Designed to teach the farm managers of tomorrow, Farm Management: Principles and Strategy emphasizes the strategic and operations aspects of managing a farm. Today’s farm managers also will want to consult this guide to make effective, objective, and successful decisions.

This innovative textbook is framed by the increasing need for farmers to develop and follow a business plan. Topics not found in traditional farm management texts include:

• Strategic management—How to evaluate, choose, and implement the business strategies that best fit the farmer, the farm and the changing world
• Production and operations planning—How to benefit from techniques and management tools used in general business
• Quality management and control—How to decrease costs, better meet consumer demands and improve the progress towards goals and objectives
• Production contract evaluation—Discusses how to evaluate contracts and includes a checklist of items that a farmer should consider
• Decision-making beyond the traditional microeconomic analysis—In addition to the topics just mentioned, the text includes decision making under risk and the development of scenarios to understand the impact of an uncertain future

Fundamental farm management topics and basics are not ignored in this all-inclusive text. Traditional material includes budgeting, marketing, enterprise selection, production planning, financial analysis, financial management, investment analysis, risk management, work force management, business organization, and control management.

Contents

1. The scope of farm management
2. Strategic management
3. Marketing plan
4. Budgeting
5. Production and operations management
6. Quality management and control
7. Financial analysis
8. Financial management
9. Investment analysis
10. Land purchase and rental
11. Risk management
12. Production contract evaluation
13. Staffing and organization
14. The future farm manager

Appendices

• Estimating the annual costs of capital assets
• Supplemental information for financial analysis
• Estimating subjective probabilities
• Interest tables

Index

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