Making Your Small Farm Profitable: Apply 25 Guiding Principles/Develop New Crops & New Markets/Maximize Net Profits Per Acre

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Good advice for serious beginners

It's about business, the business of farming.

A Wise Investment for the Inquisitive, Curious Beginner

Where's the beef?

Being a Farmer does not mean living in Poverty

Making Your Small Farm Profitable: Apply 25 Guiding Principles/Develop New Crops & New Markets/Maximize Net Profits Per Acre
Ron Macher
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach (Down-To-Earth Book)

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ASIN: 1580171613

Book Description

This practical, step-by-step guide to operating a small farm in the new millennium examines 20 alternative farming enterprises. Readers will learn how to target niche markets and sustain a farm's biological and economic health.

Customer Reviews:

Good advice for serious beginners.......2007-06-15

There are lots of books written about how to grow things, how to raise animals, organics, etc. However, this is one of few on the subject of small farming that actually puts the whole picture together in terms of creating/sustaining a business and a lifestyle. The author expects that the reader is serious about surviving and thriving from his/her farming activities and shares information specific to the "business" of farming in a sensitive and ethical manner. It shouldn't be a secret that the small farmer needs to take advantage of every asset on the property year round, in addition to wearing every hat in a small business: Planning, marketing, sales, accounting, production, maintnenance, networking, etc. Excellent general information and many specifics, too. Well worth the read if you are serious about learnting to farm for profit.

It's about business, the business of farming. .......2007-03-01

This book is about the business of farming. It is not about how to produce a specific crop or livestock. There are many other books out there that cover these subjects. Some people rated this book poorly because their expectations for the book conflicted with what the book's subject is.

If you want to know about the buying equipment, how many hours of your time and how much capital you'll need to expend on various livestock or crops and how much you can expect to profit by those efforts, this is the book that will help you.

A Wise Investment for the Inquisitive, Curious Beginner.......2004-03-21

First, let me begin by saying what this book is not. This book gives zero advice to practicing small or large farmers on how to turn a profit. This book is not a how-to guide for those starting out. Nor is it a step-by-step method on how to get rich by working the land. If that were the case, then every small farmer in America would have read the book and gotten wealthy, instead of banks and other creditors foreclosing on family farms and putting them on the auctioning block.

Now, let me elaborate on what this book really is. This book is a very polite warning by two very seasoned, jaded individuals who are aware of the escapist notions and romantic fantasies many people have about farming. They have been around long enough to have become intimately familiar with the Back to the Land Movement, a Return to Simplicity, and Environmental Sustainability/Sustainable Agriculture- aka The New Improved Agriculture. It took me a while to realize this (three readings in fact!) and understand the dangers associated with one pernicious stereotype about farming.

Many of us on the sidelines believe that anyone can farm, and all it takes is a willingness to work hard (the trite saying about hard-working ditch diggers getting rich comes readily to mind). When we think of the farmer, we often have one (malicious) stereotype in mind- that of the dumb country boy with a 'gee aw shucks' outlook on farming and life. Basically, we really do not think it takes brains in order to farm successfully. I mean, after all, you take some seeds, toss in a little fertilizer of your choice, water them and come back in a few months to collect your crop and get your pesos (almost literally)- just how hard could that be?

Well, speaking as someone who is thoroughly new to farming, never once has farmed, and is inquisitive about the practice of agriculture, after considerable investigation I can tell you the prospective reader that no matter how hard they work, dumb people will not be able to stay on the farm for long. We on the sidelines do not think farming is difficult because we do not think about the Practice of Farming and the Business of Farming. If your experience of farming up to this point is shopping at your local natural foods co-op, perusing the stalls at the local weekly farmer's market, or wandering the aisles at some trendy, eco-hip retailer like Whole Foods or Wilds Oats (who have skillfully co-opted environmentalism as a path to insane riches), and you are considering going into farming as a vocation, then I do not think you will hear the polite warning contained in this book. If you are someone stuck in a dead-end or high-paying but otherwise unfulfilling career (like this reviewer), and you are seeking an out, a means of escape (what we politely but laughingly call a 'transition'), then you just might catch the polite warning consistently stated throughout this book.

Farming attracts many people not because of its business or financial aspects but because of the lifestyle many people associate with farming. If you are an MD, then you are in the business of healthcare. Your business and your lifestyle are completely different. In fact, whether your business is highly successful or modestly successful, your lifestyle could be lavish, it could be modest, or it could be parsimonious- it's up to you and your personal preferences. If you don't like your current situation, from where you work, to who you work for (read HMOs) to your clientele base, you can make a change without changing your lifestyle- too much that is.

Now here is the polite warning: if you are drawn to farming because of the lifestyle, and you turn this lifestyle into a business, then it behooves you to make damn certain that your business can pay for itself, because after all, your business is your lifestyle and your lifestyle is your business. The lifestyle will not work out if the business end does not pay. In fact, the business end may place quite severe limitations on the lifestyle you can reasonably expect to achieve, which in many cases will be well below what you are currently accustomed to. Unlike a 9 to 5 gig with some godless multinational, you can not simply just pack up and leave (this assumes implicitly that the heartless .......... have not fired you in the latest round of restructurings), and if the business end does not work out, you lose not only your lifestyle, but also your home.

