October 2025 - Journal_FINAL_e - Flipbook - Page 12
Business
Looking Ahead:
HOW WILL YOUR FARM EVOLVE?
Jim Marzolf
EVP of Business Services
Pipestone Business
Jim Marzolf is a Minnesota native who graduated from the University
of Wisconsin-River Falls with a B.S. in Animal Science; followed by an
Executive MBA from Purdue University. Jim brought his experience in
livestock production, 昀椀nance, and business management to Pipestone in
2019 and serves as Executive Vice President of Pipestone Business.
It’s been a long time coming, but pork producers are
昀椀nally seeing good margins! Even better, pro昀椀ts look
solid heading into next year. With breakeven pressures
lifted, now is the perfect time to step back from
working in your business and focus on working on it—
making strategic plans today to future-proof your farm
and secure long-term success.
As you re昀氀ect on the last 20 years in your agricultural
business, you saw commodity prices that were high
and low, pro昀椀ts that were positive and negative, and
production trends that came and went. During that
longer period, you likely noticed that your business
changed, pivoted, and evolved to succeed. You
probably weren’t doing the same things at the end of
the 20 years as you were at the beginning.
During the dif昀椀cult times, some farm managers
decided to hunker down, go back to the basics and
do things really well. Meanwhile, other farm managers
used dif昀椀cult times to evaluate their landscape and
pivot toward opportunities. And, some did both.
If you are a manager who hunkers down and says, “the
main thing is the main thing” and won’t be distracted
by outside forces, you are con昀椀dent that your playbook
has stood the test of time. So, you go back to the
playbook and execute your traditional offense and
During dif昀椀cult times, some farm
managers hunker down, go back to
the basics and do things really well.
Meanwhile, other farm managers
evaluate their landscape and pivot
toward opportunities. And, some
do both.
12 | PIPESTONE JOURNAL
defense to perfection. I call this survival mode. At
the same time, your peers are surveying the 昀椀eld for
opportunities to change their business.
Generally, what sets these two manager pro昀椀les apart
is how well they have prepared for the dif昀椀cult times
by building their working capital and equity positions.
Consistent discipline to manage, measure and
continually improve the business’ processes and results
is important in creating 昀椀nancial preparedness. But, it’s
not the only thing. There is a difference between doing
things right and doing the right things. Businesses that
have the good fortune to take a moment to survey the
昀椀eld during dif昀椀cult times are often also doing the right
things.
Integration or Diversi昀椀cation?
Doing the right things looks different to different
managers. The 昀椀rst item on Warren Buffet’s investment
strategy is to invest in what you understand. This
approach exercises a healthy dose of common sense.
Most farm managers are attracted to the things they
know and understand. As a result, they often gravitate
to opportunities that are close to their core business
and are more easily understood. They are often
motivated to either squeeze margin out of their value
chain or add margin by getting closer to the customer.
Either way, both approaches require capital investment.
We call this vertical integration. It’s not a new idea in
production agriculture. In fact, many of you have been
doing it for years and have become quite pro昀椀cient!
Some managers are more comfortable with being
uncomfortable and see opportunities to swim in new
lanes as their way to future proof their business. We
call this diversi昀椀cation. To diversify, you can either
choose to leverage your existing core competencies
into a different but related business or you can choose
to develop new core competencies for an unrelated
business. Usually, the unrelated business investment
is motivated by some business synergies. Either way,
