johnson Family
Circus, a battle of the country and
western bands, a go-cart race, and
a slave driving contest with local
farmers participating.
So far, no pork producers seem to
eally know how much it was
costing them to produce a pound of
pork. Very few of them knew their
feed conversion figure. Most
guessed at the number of pigs
weaned per sow per year but get
could document or even come close
to reconciling that figure with
animals sold.
Analysis
Just as important as keeping
records is using them. I have
worked with DHIA in the past, so
the lack of the use of a farm
analysis should not surprise me.
Any farmer who pays for a farm
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analysis or business analysis is
entitled to an explanation of that
analysis. Every farmer who does
not get an analysis should get one
regardless of the type of record
system being used. There are some
analysis packages available if you
really want one.
If you have an accountant,
county agent, or other farm ad
visor who has sold you on the value
of an analysis, you have an ad
vantage over other farmers. You,
at least, have something from
which to start. If you do not un
derstand how to use the analysis or
it has crazy figures, it is up to you
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to contact who ever helped you
with your analysis and ask for help
in understanding or correcting it.
You advisor can not be a mind
reader.' Perhaps by working
together, you and your advisor can
(1) learn how to use the results of
the analysis to increase profits or
reduce losses, (2) learn how to do a
better job collecting data that is
fed into the analysis, (3; get a
more meaningful analysis, and (4)
survive in this tremendous
business of farming. Remember
your farm advisor has as much at
stake as you - he or she can only
survive if you survive.
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