Bill Came sets the pace for his multi-generational farm operation
In his 30-year career, Bill Came has witnessed lofty highs and extreme lows. He slowly revived his family’s central Kansas farm, and then said goodbye as his father passed away. After spending several years working alongside two siblings, he helped make a heart- wrenching decision to place a brother in a nursing home.
HIGH QUALITY, LOW COST
Through droughts, blizzards, market tops and market lows, Came has focused on producing the highest quality grain and livestock at the lowest possible cost, while being a good steward and always staying focused on his family.
“My metric of growth really isn’t necessarily acres or farm size,” he says. “I want to see us get a better return every year. There are always little things that we’re constantly missing that we can make better.”
Came is the fifth generation of his family to farm row crops and raise cattle near Salina, Kan. After college, he joined his father, William “Bill” Came, on the 2,000-acre operation in 1991 — a rough economic time for farmers in the Sunflower State.
“Our debt-to-asset ratio was over 70%, and we had little net worth,” Came recalls. “After the Freedom to Farm bill passed, we dropped our wheat acres in half and started growing row crops. This allowed us to be more efficient with machinery and labor. We also benefited agronomically from now having a crop rotation. This was our first big step to becoming profitable.”
BACK TO BASICS
A numbers guy, Came analyzed all of the farm’s key metrics and looked for areas to improve.
The family, which at the time included Came, his father and brother, Chad, switched production methods to no-till, reducing costs and improving the operation’s soil health. They also started double- cropping all of their wheat acres, adding soybeans, corn and milo to their crop mix.
As the farm grew in sophistication and scope, Came’s sister, Darcy Bradley, joined the farm in 1998. But that same year, their brother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“We installed lifts on the combines and did what we could to get him in equipment,” Came says. “But his health con-tinued to get worse. One of the hardest things I had to do was tell him he could not run the equipment. We bought Chad out in 2014. He’s now in a nursing home.”
FOCUS ON FAMILY
Even though Chad is no longer able to farm, the family includes him however they can.
“He loves to be involved, and wants to know everything that’s going on,” says Joyce Came, mother of Bill, Chad and Darcy.
In the wake of these extreme challenges, the Cames lost their patriarch in 2009 to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was only 63.
“I lost both my business partners, my dad and brother. It was just Darcy and me,” Came says.
Between the emotional pain of these changes and the financial strain of buying out siblings, the brother-sister duo zeroed in on financial management and building a new team.
“We’ve tried to become really professional in what we do,” Came says. “We have analyzed our costs so we know what’s working and what’s not working. As we’ve adapted, landowners in the area have seen what we’ve done and have asked us to farm their land. It just has kind of grown from there.”
In the past decade, Came Farms has doubled in size to reach 12,000 acres today. The operation also includes cattle and a trucking company. Came is president. He directs the team, leads the farm’s marketing, and handles landlord relations as well as the farm’s overall strategy. Bradley is vice president and office manger. She heads up billing, accrual accounting and human resource management.
The team is rounded out by seven full-time and six part-time employees. The full-time roster includes Came’s two sons, Bradley’s son and two of their nephews.
“Our competitive advantage is having these younger guys coming back to the farm. They have new ideas, and they are really good with technology,” Came says. “That’s going to be a huge asset to us moving forward.”
PROFESSIONAL ROAD
Came uses key financial metrics as the basis for the farm’s investments and grain marketing decisions. In fact, he has a spreadsheet that tracks each expense category going back more than 20 years.
Every investment on Came Farms must meet one of these goals:
- Reduce cost.
- Add a premium.
“Bill’s financial expertise is exceptional,” says Larry Feif, president of The Bank of Tescott. “He is willing to try new ideas while sticking to his core values of family and treating all with respect and dignity.”
The Cames use this level of discipline across the operation. An example is their machinery strategy.
“We’re not paying for new equipment, and we can repair it a lot cheaper than we can depreciate it out,” Came says. “At the end of the season, we run our machines down to the dealer, and they inspect it for us and tell us what needs to be worked on. We then bring it back and do the work ourselves.”
Came says his machinery methodology allows them to use labor during the winter, helping to support the farm’s full-time workforce.
THE NEXT GEN
Employees receive salaries based on how many years of schooling they completed after high school. Came knows they must be competitive to retain their specialized team.
“Bill is not afraid to learn something new and try new stuff,” Bradley says. “He doesn’t get stuck in a rut; he’s open to other people’s ideas and new ways of doing things.”
No doubt this encouraging culture has helped attract the next generation. The five cousins who work together on the farm and one of the long-term employees formed a partnership this year to start growing their own operation. To-gether they are farming around 300 acres.
“Darcy and I aren’t going to grow our farm anymore,” Came says. “All the growth will be in their farm. We know what our costs are to run each piece of equipment, so we charge them that on a per-acre basis. As time goes on and we look forward to retirement, hopefully they’ll just be able to absorb our farm.”
For Came, seeing the next generation make smart investments, work hard and have fun together is a long-time goal achieved. He set the pace and can now feed off the energy from his team.
“My definition of success is being able to do what you love doing and make a decent living at it,” Came says. “For us, it’s a bonus to be able to do it with our family.”
Snapshot of Came Farms
Operation: Came Farms of Salina, Kan., includes 12,000 acres and a crop rotation of wheat, double- crop soybeans or milo, full-season corn or milo, then soybeans and back to wheat. It also includes a cow-calf herd of 450 head. In 2020, they added a trucking company.
Family: The brother-sister duo of Bill Came and Darcy Bradley leads Came Farms. Bill joined the fifth-generation operation in 1991, and Darcy joined in 1998. The next generation of leaders includes Bill’s sons, Kody and Spencer; Darcy’s son, Owen; Kyle and Joel Came (children of Bill and Darcy’s brother, Chad) and long-time employee Steven Groot.
Grain Marketing: Came leads grain marketing for the farm. He focuses on marketing two years out, with a goal of selling a certain percentage each month that meets his goal of a specific rate of return.
Travel to Salina, Kan., and virtually visit Came Farms.
