Farm-ergencies
It’s 60 days until its time to fire up the new parlor! You still have lots of time to tie up some unplanned details, so no worries…. right?
You have to decide which way to go on ventilation fans. You only need 20 fans for the parlor so you should be able to get them to the farm in less than a month. You call your dealer to order them and find out that the fan you need for your parlor is 12 weeks from delivery. Screeech. Queue Panic. You are not alone. It’s not uncommon to have everything planned out to 90%, but It’s that last 10% that always seems to get us isn’t it?
Farm planning is different now.
It’s not always something like fans for the parlor. It could be a pump that the dealer normally has on hand, but you call with 2 two weeks until its absolutely needed to find out there is a single part on that pump that’s been on back order and won’t be able to be at the farm for 20 days.
Unfortunately, delays aren’t just for new builds. I recently met a dairyman who had made the decision to add soaking for cow cooling last winter, but waited until April to put in the order. A lot of other farms had apparently made the same decision as he was told it would be twelve weeks to get the material and another two weeks for install. So, its now late June, 85 degrees with 45% humidity and the soakings not going yet.
How can you avoid these Farm-emergencies? Well, the obvious advice is to purchase what you need today, and not tomorrow. But there are ways to make that a little less painful if you are wanting to hold on to capital until the material is close.
Most companies are willing to work with farms on terms to help avoid these costly delays.
It may be four months before you need your product, but that may be the perfect time to order those items. Does that mean you have to forward all the cost of that project and not benefit from that purchase until those four months down the road is here? Not necessarily. If it’s six months prior to starting your parlor, a lot of capital is likely moving to get the project completed by the target date. As you go though your project, call up your rep early and explain that you want to get these fans off your check list of items to order, but that you’re not ready to spend all the capital for them as you don’t need them on the farm for 5 months. Your rep may be able to work with you on your down payment and delivery payment terms that works best for you and your project. So now, you’ve got more items checked off your order list, did not have to use much capital at time of order, and you can have them on farm at the time you want them, not early, not late. Your dealer or sales rep can be a massive asset during the farm planning process. You may be surprised at all of the ways they can support you to get the job done in time, on budget and with a lot less of those “Farm-ergencies”.
