You Can Go Back

Last fall I let my partners know I wanted to have a couple farms to manage and assist with field work. Since B, B and A have been responsible for running Pinicon, my involvement has been limited to monthly meetings. 

The reason for turning over leadership of Pinicon earlier than later was to make the transition smoother. Do it while I am still able to contribute while putting them at the top of the decision making hierarchy. At the same time, it gave me freedom to pursue other interests. And though I have found satisfying ways to stay occupied, I came to a realization.

Few moments in life match the excitement and anticipation of putting in a new crop. The upside potential for each seed is highest when it's placed in the ground. At that instant, the possibility of a perfect growing season is real. Inevitably, setbacks will occur, too wet or dry, damage from wind or machinery, application errors, insects and disease. Despite these threats, our best crop ever is also inevitable. We are constantly improving our practices and learning from mistakes. I wanted to get back in the game. 

Last winter we picked up a good used planter. Not the fancy high speed models Ben and Deon run, just something simple and reliable that I could maintain. We had an underutilized tractor in the fleet that was barely big enough (in Ben's opinion) to handle the load. We decided to use it and stay within budget. The worst that could happen was getting stuck, totally avoidable with a skilled operator, or running out of power on steep slopes. Ok, slow down. Neither of these were huge risks in my mind.

The first day that was fit to plant, Ben took the planter out for a trial run. After lunch, Ben gave me the green light to take over. I arrived at the field an hour later and rode a couple rounds with him before he turned me loose. Initially, the list of instructions was intimidating. I understood why the boys were hesitant to trust a 66-year-old who hasn't run a planter for thirteen years.

Would I need a lot of support, negating the net benefit of the acres I covered? Would the quality of work suffer from my lack of experience? Would Jim's tendency to multitask (eating lunch while talking on the phone while running the calculator while navigating around a treacherous headland) cause damage to the machine or worse? 

A two-week wet spell arrived that evening. We went back to the field May 5th and did not have a single rain delay until May 19th. During that time, we finished planting corn and beans.

We had a Leadership Team meeting last week. Planting season review was on the agenda. With a smile Ben said the extra planter made a major difference, shortening the planting season by at least three days. Emergence and plant spacing looked in fields I'd planted. Bert was a bit more sentimental. Tending me on the planter reminded him of when he started working for Mark and I and all the changes that had occurred since. He could see firsthand how much fun I was having. Despite their initial trepidation, "letting" me back on the Spring Team was a good decision.  

I have added a new lifetime goal to my bucket list, planting corn when I'm ninety. Before I can do that, I'll need to be planting when I'm seventy. 😉

Jim

Jim’s home for 10 days straight. Can’t wait for next year!