For me, the true heart of the book and the real message of the text were contained in the Foreword by Budd Kerr Jr and Part I- Getting Started. In terms of content, the book contains little on the techniques of farming, and has eleven chapters divided into four parts- Getting Started, Farming, Planning and Marketing, and Management, with a handy appendix chock full of useful resources on the Business and Practice of Farming. The text is specifically pitched at a level that almost anyone can understand, and there is a noticeable bias towards the environmentally minded reader.

That said, the true purpose of this book is to get you, the prospective reader who may be thinking of getting into farming, to start thinking about the Practice of Farming and the Business of Farming, all romanticism and eco-hip verbiage aside. This book is of no use to someone who is already farming, and in need of help. The best time to read this book is before you get into farming whole hog as they say down on the farm.

Even though it took me three passes to finally get the message, I am glad that I did read it before taking any action.

Read this book several times BEFORE you venture into farming, not during or after.

Where's the beef?.......2004-02-19

I kept reading and reading looking for the exciting practical information promised by all these reviews. Then the book ended. Then I looked back at the reviews to see what I'd missed that (mis)lead me to believe there was practical information in it. They use words like 'overview' to indicate that there ain't much in the way of real meat in this book. I can sum it up in one sentence: Find yourself a niche market locally and grow what they want. If you need details about producing the product, this is not the book you're looking for.

For extensive, detailed, practical information about making money by pasturing mixed species of livestock, look at books by Joel Salatin. But even he could still bring in more complementary planting for winter forage. Greg Judy has a detailed book about making money with livestock without owning the land or the livestock.

Being a Farmer does not mean living in Poverty.......2004-01-07

I enjoyed Mr. Macher book. His realistic examples and stories on how to get started have convinced me to leave writing software and become a business man who's products are farm products.

The appendicies are great with current information about where to get more information.

His true stories boxes let you know that he understands what beginging farms needed in the way of encouragement and information to help them make the decision to farm.

He is correct when he writes "to survive as a farmer you must have a market before you start to grow and you must provide a quality product with even better customer service."

Book Description

This book covers the sugar cane plant, crop production and services, the latter comprising engineering, research and administration. It aims at providing the reader with information regarding the cost-effective production of a good crop of sugar cane. The significance of the book is the provision of practical information for the farmer engaged in the production of the crop. The cultivation and management of sugar cane is discussed, with emphasis given to cultivation and management practices. Supporting services of agricultural engineering and research are given special attention.

The John Deere Way: Performance that Endures

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Learning Why a Legendary Company is Legendary
A Deere Corporate Bio
Jeremy Dahlstrom
Great Primer on the Company

The John Deere Way: Performance that Endures
David Magee
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471706442

Book Description

The John Deere Way presents timeless business lessons from one of America’s top brands. Even as many American manufacturers struggle with low-cost foreign competition, John Deere has not only prevailed, but increased its market share by offering superior quality products built tough and in accordance with time-tested business values. This book shares the company’s management principles and corporate values and shows how those values guide the company to increasingly greater success. For business owners and leaders who want to know what real long-term success constitutes—and how to achieve it—The John Deere Way is the only way.

Download Description

As many American manufacturers struggle with low-cost foreign competition, John Deere has not only prevailed, but increased its market share by delivering superior quality products built with time-tested values. For 150 years, these values have guided John Deere from a small tractor and farm equipment manufacturer to a famous American brand with social cache and a diverse array of products. The John Deere Way shares the management principles and values that have made John Deere one of the most respected and successful brands in America, including the ten core secrets every business leader should take to heart:

I will not put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.
If we don't improve our products, others will make them in our place.
Always maintain integrity.
Concentrate on areas where you have a clear competitive advantage.
It is more important in business to listen than to lead.
It is more valuable to link than to leverage.
It is better to be lean than laden.
In a rigorously competitive market, virtue is necessary for sustained value creation.
It is important to build a business as great as your products.

Order your copy today.

Customer Reviews:

Learning Why a Legendary Company is Legendary.......2006-01-18

I'll admit it, I grew up on and around John Deere equipment. As an adult I have become a collector of antique tractors and become a student of this truly historic and great American company. John Deere is also a Client of ours.

So when I received this book as a birthday gift it was a slam dunk - it went near the top of my reading stack. Given all of that, this review doesn't come from my obviously biased point of view - this is a book worth reading.

The book does tell parts of the history of this company, but it isn't a book about products or history. Written by experienced business author David Magee, it is an exploration of the key factors that have led to John Deere to growing and thriving over the last 150+ years.

The chapter titles tip off the business practices and attitudes that have guided the company and serve as the thesis for the book. Selected titles include:

Embrace the Culture
Quality Comes First
Always Maintain Integrity
Build a Business as Great as Your Products
Grow on the Strength of Your Roots

If you are interested in looking for keys that lead companies to be successful over the long haul, you will find some in this book. Written in a very readable style and interspersed with anecdotes and stories from Customers, Senior Managers and 4th generation employees, it deserves to be on your reading list.

