Building Relationships With Farmers During Tough Times

“So, other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”

Most of you I’m sure will recognize this as one of the all-time great snarky retorts to someone who’s just described a particularly bad day filled with unfortunate events.

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It came to my mind as a group of us here at CropLife® were sitting around talking about the state of agriculture. We’ve talked the recent past about potential downturns that could befall you, the ag retailers and cooperatives of America, but none have panned out to be quite as rough as originally thought.

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So here we are at the end of the 2015 growing season, and this time it feels like genuinely difficult days are ahead. To wit:

China. It’s been challenging enough to manage business with one eye on a China that seemed firmly in control of itself, its growth, its economy and its people. But this past summer we witnessed a country struggling mightily to keep its economy on track through tactics that have impacted virtually every country on the globe, but with little impact on China itself. The value of the US Dollar, commodity exports, the general economy here in the states all hang on what China’s next moves will be.

The Crop Year. What a stressful, chaotic season it’s been for commodity crops. While portions of Iowa and Minnesota experienced soaring yields, the eastern Corn Belt got walloped, and a healthy portion of it never recovered.

Dicey Farm Finances. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, 2015 net farm income is forecast to be $58.3 billion in 2015, a decline of 36% from 2014’s estimate of $91.1 billion. This year’s forecast for net farm income would be the lowest since 2006 and a drop of nearly 53% from 2013, which set a record high of $123.7 billion.

Potentially tough times ahead for many farmers, to be sure. But for the aggressive, full-service retail organization this kind of disruption, while unpleasant, presents an opportunity to emerge from the downturn bigger and stronger, and with more grower loyalty.

Farmers need a business partner when times are tough. They need someone who understands their business and can provide advice on managing cropping and planting programs to negotiate the choppy waters.

Relatively speaking, planning for profit is easy on the way up. Getting to growers early this season, getting a gauge on where their operations are, and helping to set reachable goals will be a key role for retailers this year. And by that I’m not talking about discounts — we need to be paid fairly for the service we provide. What can we do to reel in costs while maintaining  good yields? What are the expected pay backs for specific cropping regimens? What are the real risks for cutting back? Retailers are uniquely positioned to answer all these questions with the grower’s best interests at heart.

When I first started working for Crop­Life, I used to ask how John Deere had earned so much loyalty in the market. I heard a lot of stories that went like this: “During the Depression, the Deere dealer helped my granddad keep the farm in the family.”

While we’re not likely to see anything approaching the Great Depression, but if things get ugly this planning season farmers won’t soon forget who helped get them through the trough.

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