Agriculture and Agribusiness

Farm Business Management and Agricultural Finance

Farming is a business in which the owner is also the workforce and the accountant, which is why so many profitable looking farms run out of cash in the month before harvest. This course separates profit from cash and manages both. Delegates work through enterprise gross margins and the allocation of shared costs that makes two enterprises comparable. Whole farm budgeting follows, including fixed costs and the scale a farm needs to carry them. Cash flow projection is treated as the central tool, since agricultural income arrives in lumps and expenditure does not. Record keeping is addressed at a level a farm will actually maintain. Agricultural credit is covered from both sides: what a lender assesses, what security is available and why agricultural lending is priced as it is. Loan structuring against the production cycle follows. Risk management is addressed through diversification, contracts, insurance and index products. Investment appraisal for machinery and land is covered. The course closes on marketing decisions and on knowing an enterprise's break even.