How Standardization Made Our Small-Scale Farm Dramatically More Efficient
By Jonathan Dysinger and John Dysinger
Updated on
Show Transcript
0:00Hi guys, I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad, John. And we're going to be talking about some of the efficiencies that have had the biggest payoff here on
0:08the farm. With 27 years of experience in farming, you probably have a lot of great examples of this. So, what are
0:15some of the top efficiencies that you've implemented here on the farm that have had the biggest payoffs?
0:23Well, I would say listen to your wife.
0:26That's probably the biggest efficiency I, you know, it took me years.
0:33I mean, we're slow learners, I guess,
0:36but um we had these I guess it's called a trapezoid or
0:43something. Our fields were trapezoid shaped because of the lay of the land,
0:50but it was very inefficient because you had to have row cover and everything that would cover, you know, different
0:58both the corners. And anyway, we we've went to a a JM workshop one time. Um,
1:08and coming home from the workshop, my wife says, "Why don't we just have all our fields standard size, you know, and
1:17and I start giving her all the reasons why that doesn't work on our farm." And I realized I was just rationalizing.
1:27Yeah. So, it was like, "Okay, well,
1:29let's try that actually." And it's been huge. So, it's a lot of work to make a shift like that. Yeah. It it takes time,
1:38but you know, standardization as far as field size, bed length, um is it seems
1:49like not a big deal, but it's huge, you know, when you're sorting through row covers, trying to figure out the right
1:56length road cover and so on. Um, so we've made a lot of progress in that
2:02area after listening to my wife. um everything standard lengths
2:11um standard procedures you know we only have one weight of row cover we only have um I don't know I'm trying to think
2:21of other examples silage tarps silage tarps just one size yeah so well irrigation systems like the
2:29overheads it's all all the same system for all the field blocks I can't emphasize that enough? And again, you
2:38know, Ben Hartman talks about that a lot in his book, The Lean Farm. But again, I
2:43I would credit JM4A for for really um kicking us in that direction with
2:51standardization. That's that's a that could take people uh you know, a long time to to implement that. And you know,
2:59it goes back to something we were talking about in a previous video, which is take the time before you, you know,
3:05before you establish your farm to come up with the systems and your flow and your standards and stuff cuz, you know,
3:12for you guys, 50ft beds, you know, is what you landed on, but for somebody else, it might be a different length.
3:20Um, but getting that all all that layout and field blocks and everything laid out before you start breaking ground is
3:28important cuz you know for for us here on the farm, we had years of investment in trapezoidal fields that had to be
3:36undone. Yeah. To change. And so that was probably a lot of the friction is like,
3:41man, we already have everything set up this way, but in the end it was worth it. It just would have been better if we' done it at the very beginning. And I
3:50will say we actually have two bed lengths. So I I wish I could say we're totally standardized, but in the field
3:58because we're using tractors, using tractors on 50ft beds is just that's not
4:05efficient at all. So in the field we do have 100 foot beds and in all our intensive areas we have 50 foot beds.
4:15Yeah, you can have a couple standards, but you know, the the less you can have,
4:20the better, I think. So, hopefully this tip on just standardizing your uh standardizing your production, bed size,
4:29field plot width, all these different things will be helpful as you move forward in looking for ways to be maximally efficient on your farm. Until next time, happy growing.
4:39[Music]
The single biggest efficiency gain at Bountiful Blessings Farm came from standardizing field sizes, bed lengths, and supplies — one weight of row cover, one size of silage tarp, one irrigation system across all field blocks. It took years to implement (and should have been done from the start), but it eliminated the constant waste of sorting through different-length covers, custom-cutting materials, and maintaining multiple systems. If you're planning a new farm, design your layout around standard dimensions before you break ground — undoing years of non-standard infrastructure is far more painful than getting it right from the beginning.
Efficiency on a market farm isn't usually about one dramatic breakthrough. It's about eliminating hundreds of small frictions that add up to hours of wasted time every week. And the single biggest source of that friction — at least in our experience — is a lack of standardization.
My dad, John Dysinger, has been farming at Bountiful Blessings Farm for 27 years. For a lot of those years, the farm operated with fields that were different shapes and sizes, bed lengths that varied, and supplies that came in multiple specifications. It worked, sort of. But it was far less efficient than it needed to be.
In a recent video, we talked through the standardization changes that have had the biggest payoff — and the story of how my mom finally got him to make the shift.
Why Does Standardization Matter on a Market Farm?
Standardization means making as many dimensions, materials, and processes on your farm identical as possible — same bed lengths, same field widths, same row cover weight, same irrigation setup.
It sounds like a minor detail. It's not. The compound effect of non-standard dimensions touches everything you do, every single day.
When your fields are different shapes, your row covers have to be different lengths. That means you're sorting through a pile of covers trying to find the right one every time you need to cover a bed. When your beds are different lengths, your seeding calculations change for every bed. Your landscape fabric cuts are different. Your harvest estimates are different. Every task requires a small mental calculation that wouldn't exist if everything were the same.
