5 Things

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Partners & Friends,

Marcus recently returned from the Ag View Executive Business Conference, which we all usually try to attend annually. This is an agriculture business consulting firm that advises on management, succession planning, transitions, marketing, and operational efficiencies. A subscriber based podcast called 19 Minutes summed up the meeting quite well by defining the 5 things that make a business wise and worthwhile to invest in. They are as follows:

1. Holding your business to a high degree of professionalism

2. Taking continuing education seriously for management and team members

3. Taking time off to rest and refresh

4. Meeting new and interesting people

5. Developing key metric and performance measures to track operational success

At Hess Family Farm, we do our best to consistently incorporate these guidelines into what we do and who we are. Most of these measures could apply to our own personal lives as well.

On the farm, we are hauling seed beans for Becks to ElPaso and have delivered 14 loads so far. The weather looks good enough to resume tiling again this week. Office work includes preparing for taxes, finishing up crop input planning, and finalizing record procedures for 2024. We are looking into a grain dryer update, as well as attending a few more farm meetings to help plan for the 2024 corn and soybean crop.

AI will be influencing many aspects of agriculture and our lives in the future. A speaker noted that it will revolutionize modern-day farming in the same way that machinery and other technological equipment replaced horses in the fields last century. Brazil is rapidly harvesting their soy crop and planting safrinha corn as fast as possible to catch the rain needed. Weather prospects for the approaching spring planting season predict short, intermittent planting windows. The spring crop insurance prices for corn and beans are being set during the month of February and are considerably lower than last year.

Phyllis and I wrapped up our Christmas visits with a trip to Asheville last week to visit Ali. We also got to see Phil in Florida for a couple of days, and the time away from the cold and snow was enjoyed.

Fall Prices:

Corn—4.10

Soybeans—10.67

Steve 

New Year

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Partners & Friends,

We are making our way into 2024 after a wonderful holiday season celebrating the birth of our Savior and enjoying time with family and friends. Along with that is a lot of year-end office time and bookkeeping frenzy. We have finalized our corn and soybean seed orders for the next crop season after studying our own field research and consulting with our crop consultants. Our fertilizer needs are mostly booked and applied. The only missing link is our spring side dress NH3 application. We have pre-paid for chemicals and fungicide. When we make our plans, we are preparing for a robust crop with all the inputs needed for top yields. It is encouraging that input costs are mostly lower, except for seed. Commodity prices are certainly lower than year ago. There’ll be some event along the way that will provide marketing opportunities. 

The Hess Family Farm team is putting more tile in the ground whenever the weather allows. Plans are for another 200 acres this year, although the weather forecast does not look good after this week. We have emptied all the corn bins. This is the first time all bins are empty this early, but we took advantage of some early delivery offers that have turned out well. We are now in the midst of year-end bookkeeping tasks, turning out 1099s and W-2s, and preparing for tax filings. There are a few meetings to attend to help with continuing education and business strategy updates.

The current world events are always black swans for our planning. The Middle East conflict is putting energy prices on a roller coaster almost daily. We have booked almost half of our needs for 2024. The situation with the war in Ukraine is jerking commodity prices around daily. Weather in South America is of extreme importance in the midst of their critical growing season. Interest rates are another area we pay constant attention to. Operating interest is almost 2x what rates were 1 year ago.

Our family is doing well. This season of gatherings has shown us just how thankful we are for our friends and family. The support and prayers our family received over the past year of great highs and lows means so much—thank you! We are looking forward to a great New Year with much time for relationships. May you all take time for the ones in your lives.

