Early in 1998 CHAMP was begun through the joint efforts of USCHI and two Ph.D. agricultural economists at Kansas State University, Terry Kastens and Kevin Dhuyvetter. The first economic analysis covered the 1997 grain harvest. Analysis of the 2008 harvest marked year 12 of the program for grain harvesters. CHAMP solicits information about your business that, when combined with information from other harvesters, provides important cost and revenue benchmarks.
CHAMP is managed and operated by a small economic and agronomic consulting firm called AgAnalysis+, L.L.C., which has Kastens and Dhuyvetter as members.
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Business Address:
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AgAnalysis+ 1808 Cedar Crest Dr. Manhattan, KS 66503 |
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Web Address:
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www.aganalysisplus.com |
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People:
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Terry Kastens (785) 626-9000 terrykastens@agecon.ksu.edu |
| Kevin Dhuyvetter (785) 532-3527 kcd@ksu.edu |
Short Run: Help you compare your costs, as an individual business, with the custom harvesting industry's costs (or with relevant subsets of the industry, such as by region or by crop specialty).
Long Run: Enhance the effectiveness of your lobbyists in Washington (when the survey achieves sufficient coverage to make it representative of your industry).
Making money is not as simple as knowing your costs and charging slightly more to garner a profit. If your costs are especially high for the services you provide, the cost-plus-markup process will mean you don't get jobs - you've priced yourself out of the market. If your costs are especially low, you don't maximize profits as you leave money on the table - you could be charging more. Rather, long-run profitability is about being a low-cost operator for the services you render in terms of $/acre, $/bushel, or $/ton. But, to do that you need to know your costs relative to others, especially for specific categories, so that you can focus your efforts to continually improve management.
Each participating business gets a member report showing how it stands relative to the group as a whole as well as numerous charts showing trends over time. An example of that report (pdf format) from the 2008 year can be downloaded below. Notice that individual cost categories are reported so participants can see where best to focus management to increase profits. All individual numbers are strictly confidential - viewed only by Dhuyvetter and Kastens.
Each participating business also receives a detailed written and illustrated report that generalizes information gathered in the surveys. Previous years' reports are available as pdf file downloads above. Typically, at USCHI's Annual Meeting, Dhuyvetter and Kastens have provided a presentation and discussion around this report to those interested.
Also, Dhuyvetter and Kastens typically have met with most CHAMP members individually for 30 minutes at USCHI's Annual Meeting each year. This setting allows the K-State duo to better understand individual harvesting businesses and answer individual firm management questions. These one-on-one meetings have been viewed quite favorably by CHAMP members in previous years.
As only a sample, evidence has emerged that CHAMP has helped harvesters with loan negotiations (agricultural lenders are comfortable analyzing farms but lack information about custom harvesting businesses) and with negotiating harvesting rates charged farmers when yields and crop prices are low (your operation's costs don't fall when crop prices are low).
Custom harvesting firms that pay the required fees and return the informational survey forms in a timely manner are considered CHAMP members - for that harvest year. Kastens and Dhuyvetter have agreed to conduct the 2009 harvest year CHAMP program for grain harvesters for the following compensation: $9,000 fixed charge plus $250 per CHAMP member. Case-IH is covering the $9,000 fixed charge for 2009, USCHI covered the $9,000 fixed charge in 2008, AGCO covered the $8,700 fixed charge in 2005-2007 and John Deere covered it prior to that. USCHI has agreed to cover $75 of the $250 participant charge - for any CHAMP members who are also USCHI members. The $250 CHAMP membership fee for the 2009 harvest year ($175 if you are a USCHI member) should be remitted with your completed survey forms - as a check payable to AgAnalysis+.
Historically, a USCHI advisory committee has existed to ensure that the CHAMP program meets the goals of its participants, to serve as a liaison between program participants and USCHI, and to help answer questions arising from Kastens and Dhuyvetter or from prospective program participants. Information about the CHAMP advisory committee, for example, whether it is active and who its members are, can be obtained from the USCHI office. More importantly, contact with individual past CHAMP members generally is the best way to learn about CHAMP. If you are new and want to talk to someone, please contact USCHI’s president or Dhuyvetter or Kastens.