Indiana Prairie Farmer and Purdue University extension have announced the 2016 winners of the annual Master Farmer awards program, honoring farm families for volunteerism, leadership and community service.  

This year’s winners include Dan Gwin of Linden, Tom and Karen McKinney of Kempton, John and Nan Nidlinger of Decatur, Don and Darci Zolman of Pierceton, and honorary master farmer Bret Marsh, Indiana State Veterinarian.  

The awards were given at a special banquet held at the Farmhouse restaurant, Fair Oaks Farms, near Fair Oaks, Ind. The honorees served on a panel discussion and were asked a series of questions including the best advice for farmers just starting out.

Many agreed that the quickest way to learn the business from the inside out is to do the budgeting for the operation.

2016 Master Farmer award winners discuss best business practices at awards banquet held at Fair Oaks Farm, Indiana.

“Until you have worked on the money you don’t really know your business,” said Tom McKinney. “On the first year you should be within 7% of your targets, and every year after you should be plus or minus 5%.

“Once you do budgets, then your mentality changes,” he adds. “If someone is coming back to the farm the first thing they should do is budgeting.”

Many of the farmers also suggested finding mentors.

“I had a fantastic mentor, an acquaintance of my father,” recalled Don Zolman. “He was not a farmer but a tremendous businessman, successful and well respected in the community. I went to his office and just asked him if he would be my mentor and he said he would be glad to.

“The best thing is, when I would ask him for advice he would always tell me the truth, straight up. That was the most valuable thing to me. I had great people around me, but the mentor was the key for me to be successful.”

The farmers also dished advice on how to motivate new employees.

Dan Gwin said it was important to quickly figure out the skills, talents and interests of your new employees. With any employee, find out what they think should be their responsibilities or what their passion is, and make sure there’s a job description that includes that passion.

“We are fans of (business guru) Jim Collins – get the right person on the bus and on the right seat on that bus,” said Bret Marsh. “Hire good people with good hearts and good heads and the rest will follow. We try to hire problem solvers.”

It’s important to listen and make sure employees feel appreciated, adds John Nidlinger. “Listen and make sure they are appreciated. It’s important to make people feel they are a part of the team, even if it’s just a pickup ride to the field.”

Zolman said it is important to value an employee’s input. “I always stress communications is key to the success of any business,” he said. “You need good people you can put in charge of any project and you shouldn’t have to look over their shoulder all the time.”

The farmers were asked to reflect on the biggest changes agriculture has gone through in their career.

“The first thing that comes to mind is that change now comes at such a faster pace than it did 30 years ago,” said Gwin. “We had a lot more time to think and figure out our next move, more time to make sure that was the right move to make. Now we have to shoot from the hip and there’s a lot more money on every decision.”

Many of the honorees said technology was the most dramatic change in agriculture.

“When I was at Purdue doing computer programming classes we were running punch cards and spending hours to get our program to run,” recalled Zolman. “There was no such thing as a personal computer. When I got a calculator it cost $120 and it was a big deal because it would do the square root. Now we have GPS and yield monitors and we have to spend so much time with technology, it’s just been a really amazing ride.”