Farming has changed, but four overriding principles remain the same

Published 8:54 pm Friday, October 21, 2016

Back when I first began the formal study of farming, the “book” claimed there were four farm principles: land, labor, capital and management.

I reckon those four have always been in play, yet altered by off-the-farm principles.

Certainly public policy impacts farming. The extreme was government-mandated collective farms of the former Soviet Union.

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Our current American efforts in environmental protection and conservation of natural resources are public policies that are, so far, doable on farms.

Also, public and private research continues to play a major role in how farmers farm.

The modern business of farming is loaded with invention acronyms like GPS harvesters and GMO crops. Throw in the ups and downs of fuel prices, the overall economy and, above all else, the weather, and it’s obvious the four principles of farming are not totally in command.

The principles I studied in agricultural economics class referred to individual farms and how a farmer made decisions.

Relative to today there was a time when land was aplenty and labor was cheap.  The further back we look, the more farmable land there was available.

Two things over time, I think, changed that. First, almost all development for residences, businesses, highways and so forth have taken place on farm land.

Secondly, periods of low crop and livestock prices forced land that was short on natural soil fertility or poor drainage or highly erodible out of profitable production.

A combination of public policy for conservation and an economic boom in recreational land use stepped in to reclaim much of this type land.

Physical labor and lots of it were hallmarks of farming from the beginning of mankind’s food production and it still is in some situations in some parts of the world. But the percentage of people relegated to hard, boring labor at low wages has dramatically declined, especially in developed countries like ours. And I say that is great.

Development of chemical herbicides and steady advances in farm equipment have mostly replaced backbreaking labor.

Nowadays farm employees spend a career learning the ins and outs of quarter million dollar pieces of machinery with operator safety and comfort making up a well-deserved hunk of that cost.

The availability of farm capital, aka money, has historically swung like a lopsided pendulum. I remember a time in rural areas a farmer with a clear land title, a manageable mortgage or a signed lease in hand had little trouble getting a crop loan from a local bank.

And banks and seed stores were not the only businesses that often awaited payment until local harvest time.

I had a veterinarian buddy who told me about tending to puny horses, cows and dogs in the spring and receiving a “Thank you Doc, catch you this fall.”

It’s just not that way anymore. Farming is a business and is capitalized like one.

And putting it very simple, the last of the four principles, management, is the biggie because it is the one that has to account for changes in the other three.

Terry Rector is spokesman for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District.