Planting time is usually a time of optimism on the farm. That’s how it should be, because the entire growing season and the promise of a good harvest are still out ahead of us. However, tight margins this year might have some farmers down in the dumps as we head to the fields. Don’t hit the panic button yet.

NEW ENTERPRISES: You never know what opportunities you might have or what new enterprises might be on your horizon on the farm.

You might have resources around your place that are underutilized and unused. You might have profit centers that you haven’t yet discovered. It just takes a little ingenuity, creativeness and concern about the future to get us out of the rut and into something new and profitable. It seems that necessity truly is the mother of invention. Testing new enterprises can bring new income into your operation and it might also rejuvenate your decision making on the farm. You might even have some fun in the process.

Over the years, we have interviewed dozens of producers who have started hunting, fishing and guiding services or farm tours in their off-season. They were experiencing years of bad crops or bad prices for livestock and crops, so they tried something new. For many of these producers, the services didn’t cost much to add to the operation and the impact was immediate. For some, these new enterprises allowed another son or daughter to return home and join the operation.

Always thinking about trees, I keep wondering how many farmers would have a firewood enterprise in their own backyards with a little extra effort and marketing. Maybe you’ve been tripping over some really old iron in your shed or yards for some time that could be made into something valuable, fix something on the farm that needs repairs or be sold (when the iron price is headed up again) for immediate cash. Do you have big field stones laying around that could be marketed to the landscape industry?

Do you have talents and skills in your family that could be developed into a side business along with farming? Are you or your farming children technology geniuses? Maybe they could develop a tech service that would be useful to your farming neighbors?

When prices head down, it is a good time to look at your resources and think about what you might do to improve your bottom line. Of course, the bankers will all tell you that you still have to do a good job of farming and maintain your production levels. However, we all have untapped and underdeveloped resources around our farmsteads that could be the next “big thing” that will help keep the operation going in the off-season or year around.

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