Meet a Corn Farmer: Chris Brundige
Chris Brundige is a fifth-generation farmer who grows corn for ethanol production in Weakley County, Tennessee.
Navigating the risks of farming
No skydiving for Chris Brundige.
He does not go on gambling trips to Las Vegas, nor has he considered bungee jumping. Growing a profitable corn crop is a risky enough venture for him.
“On the production side, one of the biggest challenges is trying to pay for it. The expenses have all grown so astronomically over the last few years that you’ve really got to sharpen your pencil to get it to pay out and to make enough money to justify it,” Brundige said. “The dollars are higher, the economy is sketchier and the weather seems to be a little bit less predictable than it used to be. It's all becoming higher risk every year.”
In general, it costs around $1,000 for the inputs required to plant corn on an acre, which is about the size of a football field without the end zones. The price of seed, land, farm equipment, nutrients, and crop protection inputs have all increased in recent years.
The fifth generation of his family on the land, Brundige works side-by-side with his father and brother, raising corn, soybeans and wheat on around 4,000 acres in Weakley County, Tennessee. There are huge stakes riding on getting their corn planted in the right conditions, at the right time.
“We've got millions of dollars on the table that is up for loss — it's a large investment,” he said.
Field work for the season gets started in February and March to prepare for planting the corn crop in early spring.
“We will likely not plant any corn until early April, at least after Easter — that's always kind of our go time,” Brundige said.
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Warm, dry conditions are important for getting corn planted. Then once the crop is up, regular rains are important, especially through the pollination period for the corn plant, which usually happens in late June or July.
“We do not have irrigation, so we can't mitigate the lack of rain. Luckily, we haven't had that problem too often in the last few years,” Brundige said. “We've been really fortunate in our area. Just a few miles north and south of us the past few years have had droughty conditions that hurt the crops, but we’ve been able to get through that. Hopefully that continues.”
From the field preparation through the final harvest, the Brundige family is always looking for ways to manage the risks of farming. They use satellite technology to minimize inputs and carefully document the performance of their corn crop. The equipment size and technology used on the farm allows the family to maximize the work they can get done in sometimes narrow windows of weather opportunity.
“We're constantly on the hunt for information on how to be better, how to minimize the risk and how to keep the farm going for the future,” he said. “Our planter, for example, has the capability of being more accurate than what we’ve had in the past, even up to twice the speeds. We're using computer programs to track costs and to watch our inventory to be sure that we're applying everything appropriately and keeping up with all the ins and outs of the business.”
Adding to the high stakes for the farm is the hope of a sixth generation one day taking over.
“I have four children and my brother has one child. It's one thing if I lose my job and I have to go find work. It's another thing if I lose my child's future. That puts another level of strain on you when you're contemplating life decisions and decisions on the family farm,” Brundige said. “So no, I do not take any chances with my life or with my money. I don't like taking risks for fun. Farming is a large investment each year to grow a crop based on an educated guess on what we're doing here. Other than farming, about the wildest thing I might do is a little four-wheeler ride.”