For a great many farms, 2019 won’t actually fade into the rear-view mirror until the harvest is finished in spring. That’s definitely not how the plans were originally drawn up. People will likely be getting tired of talking about 2019 and how difficult it was. Having said that, I’ve observed that quite a hangover remains […] Read more
Author Archives
Making sense of what your balance sheet is telling you
Balance sheets and statements of net worth both include assets and liabilities. The difference between the two is that a statement of net worth will have capital assets, such as land and quota, reported at fair market value. Balance sheets have capital assets valued at original cost, minus amortization for depreciable assets, such as buildings […] Read more
Financial resiliency: a way to face performance challenges
Gavin Betker and I gave a webinar recently on financial resiliency. It was called Farm Financials to Help You Sleep at Night. It was the first of a two-part webinar series. Thanks to the Alberta Wheat Commission and Farm Management Canada for making the webinars possible. The presentations will both be in the Farm Management […] Read more
Investing in professional development good for business
Danny Klinefelter, former professor and extension specialist at Texas A&M University’s department of agricultural economics, notes that four states of knowledge exist: What you know. What you know you don’t know. What you don’t know you don’t know. What you think you know that isn’t so. What does all that mean? Well, it can be […] Read more
Procrastination is a major roadblock for farm planning
Start by starting. When you think about it, that’s logical, isn’t it? So much so, that when I googled “start by starting,” I found a bunch of references to it and numerous people applying it to what they do. Meryl Streep uses it as part of what she has used to advance her career development […] Read more
Partial budgets provide quick help in decision-making
Some decisions are easier to make than others. Some decisions take more time than others. Not sure why but people will sometimes take more time to make a $1,000 decision than a $100,000 decision. I recently had two interesting discussions with farmers. One was with a farmer who has been presented with an opportunity to […] Read more
Tracking how farmers spend their time can be challenging
Haven’t we all asked the question, where does the time go? I had a meeting at a farm this week, arriving around 3:30 in the afternoon. As we were settling in for our discussion, one of the family members commented that it was already mid-afternoon and she hadn’t been able to get to any of […] Read more
Proper financial management means taking action now
Far be it for me, or anyone else, to pass judgment on any farm’s financial situation. However, I do think that it’s entirely reasonable for someone to ask questions, to probe, to make observations on financial performance, and of course, to make suggestions or recommendations. A farm’s current financial position is a function of management […] Read more
Important for farm families to be on same values page
If you find that you are regularly disappointed in things not getting done the way you’d like, it could be because not everyone on the team is working from the same set of core values. Values are core to what your farm business is and what you and your family cherish. Values are traits or […] Read more
A strategic pause can sometimes be the best strategy
Do you ever have an idea? Something that you think about, something that keeps coming back to you again and again, until you finally decide to do something about it and then put plans in place to make it a reality. At its simplest form, this is strategy. The detail required in the planning (the […] Read more