Multiply that across an entire growing season — thousands of individual tasks — and the time lost to non-standardization is staggering. It's exactly the kind of muda (waste) that Ben Hartman describes in The Lean Farm: time spent on activities that don't add value to the product you're selling.
How Bountiful Blessings Farm Made the Shift
For years, my dad's fields were trapezoid-shaped — irregular quadrilaterals dictated by the lay of the land. It was just how the farm had evolved. The fields worked, but everything associated with them was slightly different: cover lengths, tarp sizes, irrigation layouts.
The turning point came after attending a Jean-Martin Fortier workshop. On the drive home, my mom said: "Why don't we just make all our fields a standard size?"
My dad immediately started giving her all the reasons why that wouldn't work on their farm. And then he realized he was just rationalizing. The resistance wasn't logical — it was the friction of changing something that had been in place for years.
So they made the shift. It was a lot of work. Years of infrastructure built around trapezoidal fields had to be undone and rebuilt. But the payoff has been enormous. As my dad puts it, he can't emphasize enough how much difference it has made.
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What Should You Standardize?
Here's what Bountiful Blessings Farm has standardized — and what my dad considers the highest-impact changes:
Bed Lengths
The farm uses 50-foot beds in all intensive growing areas (tunnels and hand-worked plots) and 100-foot beds in field areas where tractors are used. Fifty-foot beds aren't efficient for tractor work, so having two standards makes sense — but they've kept it to just two rather than letting every plot be a different length.
The fewer bed length standards you have, the better. Every additional length means another set of row cover cuts, fabric sizes, and seeding calculations to keep track of.
Field Block Sizes
All field blocks are now the same standardized dimensions. This means the same irrigation kit covers every block, the same tarps fit every block, and you never have to wonder which equipment goes where.
Row Cover — One Weight
Bountiful Blessings Farm uses one weight of row cover across the entire operation. No sorting through a stack of different-weight covers trying to find the right one. One product, one specification, every time. They use 1-ounce Gro-Guard row cover, and it handles the vast majority of their frost protection needs.
Silage Tarps — One Size
Same principle. One size of silage tarp that fits their standard field blocks. No custom cutting, no trying to remember which tarp goes on which field.
Irrigation — One System
Every field block runs the same overhead irrigation setup. The same sprinkler heads, the same spacing, the same tubing, the same valve configuration. When something needs repair or replacement, there's one system to understand, one set of parts to stock, and no guesswork about how a particular block is plumbed.
Why You Should Standardize Before You Start
If there's one takeaway from our experience, it's this: design your farm layout around standard dimensions before you break ground.
At Bountiful Blessings Farm, the shift to standardization required undoing years of existing infrastructure — reworking fields, replacing covers, reconfiguring irrigation. It was worth it, but it would have been far easier and cheaper to get it right from the beginning.
If you're still in the planning phase of your farm, take the time now to decide on your bed lengths, field block dimensions, and supply specifications. Visit farms you admire. Look at how they've laid things out. Think about flow — how materials, people, and harvested product move through the space.
The work you do on paper before the first bed is built will save you years of inefficiency later.
The Takeaway
Standardization isn't glamorous. It doesn't feel like a game-changing insight. But it's one of the highest-leverage changes you can make on a market farm because it eliminates waste from every single task, every single day.
Standard bed lengths. Standard field blocks. One weight of row cover. One size of tarp. One irrigation system. The less variation you have to think about, the more brainpower and time you have for the work that actually makes money.
And if your spouse suggests standardizing your field layout on the drive home from a workshop — listen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Standardization eliminates the accumulated waste of dealing with different-sized beds, covers, tarps, and irrigation systems throughout the season. When everything is the same dimension, your row covers always fit, your seeding calculations are consistent, and your team doesn't waste time sorting, measuring, or improvising. The time savings compound across thousands of tasks per season.
It depends on your operation. Bountiful Blessings Farm uses 50-foot beds in intensive tunnel and hand-worked areas and 100-foot beds where tractors are used. The key is choosing a standard and sticking with it — even two standards are manageable, but avoid having every plot a different length. Visit successful farms in your area to see what works at your scale.
Absolutely. Designing your field blocks, bed lengths, and infrastructure around standard dimensions from the beginning is far easier than retrofitting later. Bountiful Blessings Farm spent years undoing trapezoidal fields that had been built around the natural lay of the land. The standardization was worth the effort, but it would have been much simpler to plan for it from day one.
Start with the items you use most frequently: row cover (choose one weight), silage tarps (choose one size that fits your standard field blocks), and irrigation (use the same system across all blocks). When every supply is one specification, you eliminate sorting time, simplify purchasing, and make it easy for any team member to grab the right product without guessing.
The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman applies lean manufacturing principles to small-scale farming. Standardization is a core lean concept — reducing variation in your processes and materials to eliminate waste (muda). The book provides a complete framework for identifying and removing inefficiencies on a market farm, with standardization as one of the most impactful strategies.
Yes — Bountiful Blessings Farm uses two (50-foot and 100-foot) because tractor work isn't efficient on short beds. The goal is to minimize the number of standards, not necessarily reduce to one. Two well-chosen standards that cover different use cases are far better than a dozen arbitrary lengths that evolved over time.
