Success in Farming Extends Beyond Price and Yields

By Beth Bakke Stenehjem

What does it take to succeed in farming? According to Dr. Val Farmer, noted rural psychologist, success is not determined by skills, talents, or executive abilities; but by human relationship skills that apply to your farming career.

Farmer says there are six areas where human relationships fit in the management of a farm.  These skills included:

1) Trusting others: This skill is essential when hiring help or working with relatives.

2) Specialization: It is important to find a specific niche or produce a commodity that is unique.

3) The creation of successful multi-family operations depends on acquiring a variety of skills: respect, cooperation, communication, strategy sessions with input from all parties involved.

4) A happy marriage is a necessity. Both spouses need to pull together for common goals.

5) The ability to manage stress.

6) Political influence and networking. This allows a producer to get insider information on new technology or new opportunities.  (One way to accomplish this is through involvement in your state’s grain association, such as the North Dakota Grain Growers Association or the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers.)

“Management of a family business is the graduate school of human relationships,” says Farmer. Family members can be successful if they work toward common goals, maintain mutual respect and trust, have effective communication and problem solving abilities, allow for personal growth, and succeed in creating specialization of duties for members.

Farmer’s professional experience includes 20 years of counseling, four years as executive director of a Midwestern mental health center, and five years as a social worker and probation officer.  Farmer writes a newspaper column on rural psychology and relationship issues.  An archive of these columns going back to 1995 can be found on Farmer’s web site at www.valfarmer.com