Straight Talk for Growers: Healthy systems breed healthy crops

The knee-jerk train of thought tends to go as follows: The more I grow, the more I have to sell. The more I have available to sell, the more money I stand to earn. I should plant more. 

But building your growing business strictly from a revenue perspective fails to consider crucial factors that contribute to both the physical and financial health of your operation. Plant and business health can be assessed during seeding, planting and dumping. Instead of viewing overproduction as a business strategy, think about quantity in relation to consumer trends, specific markets, your operational capacity and how to build a healthier growing environment.

We all over seed, plant or purchase to ensure we have enough plants to grow or harvest. However, the very decision that feels like it is giving us an edge could be causing us to spend more money on water, fertilizers, labor and growing space than is returned to us through sales. It could also contribute to an overcrowded environment where disease spreads quickly and pests exploit cramped plants. If you’ve had to cull yields, you know the sting of overproduction.

You can avoid that sting by adhering to three cardinal rules: get clear before you cultivate, think predictably instead of chasing possibility and don’t be afraid to dump. 

CLARITY BEFORE CULTIVATION 

What is important for you as a grower? Answering that question is essential to selecting the best seed varieties and maximizing resources in a way that protects plants and profits. Priorities might include growing products that chefs appreciate for flavor or appearance, days until plant maturity is achieved, germination rate, or a regular schedule that ensures you plant every fourth Monday. The more you clarify your goal, the easier it becomes to source the cultivar that can help you reach it. 

Most growers want varieties that work to cut costs, satisfy consumer demand, and create consistency in both day-to-day greenhouse tasks and profit margins. Selecting the right seed variety for your goals also contributes to a healthy greenhouse environment, where plants are grown in optimized conditions. Greenhouse growing affords us the opportunity to be increasingly precise with our inputs, so clarity before cultivation is essential. 

PREDICTABILITY ALWAYS BEATS POSSIBILITY 

Efficient crop scheduling often requires a perspective shift. Much like the idea that growing more automatically equals earning more, it’s easy to believe that we have to sell everything we have at this very moment. In doing so, we abandon predictability in favor of possibility. You may have a surplus of seedlings, but that doesn’t mean you need to plant them all. 

The greenhouse sector gives us the ability to create predictable inventories. We can supply local restaurants with fresh, leafy greens and tomatoes in the middle of winter as long as we plan accordingly. If we are oversupplied, a restaurant might not purchase everything available, and prices can fall as the grower tries to reduce inventory. By understanding our customers’ purchasing cycles, we can scale our planting to match the predictable demand. 

If our schedule aligns with the restaurant’s schedule, we can plant just in time and in just the right amount to sell all we have grown. In doing, so we reduce input costs — which may increase overall earnings. 

DON’T BE AFRAID TO DUMP 

Have you heard the saying: When in doubt, throw it out? It applies to the greenhouse sector as well. You can always make production shifts, but it is easier to make dumping decisions sooner rather than later. Discarding a seedling when you know that planting it could contribute to an oversupply is more cost-effective than dumping the unsold product. The seedling has incurred few input expenses, while the produce has required water, fertilizer and labor to grow to maturity. 

Growers tend to under-represent loss from dumping and therefore have a fuzzy idea of where costs can be cut to achieve predictable profits. This is true even when yields are discarded due to disease or pest infestations. If you haven’t kept a log of culled plants, it could be a pivotal habit to adopt. If 10 plants are culled at once, a grower might take note and shift the next planting. But, if only one or two plants are dumped daily, a grower could easily believe it makes little impact and carry forward the existing schedule. In the end, the same amount of plants have been culled, and profits are lost to input expenses without the grower realizing. 

In general, losses under 5% are considered excellent. Losses between 5% and 10% are acceptable. If you are regularly exceeding a 10% dumping rate, it may be time to keep a more meticulous log to help identify shifts in production needs. All growers can keep a simple record on crop types, specific cultivars, the ratio between seedling availability and plants sown, culling rates and reasons, and market data to build both a healthy environmental and financial structure.

Michelle Klieger is an agricultural economist and strategist, and president of Stratagerm Consulting. She can be reached at michelle@stratagerm.com.