Farming is a complex job with many unique challenges, but can also be a rich and rewarding career that is full of opportunities. Following the author's Farm Business Management series, this new textbook takes the core principles and techniques and distils them into an accessible student resource. This book: covers the most important aspects of farm management, such as observation, decision making, budgeting, risk assessment and record keeping; is organized into easy-to-navigate sections such as the farmer's environment, financials, key skills and farm systems; and includes student-focused pedagogy throughout, comprising learning objectives, focus study exercises and review questions. Written by an expert with decades of teaching and research experience around the world, this book also incorporates two brand new chapters on farm accounting and computer systems and software. Providing a hands-on learning experience for students of agriculture, it will continue to be a much-used resource throughout their farming career. This book is enhanced with supplementary resources.

The underlying economic factors that affect primary production are frequently studied and written about - soil quality, animal health, climate, machinery - but this is the first book to explore the role of the decision psychology of the manager running the farm business, the person responsible for staff, strategic and operational decisions and the success or failure of financial and other objective outcomes. This second edition addresses fundamental questions such as the process of decision making, personal skills, and methods to improve managerial ability. It is an essential reference for farm managers and students in farm economics and management. Key Features: This is the first farm business management book published worldwide focused on human factors and decision making in primary production The second edition introduces two new chapters covering the key decision method, intuition and its enhancement, and the importance of human characteristics in a range of decision topics and areas

Management research has shown successful farmers have quite distinct personal characteristics which most farmers have seldom thought about. Farmers who are less successful tend to have processes and systems which are likely to be biased. The aim of this book is to help all farmers discover more about these personal attributes that impinge on the success of their management, and to show how their attitudes and personal resources can be improved. This book is not a straightforward textbook. Rather, it tells the story of a group of farmers who take part in an expert-guided experiment designed to test approaches to improving management skill. The group meet at each other's farms to learn about their issues and develop solutions to improving what is called their 'management style' with the aim of removing any identified decision system biases. The book covers issues like optimal decision rule systems and how they can become second nature. Each chapter is devoted to one of the common issues defining management approaches. One chapter, for example, has the farmers sorting out issues around succession planning, another covers the vexed problem of farmer anxiety, and still another has the farmers learning skills on self-critiquing. Overall, there are fifteen chapters covering both general and specific issues. The book is designed for all farmers but is also a valuable resource for students of farm management and agribusiness. A strong learning feature of the book are the references to formal theories and explanations provided in addenda to each chapter. These cover and list the main teaching points highlighted in each farmer meeting giving details of where the detailed methods of solving each situation can be found. Exercises and case studies can also be accessed both on line and in other CABI books.

Based on research carried out within the farming community and academic studies, this book assesses and explains the core skills needed to become a successful farm manager. Observation, anticipation of plan outcomes, and risk management are identified as key requirements, and each of these categories is broken down into isolated skills such as problem definition and visual observation, which are in turn dissected and analysed. Practical methods for acquiring or improving each skill are covered in detail, with practice exercises to engage the reader in active participation. This book is an essential resource for farm managers and students.

The third and final instalment of Peter Nuthall's "Farm Business Management" series, this volume teaches the practical skills needed to manage a farm, such as risk analysis, budgeting, cost benefit analysis and much more. The key characteristic of this book is its ability to simplify the complex subject of business management into a clear, accessible volume tailored to the topic of farming, by using engaging techniques such as worked examples to fully explain the complex decision making tools necessary for this discipline.