From the road it may look like a traditional corn and soybean farm, but Jim Kline’s large commercial farming operation in northeast Indiana is anything but ordinary.
You learn this as soon as the conversation turns to business growth.
“I’m an ag economist first and a farmer second,” Jim says. “If it doesn’t work on paper first, we’re not going to try it in the field, and if it can’t drive revenue, we won’t do it.”
Most farms try to grow the business by adding acres. But the Klines have taken another route. “We want to grow by trying to answer what the consumers are telling us they want,” he says. “What we’re hearing from millennials is that they are willing to spend money on food that is safe and has specific traits. So we’re transitioning acres to organic and non-GMO, building smaller bins, and looking at alternative crops.
“If we can net $600 to $800 per acre as opposed to having to farm 20 more acres to make the same, why not investigate?”
Natural progression
Trying new enterprises to drive revenue based on data-driven trends is a cornerstone of the Kline operation. Adding organics may seem unorthodox, but it’s a natural progression for a farmer who never looks back and rarely plays it safe.
That business approach starts at the top. Jim lives and breathes numbers; as he says, “numbers don’t lie. Numbers always tell you the truth and the direction to go.”
His approach has been enthusiastically adopted by team leaders, including son Adam, agronomist Kyle Brumley and the farm’s chief financial officer, Mitch Glentzer.
Glentzer, who had no ag background, manages farm financials and marketing.