Return to TFB Main Page
Return to Current Edition
Texas Agriculture Archive

November 4, 2005

Outstanding Young Farmer & Rancher Contest

Doug Lathem
Establishing
relationships...

Doug grew cotton for the first time this year.

The Lathems: Doug, Emma and Carol.

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Farming, according to Doug Lathem, is more than plowing, planting and harvesting. It's also about establishing relationships.

"The main thing that's kept us in business is the way we market," says Doug, who farms near Dalhart. "We've established real strong relationships with our seed companies, which obviously returns better than growing regular milo. And then the food corn part of our program pays a premium over normal corn. We have a reputation of providing a quality product to our buyer. So we've been able to grow with them."

Doug's come a long way since 1998, when he and his wife Carol broke out a half section of native grass, drilled an irrigation well and put two center pivots on it. It wasn't easy, Doug admits—especially since he wasn't raised on a farm or ranch.

"The first couple of years I farmed, I worked for other farmers, ran their tractors, their combines, and tried to learn a little," he says. "When we started out we didn't own any equipment. Carol's income really supported us, and we just left all our money in the farm.

"That's how we were able to grow. We were really cautious because we didn't have government programs, because the farms were broken out. We didn't have any government payments so we had to really concentrate on marketing and growing a real good crop."

Doug has turned that half-section spread into a growing and profitable operation of more than 4,000 irrigated acres. He grows seed milo, cotton, corn, wheat, and cattle. This year, for the first time, he tried cotton.

"We tried cotton because it takes about half the water that corn does to grow an optimal crop," Doug says, noting that farmers in his area are taking a hard look at the fiber crop. "With energy so high, it's something we thought we would try. It's been tried up here in the past, and it's starting to work with the new chemicals and the growth regulators that we put on it and push it."

Doug is also in the process of permitting a dairy, a growing agribusiness in the Dalhart area.

"Three years ago we didn't have any dairies. There's 15 now," he says.

What a dairy would do, Doug says, is allow him to grow silage, which would add significant value to the corn. Dairy cow manure would fertilize the crop. Then, when the silage is out, he could come back in with wheat and pasture wheat cattle in the winter.

"It's something we're real interested in," Doug say. "We just need a little more time to study it."

Challenges have been many for this young farmer, but Doug says if you threw all of his problems away and looked at just one, it would be financing.

"That's been our biggest problem, trying to convince someone we can handle the growth without getting in a wreck," he says.

When one bank urged him to slow down, he switched to a more aggressive lender. He's built a reputation by insuring his crops in a region prone to hail and early freezes, keeping his labor costs in line and showing good business sense and judgment.

"That's how we've tried to keep our expenses low and show that track record to our banks. And it's worked," he says.

Carol was raised a farm girl near Dimmit, and now works three days a week as a speech pathologist at three local schools.

She attributes Doug's success to motivation and hard work.

"And he's very good at the business part of farming, which I think is very important," she says. "And what I've seen growing up, and here, is the business half of it. You can be a hard worker and not know the business part of marketing crops and all, and I think he does really well with that, also."

Doug, who received all the prerequisites for dental school and graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in business and marketing, chose farming as a profession because "he liked it."

"Never do I ever wake up and think that I just have to go to work," he admits.

After college, he worked in the real estate business in Phoenix for a couple of years, but found that rural life beckoned.

"I learned a lot out there, I learned a lot about business, but I always wanted to come back," he adds. "And when I came back, I knew this is what I wanted to do.

"I had some people tell me I couldn't make it, and I had some people that told me I could, and we just tried to focus on and surround ourselves with those people that said we could.

"We got in it, made it, and it's been very good."