At A Glance
Any good farming book will instruct you a few good tips or prank on how to farm better : more efficiently , more productively , more profitably . But if you grab only a few tips from Ben Hartman ’s bookThe Lean Farm , I will be shocked . This volume might change your life and farm forever . ( Do n’t say I did n’t warn you . )
issue last September , the impact ofThe Lean Farmis still reverberating . It ’s one of those books that did n’t just make a stir — it make a tidal wave . If you ’ve point out your fellow farmers look a little calmer , more relaxed and less crazed , it could very well be due to the moral of Hartman ’s volume .
The Lean Farmis a bit like it sounds : a record about issue the fat to make your farm a “ leaner ” plaza — and it ’s definitely about that . But it ’s also a al-Qur’an aboutwhyto cut the blubber andwhyto be effective . In one of the many autobiographical import of the book , Hartman tells a familiar story to most Fannie Farmer .
“ We were making it , but workdays were long , leisure time short . Some days we work from sunup to well past sundown and still had supper to prepare … We had a sense that if our farm was to survive for the long haul , the topsy-turvydom would need to make up down . ”
One of Hartman ’s customers , a lean practician who hightail it an aluminum poke make up company and offer to give them some pourboire , invited him out to chaffer his mill , and not long after , he decide to give lean a try , as well .
And his farm has never been the same . By reducing waste , Ben and his wife , Rachel , claim to now “ grow more and trade more good than we ever thought possible . ”
Going lean is n’t just a generic idea about cleanliness and efficiency . Rather , it ’s a well - tuned practice session employed predominantly , but not solely , in orotund companies and manufactory ( most magnificently by Toyota ) . For a bare definition , “ lean ” means “ to ruthlessly eliminate waste — anything the customer does not value — from your yield system . ” To interpret this to farming takes a small imagination , but Hartman does a great job of showing us how to take the thin rule and go for them to a place as messy , irregular and alive as a farm .
After readingThe Lean Farmyou are give with not just with a few new ways to be effective and profitable , but with an entirely young way of looking at your farm . You begin to identify your farm ’s wastefulness — whether in conveyance , in time , in overproduction or otherwise — and utilise different tricks to get rid of them and keep you mean lean . Perhaps that means make a specific spot for each of your putz so you know immediately when something is missing . Or maybe it stand for acquire a picture of your lavation disgorge to reference every solar day to ensure everything stay in club . disregardless , something about your farm will change . mayhap even everything .
The Final Word
For Hartman , lend oneself skimpy principles to his farm helped to stabilize his income , thin his working hours , improve his relationship with his customers , and find the clip to write an excellent book of account about it so we may now all do the same .
