Therefore, it’s tough to get an accurate cross-section of producers who fairly represent the industry – the entire industry.
Over the past two months, to clearly define the trends among forage producers, Progressive Forage Grower conducted a reader survey of producers (93 percent were owners or partners) with more than 100 acres of forage production – hay, silage, pasture or any combination thereof. When we held up this mirror to the forage industry, the reflection looked like this.
- Age: 81 percent are over 50 years of age.
- Income: 47 percent generate less than 10 percent income from off-farm employment.
- History: 35 percent have been actively farming for four generations, while an additional 30 percent have been farming for three generations.
- Employees: Only 21 percent of you work alone; 68 percent work with 2 to 5 people on the farm.
- Forage use: 70 percent of you use forage on-site, and 78 percent market hay to others.
- Marketing contracts: Only 8 percent report using sales contracts for marketing “usually or all the time.”
- Equipment: The most common piece of equipment owned is a small (less than 120 hp) tractor, and the second most common piece is a four-wheeler.
- Adaptability: 56 percent of you have changed crop variety in response to water availability.
- Forage affiliations: 90 percent of you do not belong to any forage-related group or association.
- Expert advice: In your day-to-day operation, 51 percent use the advice of a company sales rep; 48 percent use expertise from extension agents; 44 percent use an agronomist; and 43 percent use the services of a nutritionist. Most of you use a combination of experts.
- Technology: 53 percent of you have not invested in any newer farming technology (such as GPS guidance, application rate monitor or seed planting monitor); however, 49 percent of you report using at least one app.
- Current issue: If forage research funding shifted to the private sector, 22 percent of you preferred collection through a seed purchase surcharge; and the next most popular options included combining it with the Beef Checkoff program or inclusion in a line-item budget.
We didn’t have an agenda for the survey, but were seeking a more accurate forage-industry profile than what typical “ag surveys” assimilate. As I examine the results of this survey, it truly is like looking into a mirror – finding a few pleasant surprises, a few new wrinkles and a few disappointments.
I’ll be honest – what did not surprise me was that 29 percent of you have included newer technology in your operations. There’s so much talk about technology, that sometimes we think everybody’s using it but us.
Yet, forage producers are incorporating technology, and at what I believe is a “typical rate of adoption.” We’re not behind, and we’re not ahead of the game. But we are in the game.
Two things stood out as disappointments from my perspective, lack of affiliation with forage organizations and a paucity of sales contract use. This is where, as an industry, we can do better.
If producers are not regularly associated with good industry organizations, then progress as an industry-whole is hampered. Our voice in any political or social arena is only strong when blended with other like-minded, like-engaged individuals.
The attractiveness of our historically staunch independence will be our ultimate undoing unless we reverse this trend. (Just ask Samson of the Bible how well his greatest strength worked out for him when he ignored its converse weakness.)
Every forage-association-related event I’ve attended in the past 14 months has included a plea to producers to use sales contracts. Unless you treat your operation like a business in this respect, you put your income and your livelihood in jeopardy. I’m baffled by the lack of attention to sales contracts that plagues our industry. Why wouldn’t you want to protect it?
The survey results were interesting. We wanted to keep it totally anonymous, with forage acres as the only qualifying filter, so that you could be absolutely honest with us about you, our publications and your interests.
The response was excellent, indicating that you are connected, engaged and invested. With 81 percent of you searching regularly each week for forage information, it seems clear that although agricultural acres are shrinking, the producers behind them are moving in the right direction to be successful. Thank you for including us in your library. FG
