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The farm crisis starts with family

A farm mediator says miscommunication and egos effect farmers’ bottom-line more than markets and weather.

“The only way we’re going to get through this farm crisis is by sharing our ideas, being able to make joint decisions together.  And, frankly, 10 years from now, I think we’re going to lose 50 percent of our farms. The families that are going to survive are going to be the ones that simply evolve.”

Andy Junkin with Agriculture Strategy tells Brownfield as farm ownership structures change from sole proprietors to multiple family owners, entitlement can get in the way.  “The priority of being right becomes a precedent over things actually being right and that creates both dysfunctional decisions, and as a result, dysfunctional families and dysfunctional family businesses.”

He believes dictator leadership styles on farms leads to more farmer suicides and farms going out of business.  “Instead of there being one dictator on the farm, you have multiple dictators.  There’s a lot of money slipping through the cracks because you can’t make decisions together and a lot of stress is created because of this dysfunctional dynamic.”

Junkin tells Brownfield he wrote a book to help families overcome tough times after seeing a dairy farm family in Michigan sell out instead of work together.   “For the past three years, like a lot of dairies across Michigan, they had been bleeding money and they had essentially never sat down once to figure out how to squeeze their cost of production.”

Junkin was a featured speaker during this week’s Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo where he launched his book, “Tough Times Never Last, Tough Farm Families Do!”

AUDIO: Brownfield interview with Andy Junkin