Kip Tom

Operation Name

Tom Farms

Location

Leesburg, Indiana, USA (headquarters),
Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America

Primary Crops/Livestock

Seed Corn, Corn, Soybeans

Total Acres

16,000 Acres

Master or Maverick?

I have to be both a MASTER AND A MAVERICK. We want to be respected in the industry, we want to be top in class, but at the same time, I believe we have to be very willing to be entrepreneurs and be willing to venture out into new areas to try to improve not only our own business, but the industry. We all have a stake in sharing the way this business gets shaped going forward, so I believe we need to be innovators of deployment of technology.

What advice do you have for equipment manufacturers?

Don’t accept the status quo. Remember and understand that the demographics of the producer they’re selling equipment to is going to continually evolve, and it’s going to be concentrated in fewer hands. And the decision makers are going to be basing decisions based upon the financials and the business returns from those new innovations that the equipment manufacturers bring to us.