We asked past Top Producer award winners to share what’s new for them in the coming year. Here are some of the responses they shared with us:
- “For the first time, we planted all our acres going to corn or soybeans next year to a cover crop. It is not the first time we have planted cover crops, but it is the first time we have done that many acres.” ~Bill Came
- “We are hiring more people for the same amount of tractor seats. We are scheduling much better. We do this for two reasons — younger employees don’t want to work as much as they used to. Most used to work six days a week 10 years ago and now they are happy with four days a week. The second reason is ag overtime has passed in Oregon, so in order to manage overtime, we manage hours.” ~Shelly Boshart Davis
- “We are continuing to expand the intensity of revenue acres by converting more conventional acres to organic production.” ~Pat Duncanson
- “We’re going to reduce our soybean acres and increase our corn, winter wheat and cow-calf operation with these acres. We feel this will increase profitability.” ~Kelly Garrett
- “I want to do a better job of promoting the extremely nutritious vegetable (yes, a vegetable) we call a potato, whenever possible. When choices appear relating to the value of spending time at work or with family, personally, I really need to do a better job of prioritizing, and therefore choosing, family time. After all: which one is more important?” ~Gregg Halverson
- “For the first time in 39 years, I want to sidedress nitrogen on all of my corn acres.” ~April Hemmes
- “Things that we need to do next year are straight out of the Danny Klinefelter playbook. We will focus on controlling cost in a high inflation/low price world. We’ll look for money under rocks — diversify revenue streams. We’ll leverage technology and new practices to become more efficient. It’s time to manage debt carefully in a high-interest environment, and it’s time to plan for the long term. This is a valley, don’t lose focus on the long-term plans of the operation.” ~Jeremy Jack
- “I will physically and mentally execute and implement a succession plan for our farm to transition to the next generation.” ~Pam Johnson
- “My resolution is that if you want to sell things at my farm, you need to reduce pricing by 15%. For those who say that is too sharp a cut, I say “try on my boots.” Price increases were easy on the way up. Now it’s time to reduce or be replaced.” ~Ben Riensche
- “We’re going to buckle down and conserve operating cash and be conservative with inputs in anticipation of Trump tariffs negatively impacting our markets and prices like his last administration. We are considering replacing some aging storage and increasing our capacity. There are no plans to update equipment; just keep what we have operating. We will probably increase our vegetable acres in anticipation of low grain prices.” ~Jennie Schmidt
- “We purchased life insurance and invested cash in a flex plan, so we can cover and service the debt if I am not around.” ~Trey Wasserburger
