 |
|
Issue 26 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Prairie Grains is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat, Inc., and the Minnesota Barley Growers Association. |
|
|
Copyright |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
Your Farm in the 21st Century: Leaving the Treadmill for the Moving Sidewalk By Zachary Fore There's more information about this report, "The Impact of Biotechnology on the Production Sector: Will Farmers
be Winners or Losers?" elsewhere in this magazine. A few of Napier's predictions: • A shift from production-driven to market-driven agriculture Napier is not alone in predicting these changes. Others are as well (You can review some of these key ag trends in the Jan. 2000 issue of Prairie Grains, which
can be found online in the archives of Biotechnology
is a major driving force for these changes. However, it is by no means the only driving force. Increased consumer demands for consistency, food safety, convenience, choice, reliability of supply, inexpensive
food supply, and sustainable production practices do not depend solely on biotechnology. Development of differentiated traits can and is being done by conventional breeding using no biotechnology. Recent
resistance to GMOs may slow the development of biotechnology while society wrestles with the ethical issues of moving DNA from place to place. However, a slowdown in the development of biotechnology may slow the
trends predicted by Napier, but won't prevent them. So what does a farmer do in a world where agriculture is rapidly changing, where to be a winner you have to be good at more and more things? Sell the farm and
find a different occupation? Not if you don't want to. Indeed, there is a better way. You need to get off the treadmill and onto the moving sidewalk. You know what moving sidewalks are like — many large
airports now have them. You get on them and you walk the same speed, but you go faster. That is the key to thriving in these times of rapid change — learning how to move faster without working harder.
Being able to do this allows us to thrive in times of change, and to thrive without the stress that change often brings. How does a farmer get on the moving sidewalk? Here is how: 1. Identify the
critical functions of your farm operation that you are good at and continue to focus on them. 2. Identify the critical functions of your farm operation that you are not good at or don't have time to do and find
other resources to perform these functions. It is likely that you are doing some of this already. For example, many farmers do not want to take the time to understand and follow the markets. So, they hire
a marketing consultant to do this for them. Some farmers are very good mechanics and do their own repairs. Others don't have the mechanical skills or the time so they hire someone else to do their
repairs. The changes in agriculture are requiring new skills. Farmers need to assess which of these new skills they possess and have time to perform, and which ones they need to find other resources to
perform. I believe that the strength of most farmers is production agriculture—growing crops and livestock. I believe that being good at production agriculture will become more important, not less
important in the future. There will always be a reward for being a high yield, low cost producer, whether you produce commodities or value-added, identity preserved products. Although many farmers have
the skills to produce higher value, identity-preserved products, they may not have the ability to identify their own production and marketing opportunities. They may not have the contacts and skills, and they may
not have the resources or capacity to meet the production needs of many buyers. Thus, I believe that of the characteristics Napier says farmers should possess, economics of size, recognizing the power of
groups, and win-win negotiations in integrated supply chains, are most important. They also are interrelated. Here's how Napier describes each of those characteristics: Economics of size Winning farmers will seek to achieve economics of size through ownership, leasing, share farming or alliances. They will recognize that control and management of assets can be more important than ownership. The power of groups Groups will be used to improve purchasing power, information power, marketing power, economics of size and access to capital. Cooperation within work groups, between farm businesses and through the supply chain will be essential. Activities will include global supply alliances. Win-win negotiations in integrated supply chains Win-win arrangements will be negotiated with other members of the supply chain to achieve reliability of
supply, quality-assured systems, preserved value and specified consumer requirements. Some supply chains will have closed membership especially to protect brand integrity. Groups are beginning to form to
address these new needs. FarmConnect (formerly known as Minnesota Marketplace) is an example of an alliance which is being created to tie or "connect" these issues together. FarmConnect is being organized as
a producer-owned entity to identify production and marketing opportunities that can improve profitability and risk management for its members. At the same time, it will benefit end-users by providing them access
to significant numbers of producers capable of supplying the quantity and quality of product desired. New opportunities to produce specific end-use products will be identified through FarmConnect by forming
close associations with end-users and by developing an intimate understanding of their needs. The system will ensure that communication of consumer needs is moved quickly and efficiently through the marketing
chain to processors and producers. FarmConnect will also work to ensure that new product research will be directed by market demands and opportunities. You'll be hearing more about this venture this winter, and
I urge you to consider learning more about it. At the very least, start figuring out where you need help, and get connected (there's that word again) to key individuals or groups, or become part of the alliances that
will be your key to being successful in these times of rapid change in agriculture. Sure, you might get a little dizzy leaving the treadmill for the moving sidewalk. But in the end, you'll be getting
somewhere, and along with a good amount of planning, it'll be in the right direction. |
||||
 |
||||