She poured over the documents in front of her, trying to piece the complex business together. Mr. Miller seemed to be quite unusual compared to the other farmers that Intermountain Bank lent to, in that he didn’t seem to focus on one or two crops or animals, but rather was doing All of the Above.

Hay, cows, corn, wheat…most farmers were monolithic in their approach to farming, choosing to do one or two things really, really well, rather than trying to do a lot of things mostly well. It meant the risks were higher – if it was a bad potato year and that’s all the farmer had planted, well, they were shit out of luck – but it was also easier to maintain and keep up on. Less specialized machinery, less moving parts to keep track of, less complexity overall.

Which made Mr. M...

Please subscribe to keep reading.