From my soapbox— literally, I have a fake one I bring in and stand on — I ask Purdue students in the advanced farm management class to remember three things: budgeting, forecasting and accrual accounting. 

My wife Karen and I have spoken to the class every year for the last 25-plus years. If they get nothing else from our lecture, we want them to walk away knowing the most successful farmers put in the work to budget, forecast, and know their numbers, which includes both cashflow and accrual. 

Too many farmers, new and experienced, skimp on financial planning. I was one of them. When I started farming after graduating from Purdue, I hired a consultant. Milt Holcomb was a retired University of Illinois professor, and he wouldn’t let up. He said, ‘Tom. You’re going to do the forecasting.’ I said, ‘No, I’m running the tassel cutters. I’m running the sprayers. I don’t have time.’ He was firm and he was right. 

To this day, I can tell you the exact cost of my dad’s Case 1456 Goldie tractor in 1974 and all sorts of other tidbits, but I didn’t really…