Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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would scare me to death today. But I just jumped out and did it because
that's the way I was gonna do it. And it worked out good for us.”
Phil describes the link between risk and diversification in terms of his
California ranch: “We have minimized the risk by having such a diverse
operation: having diverse marketing, being in charge of some of our sales,
being able to get some of the extra dollars by doing some delivering.” In
Illinois, Joel still gives advice to other organic growers, and he notes that
there is a link between information and risk. When another farmer comes
to him for advice, “I just tell him what I am doing, what works, and what I
have read that other people do, because I have done a ton of reading. But
even after all that reading, every farm is different. So what works for me
might not work for him. You basically have to go try it yourself. I have put
everything on the line. Either we are going to make it fly, or we'll get out of
farming. So that is my attitude. It's all or nothing.”
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Low Debt
Successful organic farmers tend to be quite conservative with their money.
Phil explains, “We do a lot of budgeting and forecasting. Even as well as
that goes, there have been times in the last three or four years where things
have been out of our control. We have had times that we had to borrow
money. We paid it all back, but we've gotten up pretty high on our line of
credit. That is just more to worry about. When you hear someone going
out of business farming, that kind of feeds on you a little bit.” Rob says
that he has grand plans for his Florida grove, but “I'm broke. That is one of
my problems. I have never had any money to dig in on. I don't like being
overextended. When you have debt load up to your neck, that makes your
pressure even heavier. I am pretty much happy with what I got. I just wish
I had a little more cash.” In New York, Steve says simply, “We are frugal, or
wetrytobe.”
Just as it is important to keep debt low, organic farmers are conservative in
their equipment andmachinery purchases as well. They are notmotivated to
buy the latest combine or the biggest tractor. They buy what they absolutely
need, often used machinery, and they are likely to do all the mechanical
work themselves. On his California ranch, Phil describes: “We try to buy a
tractor that has multiple uses for it. We have generally bought used tractors
- basically out of rental returns. That is howwe bought most of our tractors.
Most of them we would put a lot down on them and then pay them off.”
Joel says, “It is my goal to save up enough money to at least not have
to borrow money for operating expenses. And that will happen. It won't
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