Farm Management - Bugger the roots, where is the future?

The Farm Management discipline has long been closely aligned with agricultural economics. The question we raise is not where either discipline came from but where is Farm Management going. The impact of globalisation, the rising tide of deregulation and chain reversal mean that farm management professionals who have traditionally focused on optimisation of activities at a farm level are now commonly expected to use sociology and management science to explain economic organisation and performance on farms. They also are required to look at relationships in the value chain(s) in which the farm sits. This paper will analyse the implications of such change for Farm Management professionals.Farm Management, value chains, Farm Management,

Where's the economics? The core discipline of farm management has gone missing!

Economic illiteracy is abundant in farm management analysis. Failure to understand that economics is the core discipline of farm-management analysis and failure to apply the whole-farm approach leads to wrong questions being asked and wrong answers being given. The power of economic thinking is in making sense of resource allocation questions in farm systems characterised by much complexity and powerful dynamics. The challenge for those who continue to work in farm management economics is to re-establish theoretically sound farm-management analysis based on economics as the core discipline.Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The succession effect within management decisions of family farms

The preparation of the farm transfer or farm exit is a process that starts in the consolidation stage of the farm life cycle. In this stage, the decision to transfer the farm or not is taken and the farm management is adapted to this decision. The objective of this paper is to model the succession effect on farm management. The results show that the succession effect plays a role from the age of 45. An early designation of the successor gives an incentive to invest and to improve the management.farm transfer, succussor, farm life cycle, Farm Management,

Multiple Generation Farm Households: What Determines Primacy in Management?

This study identifies factors that influence primacy between generations in the management structure of U.S. family farms. The paper fills an important gap in the farm succession literature by exploring succession (in management of the farm) as an incremental process. Estimation with cross-sectional data from the USDAERS’ Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and a limited dependent variable model is used to explain the decision for older generation operators to retain primary farm management duties with a junior operator serving a secondary role. We identify a number of statistically significant attributes that explain variation in the elder farmer’s role (primary versus secondary) in management of the farm. Our results suggest that transferring primary operator status is more influenced by family members’ characteristics and less so by farm financial and operating characteristics.Farm Household, Succession, Farm Management,

Revealing an Equitable Income Allocation among Dairy Farm Partnerships

We formulate a method to determine an equitable division of dairy farm partnership income when partners provide unequal amounts of capital, labor, and management and empirically estimate this relationship. New York dairy farm financial data are used within fixed effects and random coefficient panel regression models to reveal a systematic division of dairy farm partnership income among operators’ labor, capital, and management while controlling for heterogeneity arising from differing herd size. Results indicate that controlling for time and heterogeneity across farms due to herd size are important factors when dividing net farm income among unpaid factors of production. Empirical estimates of allocating dairy farm partnership income to equity, operators’ labor, and management are presented.Dairy, opportunity costs, unpaid factors production, net farm income, operators’ labor, capital, management., Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Q10, Q12,

A REPRESENTATIVE FARM APPROACH TO OUTREACH WITH BEGINNING FARMERS AND RANCHERS

Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, Representative Farm, Whole Farm Analysis, Risk Management, Online Decision Support, Stochastic, Baseline, Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Q12, Q14, D81,

FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTH DAKOTA FARMS, 1994-1996

The performance of over 500 North Dakota farms, 1994-1996, is summarized using 16 financial measures. Farms are categorized by geographic region, farm type, farm size, gross cash sales, farm tenure, net farm income, debt-to-asset, and age of farmer to analyze relationships between financial performance and farm characteristics.Farm financial management, farm management, farm income, liquidity, solvency, profitability, repayment capacity, financial efficiency, financial benchmarks, tenure, North Dakota, Agricultural Finance,

Canadian Farmers' Adaptation to Declining Commodity Prices

The five major agricultural producing provinces are compared in terms of farm labour and management incomes, return on investment to farm capital, total farm family income, and farm family net worth. In each province, comparisons are made with non-farm incomes, investment returns and net worth levels. The results show that farm family incomes in Canada are much better today than 30 years ago, returns on farmland investment are very comparable to average stock market returns, and average farm family net worth is significantly higher than the average for all families. The conclusion is that Canadian farmers have adapted well to declining commodity prices mainly by being adapters of and investors in new technologies, allowing them to increase farm size (increased cost efficiencies) and by diversifying their income sources to include more off-farm income.Farm Labour and Management Income, Return on Invested Farm Capital, Real Commodity Prices, Farm Family Income, Off-Farm Employment, Farm Family Net Worth, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital,

Market Segments and Farmer Preferences for Financial Record Systems

farm management, accounting systems, Farm Management,