Story by Joann Pipkin, Photos by Elise Luebbering
Equity. One little word that Dylan Burns calls the biggest obstacle he had to overcome when he started farming.
“When you’re young, all you have is a strong back and dreams,” Dylan says. “You don’t own anything.”
A decade ago, Dylan was like many young, beginning farmers across the state. He had big dreams. Today, he still does. But, to get his feet off the ground in agriculture, he first had to build some equity.
Blessings from disaster Dylan was raised in the rolling hills of Barry County, southwest of Purdy, where poultry and cows fill the horizon. He was accustomed to working on the farm and even helped run the family’s poultry operation in 2012 after graduating high school.
With two semesters of college under his belt, though, Dylan knew college wasn’t for him. An opportunity arose for him to run the family’s poultry operation full-time, so he returned to the farm.
Dylan and his wife, Emma, married in 2016 and found themselves amid tough times as they worked toward purchasing the farm from his father while growing the operation. While Emma worked full-time off the farm, Dylan looked for other ways to make income for their family.
“That’s when I got started auctioneering,” Dylan says. “We really needed some way to make a profit, and that’s also when we got started in the cattle industry.”
At one point, the operation included a 250-head cow/calf operation and about 1,000 rented acres.
But in 2019, that would all change. After a tornado flattened two of the farm’s older poultry houses, the couple made the decision to move forward with rebuilding and continue their plan to purchase his dad’s farm. The goal was easier said than done, however.
“To create more cash flow, you have to figure out how to make your day more profitable,” Dylan explains.
The couple rented land, managed cow/calf and broiler operations. Emma worked off the farm. Dylan worked auctions both during the week and on weekends.
“We were just trying to get as much cashflow in as we could so we could keep us going until the farm was sustainable on its own.”
As fate would have it, the 2019 tornado created opportunity for the young farm couple to establish the equity they needed to sustain their farm business.
“When the tornado came through, it allowed us to consolidate some debt to be able to purchase land at a price that was advantageous to us going forward,” Dylan explains. “It also helped generate cash flow because we were able to get some of those older loans paid off, and when we refinanced, we had lower interest rates. So, that really helped with the cashflow of the operation.”
Charting the Course
When Dylan decided to come home to farm, he recalls his father being adamant about understanding how money works and that it would be difficult for him to work himself into a profit.
“Essentially, he meant that I wasn’t going to work harder to make money,” Dylan says. “He wanted me to learn how to make money work for me.”
In following his father’s advice, one of the first things Dylan did was purchase a set of open heifers. He wrote a business plan and delivered it to FCS Financial. He was already familiar with their services as his father was a long-time member.
Dylan’s operating loan with FCS Financial worked as planned until the cattle market crashed in 2016.
“We took those heifers that were intended to be sold as breds and turned them into cows,” Dylan says. “That was a great lesson on how to make your money work. Don’t do something just because that was your plan. Do something that makes sense in the long run.”
Over the years, the young farmer has transitioned his cow/calf operation to backgrounding as he focuses on flexibility throughout the farm business.
Today, Dylan runs the stockers alongside a contract poultry operation which Emma now manages by working full-time on the farm. Dylan continues to auctioneer as their schedule allows. The couple finds their farm business works well as they raise their three children —Jace, 13; Baylor, 7; and Steely, 2.
Through it all, Dylan remains appreciative of FCS Financial’s willingness to listen to his dreams and help him achieve them —especially when the tornado sent
the young farm couple back to the drawing board on their future.
“It forced us into a situation of wondering how we would survive without an income while we rebuilt everything,” Dylan says.
In the end, the equity the young couple had earned was paired with their insurance settlement to build their present home and poultry houses. “Everything had to line up perfectly,” Dylan says.
While some lending institutions shy away from financing poultry farms, Dylan says FCS Financial has stood beside them through the highs and lows of the business.
“I think it’s really important to have a lender that trusts you and that you can trust,” Dylan says. “Years ago, lenders were telling poultry farmers to find alternative financing. I don’t want to have to worry about that. You must work with a lender you can trust 100%.”
According to FCS Financial’s Beth Luebbering, relationships are a key part of the lender’s business model.
“I truly feel like we build a relationship with the young, beginning farmers coming to FCS Financial,” she says. “I feel like Dylan and Emma are a testament to that. We’re there to back them. It brings to the table for us the fact that they can go out and share their experiences with their peers. Then, it allows us to have better rapport among those young, beginning farmers so hopefully they know they can come to us to help build their future.”
Luebbering goes on to say that the relationship she’s built with the Burns is rewarding, especially seeing them succeed. She’s worked with and watched Dylan build his farm business from being a single man out of high school to now being married with a young family.
“The best day of my career is when a customer pays off a loan,” she adds. “I feel like I’ve built a relationship with them beyond just sitting behind the desk because we can call each other and ask questions and talk open.”
Dylan says as his operation has grown and diversified, it’s important to focus more on expenses and costs per day.
“You need to be able to look it up and not have to worry about keeping track of all of that,” he says. “FCS Financial’s Young, Beginning Farmer program really puts a lot of emphasis on tracking your numbers and knowing them.”
As part of FCS Financial’s Connect Program, which is designed specifically for young and beginning farmers, Dylan and Emma take part in networking
opportunities that provide essential tools to help operations like theirs thrive. From specialized loans featuring flexible credit to educational opportunities designed to sharpen financial and business skills as well as supportive outreach, Connect can provide direct channels for young farmers to share their voice with the cooperative’s leadership.
“You get to hear a lot of different perspectives,” Dylan says of the networking opportunities they have taken part in. “We are still in contact with several people from the Connect program.”
This fall, the Burns also took part in the Farm Credit’s Fly-in to Washington, D.C. The networking opportunity sent the couple face-to-face with Missouri legislators to share first-hand accounts of how a strong Farm Bill might affect Missouri’s farmers, ranchers and the rural economy.
Top of mind for the Burns: rising health insurance premiums forfarmers. “Insurance premiums have gotten really out of balance,” Dylan says. “That’s a long uphill fight, but it’s something that all farmers are seeing.”
Farming with flexibility
While diversity has merit in farming, Dylan is quick to point out that it’s easy to get too many eggs in the basket and spread yourself
too thin.
“Sometimes you have to rein in your capital and focus it into a couple of different situations,” he says. “We ran into that to where we were running in 50 different directions, but we were going no place at all. We just ran circles.”
Dylan says that was a learning curve for them as they realized, “We’re not Superman. We can’t do it all so we just must do what we
can really good.”
He’s quick to credit FCS Financial in helping provide wisdom and guidance in that regard, as well. Dylan says Luebbering’s leadership in reconsolidating that capital was key in focusing their farm business.
“You have to be flexible,” Burns says. “We learned early on that flexibility was going to have to be the name of our operation. To this day, we’re still flexible.”