Fall Prices:

Corn—4.72

Soybeans—11.93

Steve

Christmas Tree Season

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Partners & Friends,

Things are busy and going well here on the farm as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

We have finished fall tillage. The fall fertilizer, both anhydrous and dry, is on the fields. We have hauled over 400,000 bushels of corn to take advantage of basis opportunities. We have also celebrated the success of Toppling Goliath (aka Navigator), at least for now. The barns and manure piles are cleaned up. Many tile holes have been dug up and repaired. Equipment has been cleaned and stored. Tiling projects have begun. We hauled over 200 loads of municipal sludge. Goats have been shown. And it snowed. 😐

Crude oil prices are softer as of now, even with the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. The one year extension of the Farm Bill has been passed. South America crops are doing adequately overall. Corn and beans have gone into their usual seasonal doldrums. The used equipment market seems to be softer on most types of farm equipment. The Iowa caucuses are about 2 months away. Farmers are standing up for property rights. At the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting in Chicago, resolutions were passed by the delegates opposing Eminent Domain for all renewable energy projects, including CO2 pipelines.🙂 That happened thanks to the effort of a many people doing what they can, or as I like to say: throwing stones at the giant! 👏🏻

Our family is doing well, with school, sports, work, music activities, and goat care filling up schedules. Phyllis and I attended the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) meeting in Chicago last weekend, and it was wonderful to see friends and family there involved in grassroots decisions. It was a very gratifying delegate session after a year of meetings, calls, signs, and postcards. 

Fall 2024 Prices:

Corn—4.89

Soybeans—12.41

Remember to celebrate the True Meaning of this Christmas season!

Steve

A Good Week

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Partners & Friends,

This past week was a good one! Lindsay and her children were here to experience and assist with harvest. We have completed harvesting our distant fields. On Friday, we received our first substantial rain, about 0.7 inches, in weeks. Navigator (read: CO2 pipeline company) also filed a motion to withdraw their application at the ICC for a second time—read about it here and here. We do not anticipate the pipeline threat disappearing anytime soon, but it does seem that our efforts are proving more and more successful; Goliath is feeling the stones being thrown.

The Hess Family Farm team is down to the last 650 acres of corn. Moisture is approaching storage level (15.5%), so drying capacity is no longer an issue. We have delivered much corn this past month to our local feed mill, TriOak Feeds. Since we’ve taken advantage of our strong basis opportunities, we will not have to use all our storage. The only soybeans we’re currently storing are our 2 varieties of seed beans. We have begun ripping (conservation plowing) a few fields that need leveling due to recent tiling or because they will be corn on corn or need the soil profile mixed. We will soon begin applying fertilizer with our new-to-us strip till bar to prepare fields for next year’s corn crop. We are also preparing to start our fall tiling projects.

The Middle East hostilities are major disrupters to energy prices (70% of our inputs are related to energy costs). Chaos in the US House means no new farm bill will be passed soon. Low river levels are not helping river bids for corn and beans either.

We have had some great help over the past few weeks, as well as many good conversations. Special family moments and delicious apple cider have also been enjoyed. ❤️

Fall Prices:

Corn—4.88

Soybeans—12.61

Stay safe and keep in touch,

Steve

Biding Time

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Partners & Friends,

Spring is in full swing, and we are getting closer to putting planters in the field. This week, the Hess Family Farm team is finishing some tiling repair and ground preparation over recently tiled lines, applying more NH3 on acres being switched from beans to corn, calving our small beef herd, voting, drawing field boundaries, seeding waterways, attending spring concerts, and completing other miscellaneous tasks. We just received almost an inch of rain overnight, along with some high winds. The planters are hooked up and almost field ready. The last of the seed beans have been delivered and most of the bins are swept. Between the longer days and warmer weather, the urge to begin planting is growing more and more.

Commodity markets have found support for now. Oil prices are up due to the OPEC announcement of reduced production. 8 of every 10 dollars we spend are related to energy/oil. Following yesterday’s election, it seems that progressives may have won the day.

The family is doing well. Our grandchildren are in the home run as summer break draws nearer and spring fever infects schools. Ali is also working hard through her last quarter at UChicago. Lindsay is within 2 weeks of her due date. Our plan is to celebrate the good news of Jesus on Resurrection Day, then begin fieldwork shortly after.

Fall Prices:

Corn—5.39

Soybeans—12.96

Give glory to our Risen Savior!

Steve