What is your farm’s overall approach to time management? How do you manage costs with input prices at record highs?

These hot topics will be the focus of farmer panel discussions at the upcoming Farm Futures Business Summit, Jan. 19-20 at Iowa City, Iowa. A diverse group of row crop farmers will share experiences and ideas before sessions open up broad discussion among farmer attendees.

When time is money

How do you ensure the key priorities – business decisions, family time, and voluntary leadership activities, either for farm organizations or community – get the attention they deserve? This farmer panel will discuss time management tricks, delegation, SOPs, accountability, training, and buy-in from team members. We’ll discuss best practices, technology, and experiences that work in the busiest times of the year.

“We put a lot of focus on our org chart and communication chain,” says Kasey Bamberger, a Washington Court House, Ohio farm partner. “We try our very best to make sure that our lines of communication are being followed in order to be effective and efficient. We have weekly management meetings so that we are able to understand what is going on in other departments and to be able to exchange information to try to be more efficient with time.”

Bamberger will be joined by former NCGA president and St. Ansgar, Iowa, farmer Chris Edgington, along with Angela and Kerry Knuth, Mead, Nebraska, farmers.

Frugal farming

Meanwhile, the cost to put a crop in the ground has never been higher. How do cost-conscious farmers ensure they are making the best management and financial decisions throughout the growing season? This panel will discuss crop budgeting decisions; cost analysis, typical procurement strategies during the year; and Return on Investment, among other topics.

Philo, Ill., farmer Steve Hettinger uses Illinois Farm Business Farm Management to benchmark his farm finances against similar sized operations. With FBFM “We can pick out similar farms of our size and compare production and fixed costs,” he says. Hettinger will be joined by Indiana farmer Rodney Rulon and Iowa farmer Logan Lyon.

Learn about all the sessions and register for the meeting here. See you in Iowa!