In the seeding rush that lies ahead, don’t hesitate to help a neighbour if you can.
In many regions, the start to seeding is two to three weeks behind normal. Additional wet weather delays could mean a lot of unseeded acres. The planting window will be tight.
Everyone needs to worry about their own seeding first, but if you’re lucky enough to get your acres finished, why not offer a helping hand to someone that’s still struggling?
Even if you’re still seeding your own land, there are sometimes little things you can do to help out a neigh-bour, friend or relative that don’t impede your overall progress.
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With producers competing against each other to buy and rent land, the sense of community can occasionally be lost. Yes, you might be helping someone you’ll compete against to rent the next parcel of land that hits the market. Or maybe they’ve already scooped up land that you wanted to farm.
Get over it. There’s a lot more to be gained than lost by offering assistance. And it can actually be fun to team up for that final push.
Even good Samaritans shouldn’t be expected to run their equipment for free. If it’s just a few days with your seeder, make note of it and the favour can be returned during a future spring or harvest.
Another option is to charge a typical custom rate. Neighbours are usually pretty good at working these things out.
If someone always lags the rest of the pack with seeding and harvest, they may have an inherent lack of capacity.
Perhaps they need to bolster their equipment or labour or maybe they should be scaling back. Or maybe they should make hiring a custom operator part of their business plan for some of their acres.
However, every year there are producers who run into unforeseen challenges and could really use some help from surrounding operations. Neighbours tend to rally to the aid of someone who faces a catastrophic event, but not always for more minor setbacks.
Maybe it’s a health issue in the family. Maybe its a key piece of equipment that has broken down. Perhaps a new or new-to-you piece of equipment failed to meet expectations. Age catches up with both people and machines.
Maybe a weather system dumped extra rain and snow on some of your land base. Maybe your flooding issues were worse than your neigh-bours’.
Often, a number of issues combine to thwart your progress.
Some operations are better able to compensate for unexpected problems, but we’re all vulnerable. If you help others when you can, assistance is more likely to be offered when you have problems.
Personally, I’ve been the recipient of considerably more help than I’ve been able to repay, but as my operation becomes better organized, I hope to be in a position to even the score.
In my experience, farmers are often more willing to offer help than they are to accept it. If you could use a hand, don’t let pride get in the way. And don’t look for excuses as to why additional help would be problematic. If help is offered, explore ways to make it work.
We’re a few decades removed from threshing crews and regular barn raising events, but let’s not lose that spirit of co-operation.
Yes, we’re all separate businesses and in some ways we do compete. But we’re also social beings inhabiting the same rural locations.
