Welcome To Accidental Agriculture!

Hey everyone - Joe here. I'm finally starting to put some of my thoughts on paper. My dad has kept a daily diary for roughly the last 50 years, so I should come by this naturally. The truth of the matter is, if I wasn't married to my wife (a photographer), it'd be hard to find evidence that I existed. I document nothing, and most of the time it doesn't even cross my mind to do so.

I'm a pretty detail-oriented person by nature, and I feel that everything needs to have its place. Don't like clutter, enjoy neatness. So, I'm going to keep things neat in this newsletter. You're going to get 3 topics out of me on a weekly basis, and they entail the following:

From the field. You're going to hear about my adventures in the field. The real hands-on environment. You're also going to get a sneak peek of what I'm learning. And I have a lot to learn.

From the office. I don't know if the adventures in the office are going to be quite as exciting, but I'm going to share them anyway.

What I'm reading. This might be a book, might be a different newsletter, might be a website. I want to share with all of you what I’m learning.

Without further ado…

From the field:

This was not on my life bingo card, hence the title of this newsletter. Me, ending up firmly in the middle of the agriculture industry.

A little bit of my background - I grew up in a small town in Eastern Iowa. I'm sure there were classmates of mine that grew up on farms because Iowa is known for farming, but I knew roughly one of them.

I then went to a small catholic college firmly in the center of a small city, with no agriculture to speak of unless you drove miles out of town.

But then my life changed in an instant one fateful night in August, 2008. I met the love of my life, who was coincidentally a farmer's daughter. A farmer who was still very actively farming. I was hoping that farm knowledge was not a prerequisite for dating his oldest daughter, because clearly we may as well not even start dating if that's the case.

Fortunately for me, my in-laws are great, and they didn't seem to mind that I couldn't tell the difference between corn and beans in a field. Or that I couldn't identify what a combine was. Maybe it was enjoyable to be dealing with such a blank slate, who knows?

Fast forward 15 years from that fateful day. I can at least hold my own in a conversation about the farm. Do I ask stupid questions from time to time? More than I'm aware of, likely. But I've really fallen in love with the people, the lifestyle, and the business of agriculture.

Wait, how am I "in the middle of the agriculture industry" though?

Well, I'm now running 2 businesses that cater in different ways to the industry. What are they? Glad you asked.

First, I've become a pilot. A drone pilot. I'm flying fungicide on crops in the middle of summer, from sunup to sundown. I might be crazy. I'm also working with cover crop as well.

This business is appealing to me for a lot of different reasons. It gets me completely out of my comfort zone in more ways than one. I'll be doing hard physical work. I'm a recovering office worker, and physical work was not really on the daily to-do list. I'll be doing things that are completely new to me. These drones are rather easy to get the hang of, but it's a new skill to develop nonetheless. And there will be plenty of things that come second nature to most people who grew up on a farm, that will be a learning curve for me. Like backing up a trailer. Yeah, never done it before. I grew up in town, went to college in town, worked in town, remember?

But maybe most importantly in all this - I believe it's a service that farmers can really stand to benefit from, because of the precision that drones can bring. Because of that precision, yields can increase, which means more money for the farmer and their families.

OK, that's one. Now what about the second business?

From the office:

I was a corporate employee for roughly 18 years, finishing up my career reporting directly to the CFO of a mid-sized company. My specialty was in finance - I'd create budgets, analyze financial statements, ultimately all geared toward making the company more accountable to their numbers. In addition, I'd look for opportunities where the company could become more profitable, whether it be cost cutting, revenue growing, or just optimizing the spend already taking place.

Now I'm taking that skillset independent, and focusing my services towards agriculture. It’s already led me to connecting with two of my old high school classmates, which has been a blessing in and of itself.

I feel comfortable in this arena, confident in my skillset, and knowing I can add value to small businesses. I just have to continue to find the ones that need the help.

Admittedly, this is an odd combination of businesses to run, only related to one another by the industry they aim to serve. But I believe there will be more overlap to all this than meets the eye at first glance.

What I'm reading:

Seems fitting that I'd be reading a book called "Show Your Work" (by Austin Kleon) as I'm starting to show my work for the first time ever. The first chapter of the book is titled "you don't have to be a genius". Whew - allowed me to keep reading.

One of my favorite quotes from the book so far is someone the author quoted, and it's by a Zen monk named Shunryu Suzuki. "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind, there are few.

That's where I feel like I'm at. A beginner, but I'm excited about so many things being possible with drones, with CFO work, with this newsletter.

Thanks for hanging in - until next week!

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