GROWING YOUR
BUSINESS NATURALLY
Every successful business, in
cluding farming, grows out of a
love for making the products that
come from that business, not out
of a calculated plan to make
money. Farmers who are success
ful chose something they love to
do.
Dairy farmers choose dairying
because they love cows. Vege
table farmers love to grow things.
Crop farmers love working with
machinery. It keeps them going
through tight times and long
hours.
These farmers also take great
pride in creating high-quality
products because they know in
the long run that’s what sells.
Top-of-the-line products are
more attractive, taste better, and
keep the customer wanting more.
Poor quality leaves a bad taste
that spreads like wildfire. In
other words, high quality sells.
Increasingly, consumers look to
local farmers to provide unique
high-quality products they can’t
get from the big retailers.
Start small and grow haturally.
Invest your ingenuity first, your
labor second, and your money
last. To lower your risk when be
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Your Partner in Agri-Business
255 Plane Tree Drive, Lancaster, Pa 17602
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New Fanners,
New Generation
Marion Bowlan
Pennsylvania
Farm Link
ginning, borrow or get used ma
chinery or equipment. Work for
someone else until you decide
what you want to grow and how
to grow it.
Rent land until you learn how
to develop markets, work out
production practices, and learn
about the peculiarities of the
business. Once you have experi
ence under your belt, you will be
more likely to get a loan from
your lender and be in a better po
sition to survive downturns in the
market or weather.
Base decisions on good re
cords. If you keep good records
on production costs, sales, and
taxes, you will have sound in
formation on which you can base
your decisions, not on what you
hope or guess it will be. Seek
knowledgeable professional help
if this is not your strong suit.
Adjust your production to the
demand of your customers. To be
successful you have to love what
you do and produce what your
customers want. Find out what
are your customer’s preferences,
tastes, and motivations. Talk to
your customers, give them sam
ples, ask for feedback, and listen
to their suggestions.
Identify your special niche, or
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place, in the market and focus on
establishing a loyal, local custom
er base. Producing high-quality
products and following the de
mands of your customers will
help establish customer loyalty.
Repeat customers are always eas
ier to sell to than new customers.
Provide your customer with an
experience. People buy directly
from farmers because they want
the experience as well as the
product. Sharing some of the sat
isfactions and spiritual rewards
of farm life adds to the value of
your product in the customer’s
eyes.
Involve as many family mem
bers or partners in the farm busi
ness as you can. Each person’s
talents and abilities contribute to
make the total farm operation
larger than the sum of its parts. If
family members aren’t available
or interested, take on partners
that compliment your own abili
ties.
Stay informed. The only con
stant in life is change, and you
will continually need to follow
trends, get feedback from cus
tomers, stay on top of regula
tions, and know your competition
to survive.
Finally, plan for the future.
Just because you made a plan
once, don’t think you are fin
ished. Success requires constant
revision, renewal, and reinven
tion.
To learn more about growing a
farm business, come to the Farm
ers Market and CSA Sales work
shop scheduled June 19 at 7 p.m.
in Greensburg. Call Pennsylvania
Farm Link at (717) 664-7077 to
register for this free event and to
obtain more information.
Next column: “What makes a
good farm entrepreneur?”
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Pennsylvania Cornfields Damaged
By Late May Frosts
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Many areas of Pennsylva
nia experienced late frosts in the
last week, resulting in damage to
acres of com in centra] Pennsyl
vania. An agronomist in Penn
State’s College of Agricultural
Sciences said farmers should
know the factors affecting frost
damage.
Gregory Roth, associate pro
fessor of agronomy in Penn
State’s crop and soil sciences de-
partment, explains that good
planting conditions and warm
weather in late April resulted in
rapid emergence and develop
ment for many of the earliest
planted fields. Some fields had
com with two to three fully de
veloped leaves.
“When the frost hit, many of
these early-planted fields were
hit,” Roth said. “Com fields that
were full of growing small plants
last week now appear to be very
sick. Producers are wondering
how this will affect their crop and
if they need to replant.
