Changes in 2025: Farm Rotation Strategies

00:00:00 So guys, one thing that I was asked, uh, question I was asked the other day is, what would I change next year based on this year? 00:00:08 And, uh, you know, I had to, I had to think about that a little bit. And I guess the question I would kind of ask back is, 00:00:15 what would I change back that I changed this year? So with the input cost, where they are and things are going on the way they are, the farm economy 00:00:23 where they're, you know, where it's at, we decided that we were gonna, and I, I call it chase rabbits is something that, that for most 00:00:30 of my career, I've not done. Instead of sticking with our rotation, that's worked, you know, several years in a row. 00:00:36 We were gonna plant different commodities based on prices. So for instance, we decided 00:00:40 to go heavy in soybeans and less corn. Well, we've got the cotton and rice also, but we got the cotton, the cotton corn, and, 00:00:48 and soybeans all go into rotation together, pretty much is the way we do that. So this past year we decided, okay, 00:00:54 we're gonna have more beans because we'll lose less money. And I know that that kind of sounds crazy, 00:00:59 but this year it was about not losing money more so than it was making money. So here we go. 00:01:04 We load up on beans, we reduce our corn, probably 80 to 90% of what our normal corn acreage would be. 00:01:12 And, uh, it, it bit us in a butt. I'm not necessarily based on this year changing something based on this year, I'm actually gonna go back 00:01:21 and change something that I changed this year based on previous year. So, you know, I always, I say this 00:01:27 and uh, all the time, it's not about winning the ballots, about winning the war and winning the war is looking on a 00:01:34 farm is looking out to a 10 year period instead of having tunnel vision of one year. So looking at a one year period last year, 00:01:40 we'd have been better off to have, uh, planted beans. We thought, you know, as far as an ROI to our farm, but the difference in the yield that, 00:01:48 that we made in the cotton and the difference in the yield, we made beans behind beans on this, you know, real low CEC, 00:01:54 ground sandy land. I think we would've made up the difference by having corn this year, next year. 00:02:01 And what I mean by that is, you know, we may make x amount of bushels on beans, and if we'd had it behind corn, 00:02:09 we've made, you know, 10 or 15% more. Well that 10 or 15% more. We might have not made it on the corn this year, 00:02:17 but we'd have made it in the next bean crop. So when you look at the full circle, rotation is the best thing to do. 00:02:23 Uh, we knew that going into this, you know, we were kind of chasing our tails, trying to figure out how to, 00:02:28 like I said, not lose money. And so we went with that decision and I think I'll change back. 00:02:33 So I'm not changing something next year based on a success this year. I'm changing something next year back 00:02:39 to the way it previously was done based on, I'm not gonna say a failure, but based on some situations I've seen where staying a course, staying with a race, 00:02:49 having a a 10 year plan instead of a one year plan seems to always work out better. 00:02:55 And this year I think it, you know, it hurt us trying to jump around and do the one Year plan. So 00:02:59 my advice would be stay the course. If you've got a good rotation worked out and you've got it working for you on your farm in a 00:03:05 multi-year deal, then you know, be careful what you do when you start changing things. 00:03:11.065 --> 00:03:12.365