Blog post by Tom Butler- Moving Forward

After a long winter, a prolonged, rainy season, and a few bouts of impatience, we’re finally in the field. For the past two weeks, activities that people would actually describe as farming throughout my day. This spring has been especially hectic, as we’ve added acres to what we own, which in turn has led to more employees, more things going on at once, and a lot more equipment. I’ve found myself the last several days sitting in the cab of a new tractor with a new piece of equipment that needs to be learned, adjusted, and then taught to someone, the sooner the better. As a result, I’ve spent more time alone with my thoughts; which, this time of year, can be a little troublesome.

So what does a grower think about during the planting season? In years like this one, sadly, you think about how much everything you’re doing is costing. With fuel prices being so high so early in the year, every turn the tractor makes costs much more than it did even in 2010. And everything that’s delivered to your farm, from fertilizer to spare parts, causes that pinch to expand. And, unfortunately, worrying about efficiency and cost leads to the greatest unknown of all; will our hard work pay off?

It’s a hard to question to answer, adjust to, and in my opinion hardest to forecast. But one of the hardest things to stomach during the growing season is you are in control of one thing, your crop, (and even then Mother Nature might have an opinion of who’s in control). What you are not in control of is how much that crop is worth, and you’re due for a long, expensive season before you know for sure. So, for any possible tip, you scour the earth for any possible lead.

And typically what you find are a lot of articles and projections that could support both ends of the spectrum. For every article that you see saying a market is going to need more imports, you see another that says the opposite. For every crop acreage report regarding an increased supply, you hear about how projections could have been inflated. It’s a tired adage, but it’s the truth, from the time the crop is planted to the time harvested and sold, the only known fact is that you don’t know what’s going to happen.

So you do the best you can, you do as my father has said for years, “always protect your crop.” Most importantly, you never stop learning, looking for new information, and you are always trying to increase productivity. Just like any other business, if you aren’t moving forward, you’re moving backward.

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More about Tom: Tom Butler farms rice with his father, Steve, in Sutter and Yolo Counties. Tom is the fourth generation of his family to farm.

When he’s not on the job, the University of Nebraska graduate enjoys swimming, water polo, hunting and spending time with his family.