“The severity of the damage
varied depending on the location
and the size of the com. General-
ly, drier, tilled fields or low-lying
fields are most at risk, but even
the absence of those factors did
not save some fields from dam
age. In some locations, where the
temperature was below 28 de
grees for more than several
hours, plants may have experi
enced a lethal dose of frost dam
age and the young plants may
not recover. For instance, low
temperatures of 27 and 29 were
reported for Huntingdon and Al
toona, respectively, on the morn
ing of May 20, with lower tem
peraturcs
likely in out
lying areas.”
Roth said
the key to as
sessing the ef-
_ j rr*»*
fects of the frost damage is to be
patient and wait for several days
to see if the plants are showing
signs of recovery. Usually after
two to three days of 70-degree
temperatures, new growth will be
initiated and be visible in the
plant’s whorl (the base of the
plant where the leaves originate).
Under cool conditions, it may
take a few more days to see re
covery.
“Frost damage most often re
sults in the death of above
ground plant parts,” he said.
“Frost-damaged leaves will
blacken and turn straw-colored
in a few days. The growing point
of the plant is located deep inside
the whorl and is below the soil
surface until the plant has about
five fully emerged leaves. Usually
small corn will recover quickly
from frost damage and in two
weeks will show little sign of in
jury. In this episode, because of
the severity and multiple frost
events, I am concerned that the
frost injury may be more severe
than usual.”
If all the plants don’t recover,
Roth said producers should as
sess the population of plants and
decide whether the fields need to
be replanted. Guidelines for re
planting can be found in the com
production section of the Penn
State Agronomy Guide, which
can be found on the Web at
http://agguide.
agronomy.psu.edu/CM/
Sec4toc.html. The 2002 edition of
the guide is available for $9.
For ordering information, call
the College of Agricultural Sci
ences Publications Distribution
Center at (814) 865-6713. To
order using VISA or Master Card,
call toll-free, (877) 345-0691.
April Milk Production
Up 0.9 Percent In Pa.
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Milk produc
tion in Pennsylvania during April 2002 totaled
920 million pounds, up 0.9 percent from last
year’s production, according to the Pennsylvania
Agricultural Statistics Service (PASS).
The number of milk cows in the state during
the month averaged 581,000 head, unchanged
from March and down 18,000 from April 2001.
Production per cow averaged 1,600 pounds in
April, 30 pounds less than in March but 60
pounds more than April 2001.
In the 20 states surveyed, milk production dur
ing April totaled 12.5 billion pounds, up 2.9 per
cent from production in these same states during
April 2001. March revised production, at 12.8 bil
lion pounds was up 3.1 percent from March 2001.
Production per cow in the 20 major states aver
aged 1,614 pounds for April, 43 pounds above
April 2001. The number of milk cows on farms in
the 20 major states averaged 7.75 million head,
12,000 head more than April 2001, and 8,000 head
more than in March of 2002.
Producer Websites Upcoming
OMAHA, Neb. Angus Productions Inc. (API)
will provide online coverage of the 2002 Beef Im
provement Federation (BIF) Annual Meeting.
Producers can go to www.bifconference.com for
information, articles, news releases and links relat
ed to the conference as it happens. This year’s BIF
conference will take place July 10-13 in Omaha,
Neb., and will focus on beef cattle efficiency.
The Web site will include a schedule of events,
biographies of speakers and tour hosts, symposi
um papers, award winners, tour and conference
highlights and links to the registration information
as well as links to other related sites.
Angie Denton, API director of Web marketing,
said, “this first-time online BIF coverage, along
with the beef efficiency site, will provide producers
from across the country information they need to
enhance efficiency and profitability.”
In addition to providing coverage of the BIF
conference, there will also be a site dedicated to
beef cow efficiency. The API editorial and Web
marketing teams will compile information and ar
ticles to post to the site, www.beefcowefficien
cy.com. The site will also include links that can
potentially increase efficiency and profitability for
the producer.
Both sites are scheduled to go live June 1