HAPPY NEW YEAR! As the calendar year 2022 begins (New Year, same person, revised foci), I plan multiple pivots – one of which is blogging. (The term “pivot” will be the topic of an upcoming blog.) Beginning now makes me wish I had started years ago; perhaps most of my egregious mistakes would be past. Oh well, you play from “where the monkey drops the ball”. (I will try to remember to relay the story behind that phrase sometime – it is pertinent to business as well as everyday life.)

In this initial blog, I will merely introduce myself and my background. Hopefully this information will help in determining whether you should “give two shakes of a rat’s tail” what this “Ag Econ guy” has to say.

I will only summarize here. The more dry/detailed narrative can be found on the “About” page of my website https://www.morganagconsulting.com/about. Additionally, my Vitae can be found at https://www.morganagconsulting.com/vitae.

Everyone’s time is valuable; I will always try to be succinct. I’m Russell D. Morgan. I was raised on a dairy/tobacco/beef/grain farm in North Middle Tennessee. When I was very young, we even raised/killed our own hogs and chickens. If you haven’t participated in an old-fashioned hog killing on the first cold day of the year or wrung a chicken’s neck and plucked said chicken’s feathers, have you even lived. Ok, you don’t have to answer that.

I earned my BS in Agricultural Economics from the University of TN-Knoxville (almost double-majored in Animal Science as well) with a focus on Dairy Farm Management. I earned my MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of TN-Knoxville with a focus on Farm Mgt/Managerial Economics. I am a Certified Agricultural Consultant through the American Society of Agricultural Consultants (ASAC).

I have lived in eight decades. I have worked in the farm business consulting arena 35+ years. Paraphrasing a TV commercial's tag phrase, "I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two." That said, NEVER confuse experience with wisdom. Experience is having walked over hot coals and finding they burned your feet; wisdom is knowing how to avoid the path that takes you across those hot coals. I pride myself in being an independent thinker – I hesitate to use the term “critical thinker” anymore as the term’s meaning has seemingly transitioned in recent years. I sometimes differ in opinion with those offered by “Titans in Ag Economic Thought” while always respecting them. I follow no “pack” and actively combat “Group Think” by (what I hope is) objective analysis.

Future blogs will primarily focus on:

• Managerial Economics/Farm Business Management

• Farm Business Analysis

• The Ag Economy/Ag Policy

• Farm Peer Groups (Versus Discussion Groups)

• Farm Boards of Trusted Advisors

• Perhaps sundry BS topics sprinkled in throughout.

I welcome feedback, and rational discourse.

May your 2022 be filled with good family & animal health, early adequate degree days, timely rains, late frost/snow and excellent prices.