By Lee Hart
Grainews staff
Farming and working with family members requires good communications, says a central Alberta producer.
The option may be to build your farming operation yourself and work alone, says Kevin Bender, who farms with his brother and father near Bentley, Alta., west of Red Deer.
“But there are clear advantages if you can work co-operatively and farm together,” he says. “You can share equipment and manpower and there is also a real satisfaction having a family unit work together as a team. But you have to have open and honest communications with each other.”
Bender, who crops about 3,600 acres of cereals, canola and pulses, told producers attending the 2008 FarmTech Conference in Edmonton that he and his brother and father are sole proprietors, each owning land and equipment separately.
While they remain as sole proprietors, they had a more formal planning meeting in the fall of 2007 to discuss an arrangement to keep farming together. While assets are owned separately, they pool their resources to farm as a unit.
“It may sound a little bit socialist, but actually we are all ‘warm-blooded’ capitalists,” he says. “Unless we each want to set out to finance our own individual operations, this makes good economic sense.”
The Benders basically run three farming operations with two lines of equipment, which is a considerable cost savings.
“One of the important aspects of making this work is that we look at what work needs to be done for the group, rather than look at our individual needs,” he says. “So if we’re planning the seeding schedule or combining schedule, for example, it is based on what is ready to go first, regardless of whose farm it is.”
Another important feature is to appoint a farm manager. For the Bender family, Kevin’s brother Mike was chosen farm manager.
“We all have equal input into a discussion or issues, but if a decision has to be made, then the final decision rests with Mike,” says Bender. “We feel it is important to have the manager role, and we all are accepting of his decision. We all have common interests and common goals, and it makes the operation run smoother, and to be honest it’s less stressful.”