DON’T BE INTIMIDATED AS YOU CHART YOUR PATH TO SUCCESS | A FARMER’S VIEWPOINT
Don’t be intimidated as you chart your path to success Here’s a bit of advice for small- to medium-sized farmers and for young farmers. Chart your path for a viable operation and don’t be intimidated. Here are some common intimidation factors. Kevin Hursh, P.Ag. Kevin Hursh is one of the country’s leading agricultural commentators. He is an agrologist, journalist and farmer. Kevin and his wife Marlene run Hursh Consulting & Communications based in Saskatoon. They also own and operate a farm near Cabri in southwest Saskatchewan growing a wide variety of crops. Kevin writes for a number of agricultural publications and serves as executive director for the Canary Seed Development Commission of Saskatchewan and the Inland Terminal Association of Canada (ITAC). Twitter: @KevinHursh1
Input costs I’ve seen younger farmers aghast at the price of fertilizer this spring. Urea at $715/tonne and phosphate at close to a $1,000 can be tough to swallow when you could have bought it early for hundreds of dollars less. Having dry fertilizer storage pays for itself as does keeping an eye on fertilizer prices and realizing that fertilizer is usually most expensive in the spring. Unfortunately, cash strapped younger farmers are likely to cut back on fertilizer use to preserve cash flow as fertilizer prices rise. That limits upside yield potential. Don’t be intimidated by the fertilizer price escalation. Learn from it and strive to capture lower prices in the years to come. Pick the inputs you need that will make you money. Don’t skimp on what you really need. For instance, there are good reasons why glyphosate needs to be tank-mixed with other chemistry for the burnoff operation ahead of seeding. 7
