D Howard Doster 2/10/08
I
earned my first check as a Land Grant “change” agent fifty-five years ago. No
longer an employee, but a farmer, landowner and taxpayer in two states, I have
problems that Land Grant faculty used to be able to help me solve. Partly
because of lack of funding that is no longer the case.
The Problem/Opportunity
I
don’t know the right amount of nitrogen to apply to my soils?
I
don’t know expected soil site-specific yields for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th year corn
on my farm?
I
may not know the current expected yields on my farm.
I
do not know the costs to cause my farm to yield at it’s
economic potential, or whether/how owner and operator might share these extra
costs and expected returns?
I
don’t know how, when, where, my heirs can learn how to gain/sustain a
comparative advantage for managing my farm resources.
Both
as an owner and as a tenant, the only reason I rent is to make myself better
off than in any other alternative. As an
owner, I want a superior tenant. As a
tenant, I want a superior owner with superior performing land. Why?
It’s more fun to divide a big pie.
I
hear 07 rents varied by over $100 on adjacent, similar land, and variations in
08 rents may be more. I don’t know how
to get rent right or how to easily keep it current.
As
an owner, how can I perhaps take more risk and perhaps realize more return in
08 and/or 09? As a tenant, how can I
rent more land?
Cause of the problem/Reason for the
The
Land Grant System is no longer providing enough of the right soil site-specific
cropping system research and farm management teaching to help tenants, owners,
and their heirs gain and sustain a comparative advantage over farmers
elsewhere.
That’s still a core mission of the Land Grants
Some
individual faculty members are still able and willing to do the research &
teaching. Often, they get little financial support.
Solutions
include just saying, “Ain’t it awful!”
Alternatively,
some persons have proposed that Land Grants charge service fees for continuing
education.
The
alternative described next is more comprehensive.
It’s
based on the principle of comparative advantage.
Do
what you do best-your comparative advantage-and trade for the rest.
Some
persons are better at doing many things,
Everyone
has a comparative advantage for doing some thing.
Is
owning or operating farmland your thing?
Here’s
your opportunity to make your best, better.
Create
and carry out [name it something; Certified Farmers Organization (CFO); Corn
Belt Top Farmers (CBTF); Certified Successful Farmers (CSF); Certified Top
Producers (CTP); Certified No-Till Farmers (CNTF), whatever].
Whether
you’re an owner or tenant, use some of your mind/muscle/relationship skills and
your money.
Tenants
might pay $100/ month; owners, say, $600 plus $1/acre per year.
Organize
your farm group.
Hire
a person with excellent facilitating skills to manage your group.
Recognize
superior learning achievement by awarding certifications.
Start soil site-specific farmer groups
Create
small groups of, say, six owners and/or tenants with the same soils.
Decide
on perhaps two soil site-specific cropping systems
research projects to be done on your farms and/or on a nearby Land Grant
university farm.
Select
a Land Grant faculty to help you do what he/she does best.
Ask
him/her to help you design, carry out, summarize and analyze your
research.
Gift
him/her funds directly with no strings.
You
own the data; let him/her publish it after, say, the third year of each
research project.
Continue
gifting funds as long as you are satisfied.
Do
what you do best-your comparative advantage-and trade for the rest.
Start management counseling teams
Pick
another member couple, perhaps with similar heirs, whom you respect
professionally, like personally, and don’t compete with for land.
Commit
to sharing financial balance sheets the first session as together you take a
managerial economics class, with some sessions perhaps over the Internet.
Use
the class homework assignments as you counsel each other three-four or more
times per year for at least two years, again perhaps sometimes over the
Internet.
Perhaps
ask Barbara/Howard Doster, retired
Use
their new Life Cycle Budget to monitor your physical/financial performance and
to test alternative uses for your resources, from now on.
Ask
perhaps Land Grant faculty of your choice and/or class graduates to teach parts
or all of the course/courses you later design and/or select.
Be
effective; do right things. Be
efficient; do things right. Have fun;
enjoy what you do.
Start appraisal teams
Self-select
small groups of owners and/or tenants who commit to learn how to appraise your
farms in terms of the present and potential
productivity, as well as the time and financial cost to bring the land to its
maximum economic condition. Each small group may choose to hire an independent
consultant or gift to Land Grant faculty for help to learn the appraisal skills
and/or to obtain a farm appraisal of this type.
Start
where you now are. Use what you now
have. Get what you now want most.
Start
Now. Here’s how.
Recruit
others. Contact Barbara/Howard to help you.
Start
a golden rule group. The persons with
the gold make the rules.
Call
765 412 1495, email Howard@DHDoster.com . Read website
www.DHDoster.com