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Management

two farmers talking
Guide Business, Management

Which personality types are best for your farm business?

Personality testing can be a surprisingly easy and useful tool in your farm business

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Have you ever wondered why one family member considers it the end of the world when another family member leaves an empty water bottle in the combine? Or why, knowing this, another family member will check the cab and toss out the offending bottle in order to keep the peace, while another family member will […] Read more
farmers standing beside a tractor
Guide Business, Management

It’s not ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to team building on the farm

It might seem something only office workers should waste their time on, but team building fits farming too

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The options are endless. Companies send their employees out rock climbing. They hire fancy consultants to host trust-building days. They send their executive boards fly fishing, or arrange a day of more traditional community service work where everyone can work side by side and roles are often reversed. Less adventurous businesses can even do the […] Read more
aerial view of a dairy farm
Crops, Management

The business of owning farmland

Farmers are land investors too, but are we any good at it?

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Of course, farmers integrate their real estate into their production business, with land and buildings used for the growing of crops and production of livestock. Importantly, too, the asset value is used as collateral to secure financing. As well, farm real estate is often the main retirement fund. There is no question, too, that farmland […] Read more
running shoes
Guide Business, Management

What’s your communication fitness level?

What kind of meeting athlete are you? Check out this new take for meetings your family will be proud of

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Are you a couch potato when it comes to talking to your family about critical farm decisions? The comparison isn’t so far fetched. In a way, family communication is a lot like physical fitness. Even the best of us have areas that need a little toning, while many more of us need to spend serious time […] Read more
bank papers and coins
Management

Financing proposals — what to take to the bank

AME Management: Provide the essential information to your lender so they can better understand your business and assess your "ask"

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Reading Time: 3 minutes In farming, where access to adequate financing is key to success, lender relationships can’t be ignored. Nor can you neglect your approach to your annual review meeting with your lender. This is an important management function that needs focus. How can we best manage those relationships and your annual review for long-term positive outcomes? “Lending […] Read more
financial paperwork
Management

Finance metrics you may not have thought of — measuring financial risk

AME Management Part 3: How balance sheets and operating statements help determine your exposure to risk

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Reading Time: 3 minutes The first two columns in this three-part series focused on using the operating statement to monitor operating efficiency and to diagnose operating problems. In this column, we turn to the interaction between the balance sheet and operating statement to identify and manage financial risk. This is very topical currently because of concerns that lower grain […] Read more
tractor seeding a crop
Management

Is there room for improvement on your farm?

Who knew? Formal process improvement is emerging as your farm’s best bet for solid gains

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Farms have an impressive record of increasing their production efficiency through scale, scientific improvements and innovation. Efficiency is the ultimate controllable factor in commodity margins. “Every year we do more with less, better,” says Dick Wittman, Idaho farmer and consultant. “We are becoming safer, more environmentally sound, and more efficient.” As our farms become more […] Read more
financial paperwork
Guide Business, Management

Finance metrics you may not have thought of — diagnosing operating inefficiency

AME Management Part 2: The importance of watching and understanding trends and comparisons

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Our last column introduced the concept of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) and used it to define Operating Efficiency Ratio, (EBITDA/Total Revenue). With some exceptions, financially successful farms have Operating Efficiency Ratios above 35 per cent, i.e. with at least 35 cents left from every dollar of sales after paying all non-capital […] Read more
financial paperwork
Guide Business, Management

Finance metrics you may not have thought of — operating efficiency

AME Management Part 1: Basic financial tools to help determine your operating income

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Reading Time: 3 minutes In good times or bad, there are some basic financial tools that allow farmers (and other managers) to gauge their operating efficiency, diagnose where they have problems, and measure the financial risk they are bearing or are about to undertake when they make a substantial investment. We find, however, that we hear very few people […] Read more

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