CALF_News_April_May_2020

17 CALF News • April | May 2020 • www.calfnews.net M y mom and I recently attended a local veterinar- ian’s customer appreciation dinner. There were the typical speakers from pharmaceutical companies that sponsored the meal. However, the reason we went was to listen to Kansas State University (KSU) veterinarian Gregg Hanzlicek. While earning an agribusiness degree from KSU I took very few animal sci- ence classes – a decision I now regret. But one semester I took cow-calf health systems with Dr. Hanzlicek. The thing that was awesome about Dr. Hanzlicek was that he’d been a practicing veteri- narian in cow country for several years before heading to university life. He had experience in real life, not just book learning. These are a few trends that I see for agriculture. Autogenous vaccines At the meeting, Dr. Hanzlicek introduced me to the term autogenous vaccines . Autogenous vaccines are created for your specific operation or area. How cool is that? You no longer have to roll the dice with whether ScourGuard® is going to be effective on your operation. You no longer have to wonder whether the BRD shot is going to get the strain you have. You can have a vaccine that is specific to your operation! Attracting the next generation Last month, I attended a focus group with my sister and fellow young agri- culturists from our county. One of the topics was how we had gotten into farm- ing/ranching. While most of us moved into family operations, a few said they’d worked into their operations by work- ing with older farmers who didn’t have family to take over their operations. It seems to have worked well for them. The average age of U.S. farmers/ ranchers is 60 years old. Succession planning is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your operation goes to your daughter who would rather become a teacher or your son who went to busi- ness school. Maybe it does, but with a catch that the young producer who is taking care of the operation is able to operate it. I’ve told my parents repeat- edly – it’s your land, you’ve worked for it and you have to be able to decide what you want the land’s legacy to be. Maybe you’ve worked your entire life and cleared a tree-covered pasture to a beautifully productive grassland, then decide that you’re tired and want to travel the world. Do it! If you have raised the next generation right, we will be just fine without inheritance from you. Most of you aren’t going to get on board with selling your land to a devel- oper to cut up all your hard work and put concrete on it. But maybe you don’t have the children to take over for you. Find them. You are in control. Go talk to your local Natural Resources Con- servation Service/Farm Service Agency office, your Extension office or even your accountant. Young people who can’t afford to buy everything at once want to be in agriculture. Young people who don’t have family that farms but love the lifestyle want an opportunity to prove their worth. They are out there. Con- nect with them. Tell them the legacy of the land. Then watch when they expand your ideas and put their own in and the land becomes even greater. Technology How can technology not change, right? The other night while outside, my husband, Matt, and I noticed the beauti- ful moon, then I saw what I thought was a plane and then another. Matt counted 11 in a perfectly straight line going in the exact same direction, all equally spaced apart. After posting on social media (thanks Facebook), the consensus was they were SpaceX Starlink satellites that will, hopefully, provide satellite internet access. Agriculture does a great job of updat- ing and expanding our technologies. Our biggest challenge is not having access to internet in our rural areas. Think of all the upgrades you’ve seen in your life. Maybe you’ve experienced farming with horses clear through to GPS-guided tractors and combines, monitors that track bushels per acre, field maps that enable variable-rate planting and drones that let you scout your fields or cattle without causing compaction. There are so many amaz- ing new technologies that could greatly increase your bottom line. With all the innovation comes ques- tions like whose data is it? Where will it be stored? Who will have access? How can I use it for our operation? I think you will find a lot more talk about who owns the data and how we need to use it. We’re going to find there are people out there who are going to want your data and are willing to pay you for it. Niche marketing/interaction with customers and clients The bigger the equipment, the more money it costs to get it, the more land you need to make it pay. It works for some, but not others. We are seeing this, and will continue to see diversifica- tion and niche marketing. Families with multiple parts are running the big farms. But families are also running the little farms. Figure out what you want out of life, then make it happen. Niche market- ing can help make your dreams a reality. You get one life. One time. Don’t spend it doing stuff you don’t like. Spend some time while you’re auto- steering this spring or riding pastures to figure out what you love. Make a list of the things that make you happy. Some- times we forget the little things that make us happy. Maybe you don’t need to change anything, but maybe, just maybe, you need to pivot.  COVER STORY Trends Trending Now and Later By Kelsey Pagel Contributing Editor