By Joli A. Hohenstein     

When it comes to focusing on profit for 2017, one grower has a message: Leave no stone unturned. “Take every little bit, and don’t wait for a home run,” says Keith Bartholomay. “Every little bit matters, even your cost-of-living expenses.”

Bartholomay, who operates a 6,000-acre operation with brother Kent near Sheldon, N.D., remembers the tough ag climate of the 1980s, so he’s always farmed with an eye on the cycle. That meant making measured, careful decisions, even when times were good.

“When crop prices were high, we got all our machinery up to date, so we don’t have to buy new now, except the combine, of course; we want to keep that up to date,” he says. “And when corn prices were high, we really started improving our marketing.”

Other, more functional, changes have also helped position them to withstand a downturn. “We went no-till and strip till over five years ago,” Bartholomay says, “and that cut down on fuel costs; they’re probably 40% of what they were before.”

Better land management
One of the biggest differences he’s seen has come from more precise land management. “Our land is highly variable, so with zone management and variable-rate fertilizer, we’ve made a huge difference,” he says. Soils on the Bartholomay farms run the gamut from river-bottom silty loams to high water table sands and fine sands with no loam. “We have sand areas where the crop dries out and high ground where they burn up,” he explains.

The farm has used yield monitors with mapping for years, gathering data to give a basis for planning. Additional resources came from elevation maps they developed while combining or planting. Incorporating precision ag technology, such as individual shutoff and swath control, provided additional valuable tools, especially when county vegetation maps didn’t line up with the farm’s breakdown.

“Our elevation and yield maps are better than they’ve ever been,” says Bartholomay. “Of course, it’s easier if you have conventional soils, but we’ve changed our zones to suit ours.”

It has paid off. “Zone management has made us more profitable. We’re sitting in good shape with zone management and selling ahead,” he says.

Of course, they’re always making adjustments, even with their forethought. “We’re always tweaking a little bit, trying to do a better job of weed control, trying to find better chemicals that let our cover crops grow,” Bartholomay says.

And they’re constantly examining their costs across the board, looking for opportunities to bring the books more in line with the current market situation. “We negotiated some cash rent lower that we were paying too much for,” he explains. “Cash rent on that piece of land was determined in open bidding in the height of land prices about six years ago. We were paying above-average rent compared to NDSU [North Dakota State University] averages for this county.”

Accomplishing changes like that is easier when you’ve developed personal relationships with the landowner, he cautions, and that’s also true when approaching lenders to make financial or loan adjustments.

“Another thing we did to stabilize is we moved a lot of our short-term borrowing into locked seven-year notes on machinery with fixed interest rates,” Bartholomay says. “I’m old enough to remember the ’80s, so I’m locked in. We use it for operating, especially if interest rates change.”

Today the farm includes Keith and Kent and their two sons, and the brothers are doing their best to teach the next generation to take nothing for granted and plan for anything.

“Keep learning and keep watching; get to know your farm,” Bartholomay advises. “You can’t just sit in the office; the human eye’s got to be involved.”

With careful planning and continuous reassessment, longevity for the future remains priority one.

Hohenstein writes from Decatur, Ill.