Episode 4: Jack of All Trades: Pig and Crop Farming

Up this week is Marlin Hartzler, pig and crop farmer, to share the story behind his operation with our listeners. Marlin tells us about the importance of making wise investment decisions, striving for growth, and finding mentors. 

Transcript

Iris Peters:

Welcome to the AgBiz Cast, where we share inspiring stories of young, beginning and small farmers. Listen to hear from our Agbiz Masters Graduates about their farming operations and advice for those looking to start their own business.

Iris Peters:

My name is Iris Peters. And with me today is Marlin Hartzler owner and operator of The Zones, pig and crop farm and AgBiz Masters Graduate. Marlin, thank you for joining me today.

Marlin Hartzler:

Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Iris Peters:

Yes. Thank you. We'll go ahead and get started with our questions. So the first question I have for you, Marlin, could you just tell us about your operation, some of its history and how you got started with it?

Marlin Hartzler:

I bought my grandparents' dairy farm in 2007. I'm the fourth generation on the farm. It was dairy up until I bought it. We started milking 26 cows. That's what was here when we bought it. And we raised corn and alfalfa and sold the milk. And in 2016, by 2016, we had approximately doubled our herd size. We were milking 50 cows and we made the decision to sell the cows and get into hog farming. We put up a finisher barn and we started raising hogs in 2018. And so that's what we're currently doing now, raising corn and beans and wheat as a cash crop and my wife and I and five children are the primary operators of the farm.

Iris Peters:

Great. Thank you for sharing. So next question. Why do you enjoy farming and operating in agricultural business and what inspires you to stay in that business?

Marlin Hartzler:

That's a tough question. It changes all the time. I enjoy working with family. I enjoy working with the kids and my wife. I think family operations are slowly getting phased out, I enjoy working with the family. I enjoy being part of the supply of the food chain. I think it's important to have a sustainable food chain to feed the world and I enjoy being part of that.

Iris Peters:

Great, good answer. So what was the biggest challenge in taking over your family business, whenever you first got started with it?

Marlin Hartzler:

Looking back on it, I just shake my head sometimes at how naive I was, what a kid I was when we started, if I had to pinpoint it, I would say management skills and finances were the two things that I was not prepared for when we took over.

Iris Peters:

Definitely. So this is a kind of a tough question. I know a lot of people always laugh whenever I ask this, but if you want to share with us, what has been your favorite memory from the farm business over the past years?

Marlin Hartzler:

I would have to say working with family and the kids, watching them interact with the animals. We don't have some beef cows yet. So watching them interact with the animals, learning life skills and just being able to pass on my knowledge to them and being able to see the... Not necessarily even a tradition, but just to see the next generation coming on and being able to take on the vision.

Marlin Hartzler:

I would say one of the most satisfying aspects of it is paying off the piece of equipment or something that you've had on payments. You need a piece of equipment on the farm, and so you decide what you want, you put it on payments and then you're working on it, you're working on it. And then that final payment is... That's a very satisfactory feeling.

Iris Peters:

Yeah. I'm sure that definitely feels good. And now you talk about your kids. How old are they? Are they getting older now that they're interested in working with you or are they still younger?

Marlin Hartzler:

They're still younger. The oldest is nine, the youngest is one. So some days it's more work than help, but it's enjoying. It's enjoyable, I enjoy it. And it's surprising how much they can help at this age and the interest they show and the questions they ask. And it's just fun teaching them.

Iris Peters:

Yeah. You can never start them too early, start them young. So with talking about your children and everything, what do you envision for the future of the farm?

Marlin Hartzler:

I don't know that changes too, I would like to see my children take over the farm, but that's not my main goal. My goal is to invest wisely. That's something that I learned the hard way before AgBiz, invest wisely when you have the opportunity to grow, but don't do it when you're going to sacrifice your existing business plan. Growth is the ultimate goal I think, but you have to be smart about it in order to make it successful.

Iris Peters:

Definitely. So as an AgBiz Masters Graduate, and we'll get into this a little just now, but in your own words, what does AgBiz Masters teach young, beginning farmers like yourself?

Marlin Hartzler:

It teaches good financial management and the importance of record keeping that was the other thing that I had to learn the hard way. If you don't keep records at the end of a year, you don't know what you did and what you did wrong and what you did right. So that was one thing that helped us tremendously was keeping detailed records of everything because you can go back and benchmark against yourself when you have that to go back to. But if you don't keep records, you don't know if you're going backwards or forwards.

Iris Peters:

Definitely. Yeah. Very important. So with the record keeping and things that you learned from AgBiz, what changes did you see after in your operation? After completing the program?

Marlin Hartzler:

Being able to look at the operation from a numbers point of view, not necessarily, this is the way we always did it because that's actually a large part of being able to sell the cows. We sold the cows in 2016 when milk price was good. Cow prices were good. It felt like a crazy thing to do, but the numbers didn't lie and It pushed us out of our comfort zone. But being willing to look at the numbers and follow the numbers, you won't regret it because they don't lie. And you have to follow the numbers.

Iris Peters:

Definitely. So one of the last questions I have for you here today, what piece of advice do you have for younger beginning farmers that are looking to start their own business?

Marlin Hartzler:

Take advantage of the AgBiz class, if you can. That is definitely worth your while also your wife, if she is at all interested in the farm, two is definitely better than one. What you remember, your wife will forget and vice versa and you can round each other out.

Marlin Hartzler:

The other thing that I found very helpful is building strategic business friendships. There are people who will pull you down and there are people who will build you up and make sure that you associate with the people that, how would you say? That build you up, because it will make a difference. And I have found that, time and time again, make wise friends, not just in a personal life, but even in a business life, because it does definitely affect your outcome.

Iris Peters:

Can you talk about strategic business friendships? Do you have like a mentor that you go to or just people kind of in your shoes that you just communicate with to get advice?

Marlin Hartzler:

Not a specific mentor, but, what was I going to say? I lost my thought. Oh, okay. So as a farmer, you're a Jack of all trades master of none, but there are people out there who specify in certain fields that you don't have much expertise in. Surround yourself with people who are experts in their field. They might not know much about farming, but they know the things that you're not... I guess, recognize your weaknesses and strengthen them by finding people who are better at it than you are. Because I have right up front, I have a weakness with numbers, okay.

Marlin Hartzler:

So I had to find people who are willing to not invest a ton of time, but are willing to walk beside you and answer your questions. And it can go with animal husbandry. It can go with business decisions as far as purchases and things like that. But all throughout your business, there are things you don't know that someone else does, and don't be willing to ask, because that's what makes you a better business person all around.

Iris Peters:

Well, yeah. Great answers Marlin. Thank you for joining the podcast today and sharing some stories about your own operation.

Marlin Hartzler:

Glad I can help you out.

Iris Peters:

Thank you for listening to the AgBiz Cast. To learn more about the Agbiz Masters Program, visit Agbizmasters.com or check out our Facebook page. Tune in every two weeks to hear more stories from our graduates and partners. Thanks for listening.