I would be in the group that believes that you shouldn’t try to manage by looking in the rear-view mirror. Farming is next year country. There is a lot about “next year” that we can, though, understand by examining past performance. We all have things that we would like to have had a second chance […] Read more
Author Archives
Financial statements help take a good look at farm profit
Transition Planning Forward takes changes to next steps
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or so the saying goes. There will be a great many of us that prefer the status quo. Change typically brings the unknown. We’ve not done that before. Or the other way of saying it … this is the way we’ve always done it. Some […] Read more
Conflicts of interest require people to act with integrity
I was talking to a farmer not that long ago about an issue he was dealing with. As I listened, it appeared that he had found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. We’ve all been there. As I thought about this though, it made me wonder where the saying came from. Apparently, […] Read more
Know which financial statement is best for your farm
This article is a follow-up to a previous article I wrote about farms and corporate financial statements. I commented that I am not an accountant but I am a management consultant who has some expertise and an interest in financial management. Through my career, I have gained some understanding of what accountants do in preparing […] Read more
The future is a vital component of farm succession planning
I read some statistics on farm succession planning the other day. It caused me to think about a conference on succession planning I attended in 1999. People and presenters quoted statistics about the average age of the Canadian farmer being about 57, if I remember correctly — something close to that anyway. There was also […] Read more
Capital turnover ratio declines
I recently spoke at a conference about financial efficiency. It was two sessions actually. I typically don’t get a lot of questions at the end of a presentation. Nor do I get a bunch of people coming up to me after I finish. That makes sense because I don’t think financial management is exciting for […] Read more
Increasing happiness quotient more important than ever
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
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
