Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1119865
36 POTATO GROWER | JUNE 2019 CAN YOU STILL CALL IT GOLF? Rules are rules, whether you like them or not. Golf is a game of rules. There are currently 34 rules, with many sub-rules—and sub-sub-rules. In addition, the USGA and R&A publish a book called Decisions on the Rules of Golf based on questions that come up in competitive play. For example, if you lose the ball in a water hazard, for your next shot you must drop the ball behind the hazard and in line with the ball's flight when it entered the water, but you must take a penalty stroke. The most basic rule in golf, and the one most often violated among amateurs, states that the ball must be played where it lies. Is a person who improves his ball's lie without a course caveat to do so, or who takes a 'gimme' on the putting green, really playing golf? Anyone who violates the rules of golf is not playing golf as it was intended to be played. That person may be hitting a golf ball with a golf club around a golf course, but he or she is not playing the game of golf. Golf's rules are designed to hold the game within defined parameters such that progress in improving one's skills can be monitored while keeping competition fair and equal among players. While golf's rules are man-made, rules in other venues are usually made by the venues themselves. For example, the rules that govern flight derive from those aspects of physics that describe what is necessary to maintain a heavier-than-air machine safely aloft. Rules that govern flight are harsh and verifiable; obey them and live, disobey them and perhaps not. It is a rare business that is not subject to economic rules, rules deriving from parameters just as factual as those governing heavier-than-air flight. People may not die when disobeying an economic rule, but their economic life can certainly fall into jeopardy. Knowingly or unknowingly, it doesn't matter what your opinion of an economic rule might be; economic rules are what they are, and every business prospers or struggles according to those economic rules that govern it. Everyone has seen more than one farm's economic life end when certain economic rules were disobeyed. Regarding potato production's economic rules: There is an economic rule in the fresh produce business stating that for every 1 percent change in supply, a crop's value (price) moves 7 percent in the opposite direction. History proves that this parameter fits potato markets almost perfectly. Seeing potato shipments as a single pile of potatoes, the possibility of raising its value a whopping 7 percent by lowering its volume only 1 percent is a powerful rule, not to mention an unmatched financial opportunity. Nothing within a potato grower's options for profitability compares. This begs the question: If a potato grower's profitability is intrinsically tied to the volume of potatoes he ships, and he refuses to acknowledge his role in total potato shipments, is this person truly a responsible business administrator, or just a guy driving around in a high-end pickup truck? Is he really playing golf or just batting a golf ball around a golf course? United Potato Growers of America By Buzz Shahan Chief Operating Officer If a grower refuses to acknowledge his role in total potato shipments, is he truly a responsible business administrator, or just a guy driving around in a high-end pickup? GREEN. THE PROFITABLE COLOR. ™ 208.785.3054 | Blackfoot, ID 208.438.2171 | Paul, ID WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm www.P65Warnings.ca.gov LOCKWOODMFG.com Works great, drop the spade and go … machine worked well with minimal down time. - Brent F. | Maine 654 Windrower 2358-8CraryIndustries13h.indd 1 4/18/19 11:21 AM