Farm406

• 13 FARM 406 F 406 © 2016. NACHURS ALPINE SOLUTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "ALPINE" IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK of NACHURS ALPINE SOLUTIONS. • Less fertilizer needed at seeding • Less soil leaching and soil tie-up • Less herbicide/environmental stress HIGHER YIELDS. Foliar feeding is an excellent way to the efficient, effective, and economical use of your crop nutrition dollars. Get the ALPINE ® team and the Phazed Nutrition Program ® working for you. Call 1-844-655-PHOS (7467) www.alpinepfl.com Foliar Feeding: Make it part of this year's Crop Profit Plan ger-term opportunity costs of no longer having that asset. The THIRD AND FOURTH options—increasing income and reducing expenses—are trickier and require more effort and strategy. That is, increasing an operation's income and/or reducing its expenses is easier said than done. The vast majority of farm operations are "price takers," implying that no single farmer can simply set the price at which they want to sell their commodity nor can they set the price at which they want to purchase an input. As such, producers cannot generate higher incomes or lower input costs at will, but must constantly seek to competitive advantages through improvements in efficient production practices and cost-effective marketing strategies. Producers who are successful at this typically follow what I tend to consider a three-stage cycle: educate, innovate, and evaluate. My definition of this cyclical strategic approach is based largely on findings in agricultural economics research that examines why some farmers are more financially solvent while others are more vulnerable. Consistently, this literature has shown that producers who have more education and experience, are more ef- fective in marketing their commodity and reducing exposure to price risk, and have lower per acre fixed costs are significantly less likely to be financially vulnerable. Within the context of the three-stage cy- cle, these producers are constantly seek- ing to improve their production and farm management knowledge, are ready to use that knowledge to make well-researched and well-calculated investments for be- coming more efficient and cost-effective producers and marketers, maintain solid financial and production records of their operations in order to objectively assess the costs and benefits of a particular investment, and then use these lessons to begin the cycle anew. The global, competitive nature of ag- ricultural input and commodity markets implies that there are no silver bullets to quickly and drastically increase an op- eration's revenue stream or decrease its expenses. Producers that are most finan- cially sustainable are largely character- ized by their tenacious pursuit of making small but highly informed, strategic, and continuous advances to become more efficient and cost-effective. Dr. Anton Bekkerman is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University, joining the faculty in 2009 after completing his PhD at North Carolina State University. 39 1st Street Havre Montana P: 406.265.7314 • C: 406.390.4955 www.duchscherinsurance.com Covering Your Community INSURANCE ADVISORY SERVICES SINCE 1980 Specializing in Farm, Ranch, Commercial, Crop & Hail. We Offer 2 Hour Bind Coverage on Hail Insurance. Call Today for Coverage Wally Duchscher, Owner Melissa Kapperud, Owner

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