Have you been working on writing down goals for your farm operation for the 2024 crop year? This winter is an excellent opportunity to first review 2023 – how the year went overall, progress on any goals you set for that year, and the challenges and opportunities the year presented.

Once you’ve reviewed 2023 from an overall standpoint, you will want to do a financial review of the year as well. This gives you another lens to view how your operation is doing from a metrics and data perspective. You can also look at any financial trends in your operation and review your farm’s key metrics.

Your reviews may give you some ideas for goals to set for the 2024 crop year. You can work with your advisor to do these reviews and to start the goal-setting process.

The uplevel

One thing we’ve been hearing from many farmers in terms of their goals for 2024 is this: We feel like we’ve gotten our operation to a certain level of success, but we seem to be a little “stuck." We want to break through to the next level.

I think this is a pretty common feeling for farm leaders who are working hard to build a professional operation. They’ve already done a great deal in terms of setting goals and seeing them through. These farmers tend to work hard on both sides of the equation of planning and execution when it comes to goals. They are pivotal in the success of their farms.

But they also know that to stay competitive in today’s ag operating environment, they can’t act as if their farm operation has “arrived.” They need to continue adapting and evolving to find that breakthrough to the next level of success.

Business goals

Very often, this means working more closely to hone in on the business side of the farm. And that’s where many goals for 2024 are focused for these farms and farm leaders. What will it look like for your farm to uplevel its business and professional game in 2024? That could mean some goals financially and marketing goals. It could also mean learning goals in those areas for the farm’s leaders.

Once you’ve set goals for upleveling in 2024, it’s a matter of how you’ll work to reach them. The main reason big goals sometimes aren’t achieved is lack of a step-by-step workable plan that’s broken down into more manageable chunks or even into mini-goals. This helps keep overwhelm from coming in and can bring feelings of progress and momentum as you reach mini-goals on your way to the big goal.

The path for your farm to reach its goals in 2024 is to set goals up in such a way that best motivates you, the farm leader, and your whole farm team to stay the course in doing the hard work that needs to be done. Major growth while working to uplevel the farm may be uncomfortable at times but will be worth it.

How are you navigating this market?

Farmers have found that getting some third-party perspective from our market advisors has helped ease their minds. The advisors 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). Your free trial includes regular audio and video updates, technical analysis, recommendations and more. Learn more about our market advisor programs and offerings at www.waterstreetag.com.