This is what it's all about... Couldn't have said it better!

I’ve become more and more convinced through the years that “just farming more acres” is no longer a complete business plan. The farm can still be the core asset. But if the entire family’s income depends on "production #agriculture" being profitable every year, the business may simply be too exposed. I think the stronger model is a farm surrounded by additional cash-flow engines — businesses, services, livestock, energy, specialty production, trucking, direct-to-consumer, whatever fits the family’s skills and assets. The goal isn’t to get distracted from farming. The goal is to make sure one bad cycle in farming doesn’t dictate every decision the family has to make. The question may no longer be, “How do we farm more?” Instead, it should be... “What else can we build around the farm that helps generate more cash-flow?”

Our "cost-of-production" doesn't obligate the market to pay us more. We're competing in global commodity markets against operations with different land costs, labor expenses, regulations, and production efficiencies. Just because producing something costs us more doesn't mean the market owes us a higher price. That reality is another reason I believe farm families need to consider additional sources of revenue—and why we bring perspectives from outside traditional agriculture into #FARMCON. You can listen to the entire FARMCON Podcast -->> vantrumpreport.com/2026/10/1…

Somebody in your family made a decision that changed everything! Maybe they left another country. Maybe they moved west. Maybe they sold everything and started farming somewhere new. Keep in mind, every family's history includes someone who made an incredibly difficult decision because the future required something different. Maybe that decision to make a "CHANGE" in our farm is now on our doorstep? We shouldn't assume our generation will simply be exempt from making those decisions. "Pick change before change picks you." That's part of the thinking we want to encourage at #FARMCON: recognizing change and opportunity before circumstances force your hand. You can listen to the entire FARMCON Podcast -->> vantrumpreport.com/2026/10/1…

$170 million in sales. Only $615,000 of outside equity. That’s the number from the JonnyPops story that caught my attention. Plenty of companies know how to grow when somebody keeps handing them capital. Far fewer learn how to make the business finance itself. #JonnyPops started with about $4,000, tested the product cheaply, rented production space, learned what customers wanted, and only then began committing serious capital. Later, they did something most food startups are told not to do. They bought manufacturing. The reason wasn’t ego. Contract manufacturers had become the constraint. Outsourcing limited quality, product differentiation and production capacity, so the company decided to own the bottleneck. Today the company reportedly generates more than $170 million in annual sales after raising only $615,000 of outside equity, relying largely on reinvested cash flow to fund the business. There are two lessons in that. Don’t own everything just because you can. And: Own the thing that becomes strategically necessary when it starts limiting your growth. That’s capital allocation!

“You don’t want to allow yourself to become comfortable being a big fish in a small pond.” Local success can become its own trap. If everyone around you tells you what you want to hear, your standards can quietly stop moving. I call it the "ass-kissing echo chamber" — being surrounded by people who validate you instead of challenging you. You can have world-class talent, but if you are swimming in the wrong pool, your opportunities and perspectives can become severely capped. That’s why I keep telling my kids to push themselves into rooms where they are the least successful ones in there. Those are the rooms that change what you see, what you think is possible, and what you do next. Big fish don’t keep growing in small ponds. That’s one of the reasons I started #FARMCON; I wanted to be around people who are much more successful than myself, people who will push me and challenge my thoughts... #grinding, #networking, #perspective

A lot of #founders and #farmers don’t have a succession problem. They have an identity problem. The business becomes who they are. That’s why stepping back feels so hard. But #legacy is not staying in the chair forever. Legacy is building something strong enough to run without you.

70% equity in your operation—and still struggling to finance the next crop. Jake Espenmiller joined me on today’s #FARMCON podcast and described that exact situation: producers with substantial equity, depleted cash reserves, and increasingly limited financing options. What concerns me is how easily rising land values can obscure that pressure. The balance sheet still looks strong, but the business has less room to maneuver. As Jake explains, that pressure can also travel. When producers depend on seed, fertilizer, and chemical suppliers to finance the crop, those suppliers take on more credit exposure. One question I think deserves more attention: How much financial flexibility does your operation actually have? Listen to the full FARMCON Podcast -->> vantrumpreport.com/2026/10/0…

#Renewable diesel may matter more for energy security than for emissions right now. Why? It can use: existing engines existing pipelines existing tanks existing fueling systems That matters in a diesel shortage. The bigger agricultural question: Does energy security become the next major source of crop demand?

My biggest concern for #agriculture isn’t a shortage of investment opportunities. It’s the upcoming competition for investment dollars. Treasuries yield ~5%. AI needs enormous capital. Energy and infrastructure are expanding. Capital has choices. The next question for ag isn’t simply: “Does this investment make money?” It’s: “Does it earn enough to beat the alternatives?” Capital has no loyalty!

If you sell into #agriculture, the most valuable thing you can know is not what your best customers bought last year. It’s what they’re getting ready to do next. Where are they putting capital? What are they worried about? What technology are they actually considering? What will change their next major purchase? That is one of the reasons we built #FARMCON. Get closer to the people making the decisions before the decisions are made. farmcon.com/

Cybersecurity on the #farm is no longer just about protecting data. It’s about protecting operations. The same types of connected controllers targeted in recent U.S. water-system attacks are also used across #agriculture to run pivots, pumps, grain dryers, ventilation, feed systems, and water delivery. If one of those systems is compromised, the result can be physical: >irrigation interrupted during heat stress >false moisture or flow readings >ventilation or feed systems disrupted >grain handling or drying shut down at the wrong time Connected equipment is making farms more efficient. It is also creating a new operating risk. If a device can control a physical process, it needs to be treated like critical farm infrastructure. Read the story behind this post... vantrumpreport.com/2026/09/2…

#FARMCON matters because the next major problem on your farm probably won’t start in a cornfield. It may start in a refinery, a data center, a bond market, a shipping lane, a laboratory, or Washington. That is the reality agriculture is operating in now. Producers and ag business owners are increasingly exposed to forces far outside the fence line—energy, capital, AI, labor, global logistics, consumer behavior, branding, and technology. Those outside forces are shaping on-farm economics whether we like it or not. That is why #FARMCON is designed the way it is. I’m not interested in creating another room where agriculture talks only to itself. I want producers, entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders in the same room learning how the outside world is changing—and what those changes mean for the decisions we make next. #FARMCON is not about predicting the future. It’s about getting closer to the people, ideas, and information that help you react faster when the future arrives. Join the conversation... farmcon.com/ January 6–7 | Kansas City

There’s plenty of money in the system. The harder question is: what structure persuades someone to hold the risk for 10 years? Short money is abundant. Collateralized, contracted and sovereign-backed money still gets funded. What’s getting expensive is unprotected long-duration risk — mortgages, speculative construction, weak corporate debt and projects without contracted cash flow. That’s how 7% mortgages can coexist with $50B–$100B AI and infrastructure projects. The capital didn’t disappear. The risk got repriced. Governments use guarantees. Companies use long-term contracts. Private credit uses collateral. Capital is not scarce. Duration is.

You can run a great operation with your head down. But you probably won't build the next version of it that way. Here's what I tell my kids — and one reason why #FARMCON is where many ag business leaders gather to look for an edge.

I keep coming back to the same concern: The #Fed can keep making it harder for the consumer to pedal. But if they push too far and the consumer finally grabs the front brake and flies over the handlebars, things can get ugly fast! That’s the part of this tightening cycle I’m watching most closely.