Farm Strengthens over Generations
Published: Friday, July 5, 2019
Standing on the shoulders of the previous generation is a way of life for the Bowman family.
"Our dad, Charles, was a visionary, who had a knack for seeing the possibilities of what could be, and who wasn't afraid to take some risks," said Dan Bowman, at last Friday morning's session of the 2019 Purdue Farm Management Tour. "We owe a lot of our success and expansions to decisions he made back then."
Expansions indeed. In the years since then, Bowman Agri Corp., has grown to 8,200 acres, mostly within a ten-mile radius of the farm's impressive complex, located in southeast Wabash County. Principal operators today include Dan Bowman, brother Kevin, and Kevin's two sons, Kyle and Evan. Both Dan and Kevin have business degrees from Huntington University, while Kyle has an MBA and CPA. Evan is finishing an online master's degree in agronomy through Iowa State University.
Principal crops are corn and soybeans, with some wheat. The Bowmans also operate a commercial grain elevator, do extensive drainage on their farm, do all their own trucking, and are early adopters of technology.
One nugget of wisdom that Charles passed on to his sons was about maximizing soil productivity.
"He would tell us, 'You may not always have the opportunity to buy land, but you can always fix it up,'" said Kevin. "Our soils here aren't the best, but we've done a lot of drainage on our operation, and it's worked well for us."
After getting their feet wet with their own tile plow, the Bowmans did a thorough analysis and decided to make a major investment in a new self-propelled tile plow. To make this pay off, the Bowmans establish a goal to try to do as much drainage as they can each year, done primarily in the summer, on their wheat ground.
Other keys to the Bowmans' success include building on strengths between and among generations. While Dan and Kevin give their dad credit for laying the foundation for today's operation, the two readily acknowledge their appreciation for each other's respective skill sets.
"I'm the detail guy, while Kevin's more of the dreamer," said Dan.
Kyle said that although it wasn't planned, his financial background and Evan's agronomy interests complement each other well.
The Bowmans' recognizing their strengths and passions.
"In the 90s, we bought some farms with hog buildings on them," said Kevin. "We thought we could make some extra money feeding out feeder pigs. But it didn't take us long to figure out that wasn't for us. You really have to have a love for livestock to be in it. Instead, we focused on row crop farming, the best kind of farming there is."
The family strives to be being early adopters of new technology.
"I'd describe us as being early adopters of technology, sometimes a little too early," joked Kyle. But his dad added, "When it comes to technology, we'd be lost if we didn't have the next generation here now."
Shrinking soil management zone also play into their success.
"We're always trying to shrink our management zones, to better prescribe our fertilizer applications and build soil fertility when possible," said Kevin. "Then in lean years, that gives us the flexibility to drop down to a maintenance application. We also take the attitude that our fertilizer prescriptions follow our budgets."
Finally, doing things in-house helps the Bowmans save.
"As much as possible, we try to do everything ourselves that we can, from trucking in our inputs, to trucking out our grain, plus all of our own soil testing, fertilizer and chemical applications," said Kevin. "Part of that's just our personality, we just like a hands-on approach. But we also like being to control the whole process. Then if there are any mistakes, we know who's responsible."
The Bowmans also believe that being successful ultimately involves more than just their farming operation. The four principal operators are involved in an extensive array of community activities, including church, school and hospital boards, county council and a church plant. And this fall, Evan is going to open a new daycare service in the former Lafontaine Elementary School.
"As we look around here, everything really is just material 'stuff,' that could be gone overnight," said Kyle. "And in a couple of generations, we'll probably be all forgotten. But the impact we can have in our community can last not only through my kids' generation, but throughout eternity."
For lunch and the afternoon session, the tour moved north of Wabash to the McKillip Farms, home of AgVenture McKillip Seeds. The McKillip family got into the seed business in 1934 when Alvin McKillip grew a three-acre plot of seed corn for Indiana Farm Bureau. In 1935, he began selling McKillip Seeds.
Leadership in the company is now shared between the third and fourth generations of the family. Although significant organizational and product changes have taken place in the past 84 years, the company is still entirely owned by the McKillip family, and its heart is still the seed business.
Today, the McKillips produce seed corn, soybeans, and wheat. They also raise some commercial corn and tomatoes.
"While we've had our ups and downs over the years, we feel we're at a good place now, although we're having some growing pains," said third-generation Dennis McKillip, company vice president, during a group interview.
One big change that's taken place was in 2006, when McKillip Seeds made the strategic decision to join the AgVenture network. Troy McKillip, Dennis' son, said that in 2004, genetically-modified traits entered the seed market, and suddenly the product mix needed to become much more complex.
In order to stay competitive, the McKillips decided to join the AgVenture network. AgVenture is made up of 26 independent local or regional seed companies, which in total, have a presence in over 90 percent of the national seed corn acres.
"This family's intensely independent, but plugging into AgVenture allowed us to still be locally owned, while enabling us to deliver a really diverse product lineup that fits our customer base in our primary area in Indiana, western Ohio, and lower Michigan," said Troy. "It also allowed us to be able to trade hybrids with some of the other 26 dealers, if each of us had a product that would be beneficial to the other's customers."
Another key change came about ten years ago, when the McKillips decided to exit the hog business. With the buildings needing replaced and the younger generation having no interest in raising hogs, that enterprise was eliminated. Shortly after, Red Gold came knocking and asked if the McKillips would be interested in growing tomatoes.
"It seemed like it would be a great fit for us, that would make us more diverse," said Dennis.
He said that had in fact been the case on both counts. Tomatoes fit nicely into a window of time with their other crops, and it helped them to utilize employee time more effectively. However, they discovered that growing a specialty crop also had a steep learning curve.
"Diversification will definitely pay off over time, but it was a challenge and we learned a lot," said Dennis. "You need to study before you get into it, be flexible, and be willing to put in some extra time."
As the third McKillip generation looks ahead to retirement, the company has recently gone through some succession planning. Dennis said they think they have a good plan and have confidence in the next generation, but he emphasized the importance of going through the process.
"You can't just say 'I'm done," and walk away," he said. "You have to do your planning ahead of time, and be willing to talk with your financial advisors and lawyers."
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