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Margy Eckelkamp

Margy Eckelkamp is the brand leader for Farm Journal’s Top Producer and The Daily Scoop, specializing in business reporting for CEO farmers and agricultural professionals. She provides actionable intelligence to help operations navigate farmland dynamics, diversified revenue streams and overall profitability. Margy’s expertise spans regulatory and EPA issues, ag retail trends and tech innovations – topics she explores in depth on The Scoop podcast. Her nuanced analysis of modern business management ensures agricultural leaders are equipped to make informed decisions in a rapidly changing economic landscape.

Latest Stories
“If handled improperly, transition events can be the death of your business. Or it can strengthen your business and clearly outline who you are and where you want to go,” says Dick Wittman.
How are you showing up on the farm? Do your actions meet up with your goals? Rena Striegel, a farm succession planning consultant, encourages the next generation of on-farm leaders to do some self-reflection.
Formulating your farm’s succession plan is likely not a straight line. Polly Dobbs, an Indiana attorney who is part of a seven-generation farm family, says it’s important to stay focused on your end goals.
We asked previous awardees of the Top Producer Next Gen Award to reflect on lessons they’ve experienced in business and management.
“The single most important tool to predict peak performance is a very well-developed job description,” Dave Mitchell says.
For the latest list—based on 2022 data—47 of the 100 cooperatives are in agriculture. In all, 59% of the $319 billion in generated revenues of co-operatives are from those ag-focused co-ops: $187.6 billion.
Michael Swanson says we’ve likely seen the peak for food inflation last summer. What drove the 14% food inflation since the COVID pandemic has been four factors: transportation, labor, shipping and packaging.
Key finding: Increasing population is key to increasing tonnage. In addition, narrow-row silage production increased tonnage without compromising quality as measured in milk tons per acre.
Farmer-inventor partners with manufacturer to manage cornstalks.