This past weekend, I took a guided tour of a farm that’s been set up as a “CRP.” (I’ll explain what that means in a moment…)
Now, I’ll be honest. Even though I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life, I know very little about farms or the country. I’m just a city boy.
But this unexpected tour I found myself on was very interesting. I didn’t understand everything the farmer/engineer named Larry was telling me. But his passion was infectious.
You see, CRP stands for a USDA program called the Conservation Reserve Program. It pays farmers who convert their land from producing crops to plants that improve environmental quality.
Larry had farmed this land for a long time but was at a point in his life where he wanted to give back to nature. So he turned his cornfield into a collection of grasses, wildflowers and other plants. All to provide a haven for pheasants, doves and other birds.
Larry drove us around and through the fields, in his Kubota. Explaining the concepts he was testing in some areas. Stopping and getting out from time to time to pull up a handful of snake grass or switch grass. Explaining what it tells him about the land and what it does for the birds.
(By the way, he doesn’t allow hunting on his property. And I wouldn’t test him on that if I were you. I’m 6′-3″ and I had to look up to talk to him…)
Here was a man near or past retirement age, who has such a thirst for knowledge and a drive to help nature. He tore down everything he knew and was familiar with (his cornfields). And started from scratch. Planting, testing and adjusting these new types of plants and learning about them as he goes.
He told us about a lot of his foibles along the way. Things he had to wait a season or two to find out didn’t work.
Others were rules the government has in place he wished he’d pushed back on. After seeing the effects the rules had on the plants and animals.
But he’s in it and he’s loving it. Learning something new every day
The best parts of this tour were when a flock of startled doves would take off in front of us, or when a group of pheasants would jump & fly out of our way.
Larry’s eyes would light up and he’d be sure we all got a chance to see them. That’s what it’s about for him.
Is there something in your marketing you need to take a hard look at and “tear down”? Rebuild it to serve a different target market? Or maybe you need to look at a different medium to deliver your messages…
It’s not easy. It isn’t always pleasant. And it can be a learning process.
But if it’s done well and for the right reasons, it can pay off 10 times over.
If you’d like help connecting with architects or others in our industry, let me know.
I’ll be your guide through the deconstruction and rebuilding process.
Make it a great marketing day!
Neil Sutton