Dakota Farmer

Ag Mafia: When the crop comes out great, why do we still feel tense?

November 16, 2022

2 Min Read
Farmer looking over field
ENJOY THE SEASON: Even with the financial stressors of planning for the next growing season, remember to take a breath and enjoy a job well done this fall. Hill Street Studios/getty images

Back in April and May, I started planning for the acres I’d be working with as a crop consultant. I factored in prevented planting acres and other things I would work with throughout the season.

The farmers started planting, and they kept planting and planted later than they probably should have. The spring and summer basically started a month later than normal, and we worked through it.

We rode out the moisture from our wet spring all the way into late summer and into one of the best fall’s we have had for harvest in a long time.

Yields were good and, in some cases, even great. The fall weather gave us an opportunity to get many things done to help us next spring. It is still dry enough that we don’t have everyone putting on fall nitrogen, but the harvest stress level is very low compared to other years. What a year!

End to a good crop season

Then why do things feel so tense? Everyone still feels so cautious about the future. Maybe it’s the cost of tanker load diesel and news about tight supplies.

I had farmers who ordered pieces of equipment that never showed up for this season of use. Others are buying fertilizer in a month where we should be worrying about timing fungicide for wheat. That fertilizer has jumped a lot as compared to this time last fall.

The inflation that has showed up in everything has to be counteracted by increasing interest rates, which is not the friend of the borrower. Factor the wild swings in grain markets due to war between Russia and Ukraine, and some days it feels that’s the only thing holding the markets up.

The pressure comes in when it feels like you have to smash out these large yields to counteract the expense side of the ledger — where we can cut out expenses and where we shouldn’t.

I bounce ideas off of my fellow crop consultants and ask around to my friends in retail. What is your business facing? How are you handling this? What concerns do you have on X, Y and Z going forward? How can I help? What can we do better next year to make things work easier for both of us?

I rely on quite a few businesses to make my own work and probably need to realize things are affecting others more than myself. But until things return to the way they should be, I will have to adapt and spend more time collaborating with my business partners.

But first, take the time to enjoy this great fall we received and give thanks for all good stuff in life.

Hanson writes from Webster, N.D. He is one-third of the Ag Mafia and is independent crop consultant and owner of Rock and Roll Agronomy.

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