I was asked recently about farm goals for the coming year. While not always one for New Year’s resolutions, I do like the idea of thinking about these goals for our farm. Here are a few things on the list.

Beef- We are moving to a fall calving schedule for our beef cattle.  We have typically had spring and early summer calves.  We are shifting to this schedule so that we can AI more efficiently and have better management of the schedule. Spring and summer arrivals come during planting, wheat harvest and the county fair, and sometimes very hot weather. We are hoping September calves will arrive in that sweet spot of decent weather and before harvest. (Note: I have a peek into this scheduling idea on my YouTube Channel-Kids, Cows and Sweet Tea. Video is named “What were we thinking?”)

Labor-  We are shifting our mindset on labor.  We are re-evaluating how to structure part-time and seasonal workers to be most beneficial to both parties.  We want the employee to receive maximum benefit for their time and talents as well as running our operation as efficiently as possible. It seems the days of the full time employee who stays for 20 years is not the trend, and maybe it isn’t feasible all the time anymore. We have been blessed over the years to have a few part-time folks who can do field work or drive trucks in the evenings, weekends or on their days off from their full-time job. A couple of retirees in recent years who would basically work as-needed were very helpful. We are working to piece together our resource list and changing the way we think this through.

Advocacy- I am putting more focus on our media and promotion of agriculture and our farm operation.  It has been somewhat of a passive project.  I am working on making it deliberate and intentional this year.  Promoting agriculture and educating the public is a great passion of mine. One of those projects is this blog. Other outlets are Facebook and YouTube. I enjoy sharing peeks into our world and what we do to produce food for the world. Locally, my advocacy also includes promoting ag literacy among children. I have coordinated book projects over the last couple of years to provide ag-related children’s books to hundreds of children. This is a project I would like to continue annually.

Marketing Diversity-We are exploring new ways to connect with customers locally with the ear corn and freezer beef businesses.  We continue to load containers for export and are looking at future marketing diversity in that entity as well. Diversity is marketing is a key to progress and success. We cannot keep doing things the same old way and expect to move forward. We would like to do more farm to customer marketing with our beef and possibly other products.

As we delve into 2025, it is loaded with many possibilities. There are new ideas to explore. We are always evaluating what we have done and look to move forward with positive changes.