A VIEW FROM THE FIELD HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THAT YOUR DECISIONS ARE INFORMED? Stephen and Mary Lou McKnight own and manage River-Breeze Farm in Chase Mills, N.Y., along with their son, Travis, his wife, Natalie, and their son-in-law, Steven Billing. As a strategic manager, Stephen believes in using more than his gut when it comes to making decisions for his business. For example, when faced with the choice of purchasing custom-raised heifers or raising their own, he would rather let the numbers do the talking.
“ Farm Credit East brings our business to the next level.” HOW WE HELPED For several years, Stephen and his family have worked closely with Farm Credit East consultant Mark Mapstone as part of the Dairy Benchmarks program. Not only does benchmarking allow Stephen to chart his business’s strengths and weaknesses from year to year, it also shows him where he stands in relation to the competition. “We base many of our decisions on where we stand in the industry,” he explained. “For example, we recently started raising our own heifers, based on our benchmarks report. We compared our profitability with those in the industry and worked with Mark to make a decision that was right for us.”
“ We don’t hire Mark to be our cheerleader. We want him to dig in to find our weaknesses and point out where we can advance our business. The benchmarking program is invaluable in doing this analysis.” – Stephen McKnight
Stephen McKnight, of River-Breeze Farms in Chase Mills, N.Y. When Stephen and his family are faced with difficult management decisions regarding their dairy farm, they turn to their benchmarks report for good strategy. 49