Farm Management

The financial tools a farmer can use to analyze, plan, and control his business include financial statements, profit and loss statements, and cash-flow statements. A financial statement tells the amount of money invested in farm assets, outstanding debts, the owner’s equity in the business, and the degree to which the farm is liquid and solvent. Liquidity is the ability to meet financial obligations on time, whereas solvency is the ability to pay all debts if the business is forced to discontinue. A profit and loss statement shows sources and amounts of income and operating expenses. Comparison of profit and loss statements over a period of years tells which resources have been most profitable and whether there has been an advance or decline in net income. A cash-flow statement shows the sources and uses of funds at given periods during the year. Such a statement provides a useful check on the accuracy of the farm’s other business records.

For the traditional farmer, land and labour (his own and that of his family) are the major resources. Under favourable conditions, the farmer has changed his role from labourer to operator-manager; much larger farm units with high capital investments have resulted. Such conditions include the existence of a considerable body of applicable scientific knowledge, an opportunity for greater efficiency from large-scale operations, the existence of good markets and transportation, the opportunity to routinize and centrally direct farm work, and an absence of community antagonism to large-scale agriculture.