A Day In The Life of A Farmer (A View From The Office)

A lot of folks think of farming as hard labor out in the dirt, under the hot sun with a rake in hand. And sometimes it is that—that or stacking hay, installing fences, digging holes, cutting down trees, moving cows, transporting chickens, assisting with the birth of new piglets. But there’s a more hidden side to modern farming, and that is the handling of logistics and paperwork. In our particular case, I (Jerica) do most of the office work, and Matt, with the help of whatever current employees/interns we have with us, does most of the physical labor and day-to-day animal chores.

So what paperwork-related tasks has a farmer to do? Here’s a short list for starters:

1. Track payroll tax and file and pay monthly.
2. Track state-by-state egg wholesaling and pay corresponding taxes each month or quarter.
3. Pay bills.
4. Track inventory of items like label stickers, egg cartons, and cashbox change, purchasing more as needed.
5. Answer phone calls and emails.
6. Update website and publish newsletters to keep folks informed of what we’re up to.
7. Track orders and coordinate deliveries.
8. Stay on top of licensing requirements, tax reporting requirements, etc.
9. Pay employee(s).
10. Balance checkbooks, handle banking, and update budget. 
11. Keep books (such a short description, but such a time-consuming task!).
12. Meet with on-farm customers and conduct farm tours.
13. Design and produce advertising items, like signs, flyers, business cards, etc.
14. Plan meat processings (track sales of various cuts, and have animals processed according to customer preferences).
15. Feed Matt, the kids, and our current farm hands.

Jointly, Matt and I spend a lot of time making financial decisions. Sometimes you just have to run the numbers to see what makes the most sense as far as avoiding losing money, like buying a particular kind of fence post or choosing venues to sell off older animals. We run lots of complex calculations (boy, does that engineering background come in handy!) to make sure we’re doing what is best for the growth and long-term vitality of Shady Grove Ranch. Sometimes the answer is intuitive. Much of the time it is not.

But back to the paperwork discussion (hopefully you weren’t too bored already).

The paper-side is pretty much a full time job, so I am glad there are two of us to handle the bulk of operations. Matt does most of the “farm work,” and I do most of the “office work.” The most challenging parts of my job are trying to stay organized and allocating time to tasks according to importance (did I mention that it’s also a challenge to balance being a mom and wife with having a 60+ hour/week job??).

Sometimes there are things that HAVE to get done before anything else, even though they’re not directly related to the week’s task goals, and those things take away from the long list of things I would hope to have accomplished by Friday. Examples include computer problems, paper jams, website glitches, bureaucratic hang-ups, etc. That’s true in the field, too. Burst pipes, fallen trees, broken-down equipment—all are detractors from the tasks at hand. Over time, you learn to budget them into the schedule because they WILL happen, and work can never proceed in any industry without at least a few hiccups. That’s motherhood to a tee!

My favorite task in the office is not related to a particular aspect of “my job,” but more the feeling of getting a task done and checked off the list on time. I don’t mind data entry if it means I will have faster access to necessary information; I enjoy sprucing up the website and seeing the finished work; I enjoy getting feedback on articles written or newsletters sent; these all have to do with setting out do finish something and actually doing that. Perhaps I most enjoy thinking up new ways of tackling old problems and speeding up my productivity so I can do things that are more farm-involved and fun, such as getting out to snap photos of farm projects or developing new and interesting recipes using our products.

Sometimes I wish we were back in the “olden days” where there was no IRS and no bureaucratic hoops to jump through, no payroll tax, websites, power outages, empty toner cartridges, or blue screens of death. I suppose there are advantages to every era (and I do so love plumbing and electricity), but sometimes bureaucracy and the required technology that accompanies it is just too much. Take this kooky story:

Now that we have a year-round, full-time employee, the rules change for how we have to pay payroll tax (the rules will change again if ever we have 3 or more employees!). We are now required to pay the tax online, so a few weeks before the deadline for payment this year, I set out to enroll in the system. I applied online but had to wait for a by-mail PIN to arrive before I could use the online system to pay my tax due.

A few business days later, a letter arrived, but it wasn’t my PIN. It was a rejection letter stating that my application didn’t match IRS records. No details, just a simple one-liner rejecting my enrollment attempt and listing a help phone number. The deadline looming closer, I called my CPA to see what could be done. She said she could get approved within 48 hours, so she, too, applied. After 48 hours, the same rejection letter arrived.

I called the help number on the letter and waited 30 minutes for someone to answer my call. When a woman finally did, she seemed confused about where I got this particular number (the “business solutions” line). She said I actually needed to call the payment system help number and gave me that one. I called and waited “only” about 15 minutes this time. Finally, a worker answered and told me that the problem was that my business name in the IRS system is not “Shady Grove Ranch” (as originally filed with our county), but actually “Cadman Partnership.” OK… Good to know that we have an alter ego with the IRS. From there, I got enrolled, got the tax paid on time, and checked it off my list.

That done, I could move on to the next to-do-list item: Get our Texas Egg Wholesale License so we could legally sell eggs to health food stores in Texas. I had sent my application about a month before we anticipated needing it (the hens were still recovering from their molt and we didn’t have enough eggs to sell to stores yet). I hadn’t heard back after around 3 weeks, and our egg inventory was starting to build. Since they had already cashed my application check fee, I called to see why I hadn’t received word back yet.

I talked to one lady who seemed confused about why my application hadn’t come back down from “upstairs” yet. I was transferred to another man who told me that they couldn’t find my business listed with the state comptroller. I explained that I am not required to be registered with the comptroller. He said I had to be registered in order to get an egg license.

I was shocked. So I can do business in 1000 other ways in the state of Texas, but to sell eggs to a retailer, I have to pay $300 and start filing yet ANOTHER meaningless yearly tax form JUST to sell eggs? I said it didn’t make sense and that the TX egg law statutes mentioned nothing about having a state tax ID in order to get a license. He suggested I call the comptroller. So I did.

The lady there told me that I was indeed registered with the comptroller (I was??), and after verifying lots of information to make sure I was who I said I was, she explained that my “Ag Exemption” number is, in fact, my state tax ID number (news to me!), and that my business name was neither “Shady Grove Ranch,” nor “Cadman Partnership,” but actually “Matthew Cadman and Jerica Cadman.” We now had a third identity!

This information in hand, I called back to the TX Ag Department, but this one was delayed by a “late opening” due to the ice storms. Another call a few hours later, during which I told the representative the information I had received from the Comptroller, and he repeated back to me, “OK, so the business name is ‘Matthew and Jerica Cadman?’”

No! It’s “Matthew Cadman and Jerica Cadman.” All spelled out! Don’t ask me where they came up with that one. I was starting to feel like our official business names get pulled out of a hat! Once he had this bit of information, the worker was instantly able to find my record and issue my license. Why they couldn’t just search by the ID number, I do not know… I thought that was what computers were good for. Still, I am glad we got through the rigmarole. Now we’re all licensed up and ready to sell to Texas stores. Another day in the life of a farmer. And that’s just my day job! I’m also a full-time mommy and wife! More on that later…