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Terry Kastens >> Olsen Custom Farms
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Terry Kastens

November 18, 2005

Folks:

This letter comes as a reference for Chad Olsen, who I understand has been nominated for receipt of the next Top Producer of the Year Award. I am an agricultural economics professor at Kansas State University and a farmer in northwest Kansas. I have known Chad for around seven years, as a client, customer, and friend.

I and a colleague of mine coordinate a financial analysis and benchmarking program for custom harvesters across the U.S., coined CHAMP. Chad was among the early ones to recognize the potential benefits of a program such as CHAMP, not just in word but in deed. He never once whined, as others were prone to do, regarding the time and effort required of extracting meaningful information from specifically his harvesting business. And, that was despite his operation being even more multi-faceted than the typical harvesting operation, involving not only custom harvesting and farming, but also commercial trucking, a cattle operation, and custom farming. Moreover, his desire to improve his business through our efforts carried immediately past the CHAMP program, when he had my colleague and me to come to his home in Minnesota to analyze his operation and its potential improvement. Then, it extended further when he hired full-time one of our masters degree graduates. Through all of this his quest was the same, to make his business better.

My brother and I, in our farming operation, rented combines from Chad on several occasions. This was always a wonderful experience from our standpoint. The combines, though used, operated essentially flawlessly. All negotiations at the end of the day were always most pleasant. Taken together, these things pointed to Chad�s incessant desire to meet the customer�s needs, a trait that I highly value as an economist.

It is hard to think about Chad without noting that he is innovative. He drove combines hundreds of miles from stop to stop when others used fancy and expensive trailers to move them about. Why? Because at the time it made good economic sense! He was among the first harvesters to recognize the economic merit of renting combines out to farmers rather than providing only custom harvesting services. Not surprisingly, others soon followed suit. Again, as an economist, I highly admire innovative people; they are not only profitable, but extremely fun to be around.

After the myriad economic accolades, I saved the best to last. That is, I view Chad as a friend. That means Chad is most agreeable to be around, not only for me, but for all those he comes in contact with. Despite little face-to-face contact with Chad, all of my farming family immediately think of Chad as �just one more friend of our family.� That means we heard about it when he had another kid. It means we can trust him without abandon. Despite being an avid number cruncher myself, I firmly believe that tomorrow�s successful farms are as much about close personal and business relationships as they are about number crunching. Since Chad has a head start on many in this regard, I have no doubt that he will be among tomorrow�s successful farms. He has not been and will never be a mere flash in the pan!

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention Chad�s wife. She is among the loveliest ladies I know. She was as comfortable teaching school as she is raising the family and being engaged in the whole business operation. Like Chad, she�s easy going, not one to let life�s unpleasantries stifle her happiness. All in all, of the numerous successful agricultural business persons I work with on a daily basis in my job and on my farm, I would be hard pressed to come up with a guy more deserving of the Top Producer of the Year Award than Chad Olsen. If you need any further input, don�t hesitate to call me at 785-532-5866 or email me at tkastens@ksu.edu.

Sincerely,

Terry Kastens, PhD Agricultural Economics