Farm Profitability In 90 Days

Increasing profitability on the farm isn't easy, and sometimes working with family members and partners to make it happen is even tougher. If you stop butting heads, get rid of the power struggles, and accept a common goal, sky's the limit on what you can accomplish.

Andy Junkin is a farmer, mediator, and coach for farm families. He has released a new book called "Tough Times Never Last, Tough Farm Families Do." It spells out a 90-day program to help partners on the farm come up with new strategies for success.

"So, basically over 12 weeks, you and your business partners sit down for an hour each week, and each week we add another component," says Junkin. "The first couple weeks we get you guys planning out who's doing what for the week and what didn't go well last week, how can we improve our time efficiency. The next week we add the component, ok what's one way to brainstorm, one way to improve farm profitability. And then, you and your business partners sit down and weigh the pros and cons of those ideas."

Junkin says his goal in that 90-days is for you is to squeeze out an extra five-to-ten-percent profitability in your operation.

"You've got to identify 5-10 different areas of your farm where you're losing money, that if you took it from being a weakness and turn it into a strength, it would squeeze out $10,000 here, $50,000 there. And if you review those ten metrics, brainstorm one area of improvement for one metric a week, you can do that easily," he says. "The second thing I suggest is that every family member comes to the table each week and you brainstorm one way to improve farm profit by at least $3,000 without spending more than $1,000." Order Junkin's book on Amazon