Looking to boost your farm’s income over the next few years? You can always hope for higher commodity prices – although things have been softening up there recently so that might not be a winning strategy. Unlike some other businesses, farmers generally don’t get much input in the prices they receive for their products. So improving the farm’s bottom line generally means either making and selling more product, or cutting costs. Here are a few ideas for doing the latter.

Tip 1: Go Organic

Organic farming techniques are more labor-intensive, but zero out some of your largest line-item costs. No pesticide spray passes, no weedkiller applications – it adds up. If you’ve got more time/hands than you have work, and less money than you have bills, a switch to organic production methods can make hard financial sense.

Tip 2: Let Mother Nature Feed Them

If you’re maintaining a dairy herd, consider moving to natural pasturage rather than confining your herd and providing the feed. This interesting article details some of the findings of research around grazing, and it may surprise you. The conventional wisdom is that naturally grazed cows produce less milk – and they do. The surprising part is, they don’t produce much less milk – and the net financial output per cow is as much as two or three times higher, even after taking into account the increased management work of keeping track of pasturage and moving animals around.

Natural grazing doesn’t just mean letting the herd out onto the first open field you see and trusting to luck – you’ll need to understand what your soil conditions are, ensure that there’s enough nutritional energy in the available forage, etc.

Tip 3: Get Bigger or Change Businesses

The simple truth is that for conventional farming techniques, small herds lose money. If a herd has less than 500 animals, then you’re not likely to be at the break-even point for your fixed operational costs. If you can expand into the profitable range, then that might be worth looking into. If you can switch to organic production, that’s one way to keep a small herd viable. Otherwise, sell your small herd and the associated equipment and use the money to optimize your other farming activities.

Tip 4: Get a New Lease on Life

If you are leasing your land, one way to cut costs is to change the terms of your lease. Rather than a cash arrangement, consider going to a share-lease arrangement. The downside is that if you have a great year, you don’t keep all the profits – but the upside is that a portion of your operational costs get charged to the landlord instead of to your bottom line. If your farm steadily makes a profit, this is a bad option – but if like most farmers you have good years and bad, then a share-lease can make the bad years much more survivable.