People assume because I’m a farmer, my days of hard work are filled with physical activity, but that’s not always true. Farming has changed immensely in the last few decades.

If you are reading this, I bet forages are a part of your life. They have been around a long time as well: Genesis 1:11 KJV says, “And God said, let the earth bring forth grass and the herb yielding seed.”

Winter annual forages have become a mainstay for many dairy and beef rations across the country. The greatest challenge for many of my local producers is managing harvest timing to maximize quality with rain events that not only delay custom harvesters but also cause your perfectly timed harvest to come to a halt.

There are many factors that go into running a profitable farming operation. In an industry that faces several influencing factors such as new technology, government regulations, climate change, commodity pricing and tariffs, the potential impact on your operation’s bottom line is high.

Genske Mulder & Company LLP has produced averages of our dairy clients’ profit and loss reports on a quarterly basis for quite some time. Our clients, as well as others in the industry, have found these very helpful as benchmarks with which to compare their own operations.

For the past five years, I’ve been writing articles for crop farmers on how to manage the unprecedented amount of income flowing through their operations, and now it is the turn for the livestock producer to worry about what to do with all that extra income.