Deep Dive

The solutions to agriculture's toughest problems already exist. Just not in agriculture.

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I had coffee with a neighboring grower whose family has been farming for four generations. He had just gotten back from a big car conference in Detroit. He said people kept asking him what a farmer was doing at a car event. He told them:

He wasn't kidding.

Since the four months after that conference, he started using one of the big car manufacturer’s maintenance systems on his farm. He cut storage costs by 22% and almost completely stopped wasting seasonal supplies.

The reality is, agriculture has a habit of only looking within itself for answers.

• We talk to other farmers

• We read farming magazines

• We go to farm shows

All good stuff, but what if the best fixes for our problems aren't coming from farming at all?

The Silo Problem (And I Don't Mean Grain Storage)

As farmers and ranchers we tend to hang around who we know. Who we’re comfortable with. People who think exactly like we do.

Yes, we have unique challenges only those in the business truly understand, but that doesn't mean good solutions exist only in our own circles.

When you only look in one place, you miss all the good ideas happening everywhere else.

Last month I talked with Sarah Jenkins, who runs a big vegetable farm in California. Five years ago, she hired a shipping manager from Amazon. Other farmers thought she was nuts.

As she explained to me:

Within a year and a half, her shipping costs dropped by 31%.

This isn't just about bringing in outsiders. It's about sometimes becoming an outsider yourself – stepping out the industry to see what we can learn from others who might just be doing it better (I know, that’s a tough pill to swallow).

Here are five specific things other industries do really well that we in agriculture can (and should) start using in our own operations:

1. Fix It Before It Breaks (From Manufacturing)

My husband Andrew manages a local Kubota dealership. He sees and works on everything from round balers to brush hogs.

And if there’s one thing he can’t stand above all else…it’s people who wait until mid-April to bring in their lawn mower that broke down or needed serviced in November.

Yeah those evenings are always fun. He comes home in a GREAT mood!🙄

Manufacturing figured out decades ago that waiting for equipment to break before fixing it is expensive and disruptive. We all know it as preventative maintenance, but it's really just common sense on a schedule.

The dairy down the road from us started treating their milking equipment like a factory treats its machines. They created detailed maintenance schedules based on hours of use, not just when things looked worn. They said in the first year alone, their emergency repair costs dropped by 67%! The owner told us:

The lesson: Don't wait for things to break. Make regular maintenance schedules based on a particular piece of equipment’s normal service timeframe, not just the calendar.

2. Checklists Save Lives (From Healthcare)

Hospitals have known for years that even the smartest doctors make fewer mistakes when they use simple checklists. It's not about being dumb – it's about being human. We all forget things.

But with farming being the most dangerous job on earth, the first mistake could be your last.

You might know them as Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs. And before your eyes glaze over on me, just give me two seconds.

We all tend to think training is good enough.

But in busy seasons, with temporary workers, or with constant regulation changes, those checklists can catch problems you otherwise would’ve missed. They can save lives, and save your operation from financial ruin.

And while no one disputes the medical world has its own issues, their creation and use of standardized protocols is hard to beat.

The lesson: Create simple checklists for complex, repeated tasks – especially when mistakes are costly.

3. Measure What Matters (From Tech Startups)

In a recent livestream I did on Substack with Liz Reitzig called Small Farm Marketing, we talked about “are you measuring the right thing?”. Most farmers tend to run their operations off emotions rather than actual data.

Tech companies on the other hand, are obsessed with data. But not just any data. They focus on a few "north star metrics" that truly make a difference in their business.

They call these KPIs: Key Performance Indicators.

There are dozens of KPIs to choose from. Ones to focus on as farmers and ranchers are:

1. Customer acquisition costs: how much it costs you to gain a customer

2. Product-market fit: do people actually want what you’re offering?

3. Financial health indicators: is what you’re doing actually bringing in dollars or just vanity metrics?

Tracking TOO much, or too much of the wrong thing is also not helpful.

My friend who owns a small cattle operation in Texas spent some time with a tech startup founder and completely changed his approach to data. Instead of tracking dozens of things poorly, he focused on three metrics: feed conversion ratio, daily weight gain, and preventative health costs.

Soon he was making better decisions faster and spending less time worrying about the wrong things.

The lesson: Figure out the 3-5 numbers that really drive your operation's success and track those religiously. Ignore everything else.

4. The Magic of A/B Testing (From Digital Marketing)

Online marketers never guess what works – they test everything.

They call it A/B testing. They try two different approaches, measure the results, and go with the winner. I do this all the time with email subject lines, post hooks and more.

When we’re not sure of something, we ask for opinions.

The problem is, you can ask 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers. This can lead to decision paralysis - meaning you don’t do anything. And if nothing changes…nothing changes.

While your ag. consultant might have strong feelings one way, listening to a marketer can teach you to just test and let the results decide.

The lesson: Don't debate theories or rely on expert opinions alone. Set up small tests where you can directly compare approaches. Then pick the one that that worked best.

5. Experience Design (From Retail)

Retail companies spend a ton of time thinking about customer experience – from the time someone walks through the door (or visits the website) to the time they walk out with a purchase.

Up the road from us is a small family farm that does direct-to-consumer sales. My husband periodically sells them new equipment and naturally they get to talking.

For the last year the wife has been studying studied how top retailers create experiences. As a result, they’ve completely redesigned their farm store layout, improved their packaging, and rethought their customer communications.

A larger-scale example of this is Fair Oaks Farm (the makers of Fair Life milk products).

The best part? They didn't spend much money. Most changes were about rethinking the customer journey, not buying new stuff.

The lesson: Map out every step of your customer's experience and look for ways to make each step better, clearer, or more enjoyable.

The Challenge of Making Ideas Fit Agriculture

The hardest part isn't finding good ideas – it's making them work for agriculture. Not everything fits perfectly, and that's where your own experience and imagination comes in.

When that corn farmer I mentioned earlier started using car manufacturer storage methods, he had to change them quite a bit. Weather, seasons, and working with living things create challenges that factories simply don't have.

But the main ideas – cutting waste, improving flow, creating standard ways of doing things – worked great once he adapted them.

The Future Belongs to the Idea Collectors

The most creative farmers I know all do one thing: they constantly look outside for inspiration.

They go to tech conferences, tour factories, ask questions of their healthcare friends, and bring those insights back to their farms.

The result? Their farms look nothing like their neighbors' – and I’d bet their bank accounts look nothing like them either.

I believe the future of farming belongs to these idea collectors – the ones okay with being that "crazy person" who shows up in unexpected places, asks “dumb” questions, and isn’t afraid to try new things back home.

Tried Any of These?

Have you borrowed a great idea from a completely different industry? Or do you have a problem where you think another field might have answers?

Hit reply and let me know. I'm collecting these stories for a future deep-dive.