Eric and Kelli

How we prepared ourselves for agricultural business

(Kelli) We met 17 years ago at Iowa State University and Eric graduated with a farm studies degree. I stuck around to get my master's degree and he moved back to start farming and somehow convinced me to come with him! I like to say we raise kids, corn and cattle.

Our business approach

(Kelli) I always say don’t step over a five-dollar bill to pick up a one-dollar bill. I think FCSAmerica has been very good at helping us understand that there are times where you have to spend money to make money.

What we’ve learned

(Kelli) The time management it takes when you have a young family and you're trying to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish is a huge challenge. It's important to have a financial partner who's very flexible. Sometimes, we may have something come up with one of the kids and need to move a meeting and having a financial officer who’s in our shoes at the same time is a big help, because it's very easy for him to understand what we face as a young family.

Technology and our greatest challenge

(Eric) Our biggest challenge looking forward is keeping our agriculture-removed landowners informed about what we’re doing. Having new technology that puts information right at my fingertips that I can show to those landowners is going to help them understand our operation a lot better. The faster and more efficiently I can do something on our farm, the better, and a lot of times today, that means using new technology.

The future of our operation

(Kelli) We obviously are trying to get better every year, and having the tools from FCSAmerica to help us monitor and manage our operation is key to us taking that step forward, in good times and in bad. Having those tools and having that information at our disposal is only going to help us take steps forward instead of staying still or taking a step back.