It’s all about giving your farming business direction, control and purpose. And about using all your resources to their maximum capacity. Planning is one of the most important management functions, but some farmers don’t focus on it sufficiently. No planning, or bad planning, is like jumping into your vehicle and…
For a business to run smoothly and without unnecessary conflict, it is important to maintain discipline day by day. While busy carrying out any of his tasks – planning, organising, implementing or controlling – a manager must also pay attention to certain other management activities, such as leadership, communicating, coordinating,…
Today’s farmer is as much a businessman as his city cousin is. Let’s look at harvesting a field of cabbages and try to find their management similarities. I call management in farming “The successful and flexible control and allocation (use) of all resources required to produce a product on a…
The last in our human resources series looks at the link between what a worker is paid and what is expected in return. Many people think that if they pay their staff well, it’s enough to keep them happy and they will therefore work well. But it’s been shown many…
In this series we discuss 2 critically important aspects: effective communication and training. When you work with people you enter a different world from machines or any other farming system. You can, to a large extent, control or manage machines, production, harvesting, packing and even marketing. When it comes to…
All the technical knowledge in the world means nothing if you can’t work with your staff. Managing people is the most challenging area for any farm manager or owner. The mistake some smaller farmers make is to think human resource management (HRM) is only for big companies; in fact, it…
Farmers like to try new things – crops, cultivation methods, equipment – but it’s easy to get carried away… and to lose money. You can avoid both and make a success of your chosen type of farming by retaining focus. How many times have you heard somebody say how much…
A common decision farmers must make is whether to expand their farming operations or diversify them. Here are some basic rules. A sustainable farming business should never stop changing, evolving, adapting and growing. The easy part is saying all that in one sentence. The difficult part is making it a…
You can’t avoid a natural disaster, but you can plan for it. Here are a few ideas for what to do to reduce your risks and minimise damage. Farmers can’t plan for every possible event that might take place. But this is no reason not to plan for worst-case scenarios.…
Mechanisation costs money, which means it is part of a farmer’s production and overhead outlay, and that makes managing it very important. Mechanical resources include all the trucks, bakkies, tractors and equipment a farmer uses in his farming operations (they do not include vehicles or equipment for private use). And just…
Once plans have been finalised, make sure you implement them effectively. Implementing planned tasks aids your business objectives. Thus, it would be foolish to plan carefully and then neglect the implementation. Implementation is specifically carried out by the human resources (the employees) of the business, who should thus be activated…
Almost everything we buy today is affected by rising prices. Many of them we can do nothing about, but the question we must ask ourselves is, “What can I do on my farm to control increasing costs?” Input (production) costs are a fact of life for every farmer, so the…
For a farm, or any kind of business, to succeed, it must be managed properly. Precise planning is critical because it is the foundation on which all other management tasks are based. To manage properly implies that the four management tasks – planning, organising, implementing and control – must be…
It’s easy to talk about making money on a farm; many ‘millions’ have been ‘made’ using a piece of paper, a pen and a calculator. The reality is very different. Here are some practical issues to consider. Every farmer wants to maximise his earnings from his farm. This is not…
What makes one farmer more successful than another? This can be debated endlessly, but in the end it all comes down to farm management. There are many definitions for farm management, but if we combine them, they all come, more or less, down to farm management being “the efficient employment…
In today’s highly competitive farming environment strategic management of your farm is the key to prosperity. As farmer you should have a clear picture of what you want to achieve. To make progress, you should consider and implement the following: 1. Clearly define the mission of your business and your…
Running your farm successfully relies on sound planning and financial management. Here’s some useful information on the topic from some of our experts. Readers ask about farm plans The farm plan is usually drawn up by the farmer, with the help of his consultant or mentor, when he, or she,…
Small businesses often fail because their managers don’t understand or manage the finances properly. The foundation of your farming business is financial management and cash flow is an important part of this. Budget forecasts for the season ahead are only possible if you - the farmer – know what your…
Stay on track with your daily, weekly and monthly financial record-keeping. A farmer must keep up in all the aspects of his operation and good administration is probably a lot easier than you think it is. Keeping the farm books is right at the core of running a successful agricultural…
In these articles we look at the importance of keeping records as part of farm management, no matter how small or large your farming business may be. In the previous article we look at the filing system of Production and Marketing. In this article we look at Management and touch on…
No management without measurement is a well-known saying among farmers. After all, how can a farmer know where he can improve, where he is losing money, or making money, without the right information at his fingertips? Farm records play an important part in farm management, says Michael Cordes, Africanfarming.com’s experienced…
Saving is an essential financial discipline for all of us, perhaps a little more so, for farmers who want to be successful. The older generation learned to save at an early age which is the right time to start with exercising the ability to apply financial control. Most people today…
Alfred Moyo from Katete in Zambia’s Eastern Province asks: “Do you offer farm plans?” A very good question Alfred because the farm plan is the foundation upon which your farm business should be built. I have been remiss in not discussing this before so I must thank you for bringing…
Many of us are scared of the business side of farming and drawing up a business plan. We feel good about our stock handling ability or our green fingers, but we would like to leave the business part to someone else. Someone who is used to the nuts and bolts…
