What’s Trending?
I think that it is one’s regular old human nature to seek out new ways of improvement. Don’t we all do that? Surely, we do. We all want solutions to problems and new tools for bettering our processes, with some strong resources to inform us along the way. Frankly, it’s plain logic to look for ways to make things better around us.
But within that can come trends. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, trends can be defined as “a line of general direction or movement.” And they can show up out of nowhere and surprise us. They can weave their way in and out of our cultures and societies. Or for that matter, they can affect our industries, such as agriculture.
And sometimes these trends can bring some negative outcomes with them. The thing that brings this negative context to me first is how trends can pop up so fast. Therefore, there’s not much time for them to be completely explored and experienced or properly vetted if you will. And this can lead to folks jumping into things before they really grasp what is going on. Which, in turn, can hurt the bottom line at the end of the day.
The next best thing will always be a part of what we’re doing with many things in life. One just needs to be cautious in their endeavors, especially when it surrounds the latest trend. I think that there can perhaps just be sometimes when we should focus on what is tried and true first. It is often spoken about around Fertrell as “The Five-Year Rule.” That is if a trend is still around after five years, then it holds real value and is worth further exploration. If it didn’t make it five years as a popular things folks use or do, then it is likely a long-gone trend to add to the list. In other words, so many things can come and go. And some of those will do so in the blink of an eye where some others may trend for a few years before they disappear.
One trend I think is a good example of this is grain sprouting. This may have been eight or ten years ago now that this was a popular trend. And it makes sense on paper, having something fresh and green to feed livestock all year round. I understand why it was looked at by folks at the time. However, it was not the first time people tried grain sprouting either. Fertrell’s copy of Morrison’s “Feeds and Feeding” from the 1950s, says that sprouting was tried before, and that it was shown to be inefficient back then. But it came back around again as trends can do, ultimately with the same results. From what I recall, folks could not control the air flow and temperature, and mold growth became a major issue. At the time, speakers were talking about it at meetings and companies were promoting products for it. It was highly talked about and endorsed. And to me now, it is mostly a non-existent topic.
Money is often a major factor behind driving trends as well. Somethings can come into play because there is a lot of profit to be made. And that is why the trend can be pushed so hard in the first place. For example, it is like a year I recall when cantaloupes just did really well for a few folks. They grew well and paid the same. And then that next year, the trend caught on, and all the growers put them out, but the market was flooded and the value tanked. And beyond that, the weather was different, and the melons just did not perform the same either.
A lot of momentum can build up with trends. The cycle of hype behind them can be powerful. And it can be hard not jump right in with everyone else. One more example that comes to mind is the hemp growing trend from five or six years back. This was a great example of a hugely flooded market. There was a lack of balance with how that trend all started. That whole movement seemed to crash out relatively quickly. At the time, hemp was the biggest and best thing to grow. And the hype behind it was that everyone was going to make big money fast. It sometimes simply comes back to the old cliché of it was “just too good to be true.”
It is important to remember that the next best thing for one operation might be just that. It might be that one farm found a new tool that is really benefiting their operation. But at the same time, that same new tool possibly could have opposite effects for someone else. It happens time and time again that what works for one farm just won’t work the same for the farm right down the road. Trends are specific and circumstantial to individual situations and operations. They just aren’t going to work the same for everyone in every way. Trends will inevitably work their way into what is in front of us, one way or another. This is when we look to caution and balance. Dip a toe in the water before you dive in.
