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Outline for Farm and Agribusiness Management
Updated in Fall 2010
We will use the following list as a general guide for this course.
Section 1 introduces agricultural management as decision making in the agricultural industry. The discussion also provides an overview of economic resources; that is, a business needs resources to operate, but note that the resources are described somewhat differently than you may have studied in other courses.
Section 2. focuses on management as decision making and that business leaders must address may different types of questions or decisions. This section also emphasizes the role of goals in decision making and that decision making is a process.
Section 3 challenges us to think about the agricultural industry and how it has changed and how it continues to change, especially since the latter part of the 19th century when the industrial revolution began. This section also challenges us to think about these trends, their causes and their implications. In addition, we will consider the economic concepts of demand and supply and the characteristics of perfect and less-than-perfect competition to help us understand the changes in agriculture.
Section 4 emphasizes financial goals in decision making. We will review financial statements and several related concepts: accounting profit, depreciation, financial analysis and opportunity cost. The discussion will then turn to analyzing the financial implications of decisions. This discussion will address production theory and the concept of diminishing marginal productivity and the analytical tools of enterprise analysis and partial budget analysis. The last topics of this section are present value, cash flow, and risk.
Section 5 discusses skills managers need; including communication, leadership, teamwork, facilitating change, collaborating, negotiating and a sense of business ethics.
Section 6 addresses strategic planning, a business planning process and the opportunity to pursue strategic alliances, such as contractual arrangements, business co-ownership and supply chain management.
Section 7 is an opportunity to think more about the economic resources needed to operate a business: land, labor, capital, information and risk.
Section 8 reviews and summarizes the excitement and challenges of having managerial responsibility in 21st century agriculture.
The next page introduces Agricultural Management.
Last Updated August 18, 2010
Email: David.Saxowsky@ndsu.edu
This material is intended for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for competent professional advice. Seek appropriate advice for answers to your specific questions.
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