For years farmers have been told to diversify, to get bigger or get out and to find niche markets. Farmers diversified and found the workload increased but the bottom line often didn’t. Some got bigger and their costs simply chased their revenues. As for niche markets, it doesn’t take much jam or edible flowers to fill a niche market. And not every farm wife wants to run a bed and breakfast.

What to do? Some farmers re-adjusted their thinking a long time ago. Unless they have a marketing board, or they’re paying someone to do the selling, these farmers spend more time marketing than producing.

Northumberland County market gardener Colin Crews told his mother Bette-Jean: "I don’t know why anyone would get into farming today."

"You’re farming," Bette-Jean replied. "You tell me."

"But mom," replied Colin, who runs the family’s roadside market and 600-acre crop farm. "I’m in direct sales."

Even for marketing boards it is becoming apparent that direct marketing or control of processing are key factors to prosperity. In economics 101 you learn that the longer you hang on to a product the more value you add to that product through processing and the more money you earn. You often get the most money selling directly to the consumer. You’re a price-maker. In the Crews’ case of fruits and vegetables, it also means the difference between earning 10 per cent of the sale price and earning 100 per cent of the sale price.

Farmers who view themselves as producers only are price-takers. They earn what they’re offered. They earn the smallest part of the pie, yet they have biggest investment. So, what? We already know this, you’re saying. Surprisingly, some producers don’t act as if they know it. They can’t get around that psychological barrier that tells them the job is done when the crop is the bin. But that’s exactly when the hardest part of the job begins. Dealing with people almost always is.

Bette-Jean Crews says you don’t have to get bigger to stay in business. "But we do have to be marketers. Farmers need courses in this."

You also have to be realistic. The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario president John Kikkert says the cold, hard reality is that "there’s still a lot of sentimentalism tied up in farmland and pride in being in the country. But if the farm is not going to pay for itself and give you a profit in the next three years, sell it."

He notes that there are markets that farmers can tap into. Consumers take pride in food that comes directly from the farm. "Farmers have been busy producing the product," he said. "They have to get into processing it. We’ve got to be marketers of our product. If we’re not doing that we’ll fade into the dust."

In this issue you’ll read the "six keys to a successful value-added business."

Two of the most important — (1) have and test a good idea and (2) factor in a profit – are often overlooked. But these ideas are built into us. People are always looking for new ways to better their condition. And we all have a propensity to barter, truck and trade.

A discussion on farm business, however, is impossible without reflecting on times and places where our governments have to take a role. For instance, backed by government grants the U.S. exports of corn to Canada have surged to 57 million tonnes from fewer than 35 million tonnes at the turn of the century. This year the price of corn in North America is running between $90 and $100 per tonne and the Americans are planting a record crop. In Quebec, where government assistance is also high, corn production has been increasing. Even a crop magician in Ontario can’t reverse such lopsided conditions.

This gnaws away at entrepreneurial spirit and sours a farmer’s taste for risk. When a smart, hard-working farmer doesn’t act the entrepreneur and take control of his product, you have to ask why? If you don’t see governments levelling the playing field and then getting out of the way, you have the answer.

— P. Meagher