Besides, how can any book go wrong when its dedication readsit is dedicated "For the Farmer"?

A Deere Corporate Bio.......2006-01-09

This sincerely earnest book is a good example of why corporate biography remains, perhaps, the most problematic business-book genre. While the book is well researched, author David Magee apparently found it hard to avoid the trap of laudatory language about current management. To write a book like this, you need corporate help and access. Most employees won't even talk to an author without a go-ahead from the top. This means that, even without Deere & Company's roots date to 1836, when a blacksmith named John Deere moved from Vermont to the frontier settlement of Grand Detour, Illinois. Deere set up a shop that could provide stout hayforks, horseshoes and wagon parts. He talked with farmers, who complained that it was very difficult to plow the dense Midwestern turf. Plows made in the Northeast didn't work in the rich heavy soil. In 1837, Deere decided to devise a plow that would scrape off the topsoil, turn it over and let it glide off the plow. Even without an explicit quid pro quo, corporate biographies tend to become trapped in a sort of literary Stockholm syndrome, dependent on their sources for their own survival. That cautionary flag raised, this book provides a worthwhile portrait of one of America's stalwart agricultural companies. Deere & Company's values are as plain and honest as the face of a farmer atop his Deere tractor. Although the book would have been more engrossing if it offered pictures and sharper anecdotes, particularly from times when things didn't go well, we recommend it to those interested in agriculture, corporate histories or values-driven management.

Jeremy Dahlstrom.......2005-08-27

In this book David does a great job of showing just how the corporate culture at Deere & Company has developed over time while continuing to rely upon a basic set of core values that began with the company's founder and namesake and have been carried forth since. He traces how the company has continued to stay true to it's roots while struggling to compete in a continuously changing business and agricultural environment.

Great Primer on the Company.......2005-08-11

The John Deere Way is an excellent way to learn about the basics of what make John Deere a legendary organization. From the history to the operational strategies and values, it covers all of the important information needed to understand Deere. It would have been nice, however, if the book was a little less repetitive at times and did not contain glaring vernacular errors such as "you can take the country out of the boy but you can't take the boy out of the country". But overall, an excellent primer on Deere & Co.

Multiple Criteria Analysis for Agricultural Decisions, Second Edition (Developments in Agricultural Economics)

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Multiple Criteria Analysis for Agricultural Decisions, Second Edition (Developments in Agricultural Economics)
C. Romero , and T. Rehman
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0444503439

Book Description

This book presents the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) paradigm for modelling agricultural decision-making in three parts. The first part, comprising two chapters, is philosophical in nature and deals with the concepts that define the underlying structure of the MCDM paradigm. The second part is the largest part consisting of five chapters, each of which presents the logic of a specific MCDM technique, and demonstrates how it can be used to model a particular decision problem. In the final part, some selected applications of the MCDM techniques to agricultural problems are presented and thus reinforce the development of an understanding of the MCDM paradigm.

Book Description

Agricultural Options Trading, Risk Management, and Hedging If you're a trader, a hedger, a speculator, or even a novice at the ag market game, this is the book for you. Written by a leading options expert, Agricultural Options: Trading, Risk Management, and Hedging gives you the principles and proven strategies you need to profit in all the ag option markers— wheat, corn, soybeans, livestock, soft commodities, and more. You'll learn:

All the mathematical background and formulas you need to win in today's ag market
All about options in general and agricultural options in particular
Risk management strategies, option pricing factors, and trading techniques

Plus, the book contains detailed case studies of option trades that illustrate the best strategies and how—and why—they work. With Agricultural Options, you're right on top of the game.

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Farm Management
Michael D. Boehlje , and Vernon R. Eidman
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471046884

Book Description

A comprehensive introductory textbook for courses in farm management, with additional treatment of advanced topics for all agricultural economics and agribusiness majors. Develops the management concepts of planning, implementation, and control in the three important areas of farm managementâproduction, marketing, and finance. Integrated with practical illustrations and computational procedures.

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Profitable Organic Farming
Jon Newton
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0632059591

Book Description

The demand for food produced from sustainable and organic farm enterprises continues to grow worldwide, with demand exceeding supply for many items. This second edition of an extremely well received and successful book covers every aspect of an organic farm enterprise that can have an influence on profitability. As such the book is an essential purchase for all those involved in organic and sustainable farming.Topics covered include grassland productivity, production systems for dairy, beef, sheep, pig, poultry and arable farms, farm size and enterprise combinations, organic standards, financial management, marketing, success factors and progress by organic farmers. The book concludes with a new chapter covering potential future scenarios for organic farming.Drawing on new information available in the area and including case studies from successful organic farm businesses, the author Jon Newton has written a book that is of great commercial use to a wide range of workers including organic farm managers and those wishing to commence organic farming operations. The book is also of great use and interest to agricultural scientists and students and those working in government and regional agricultural advisory services worldwide. Libraries in research establishments, universities and colleges where agricultural sciences are studied and taught should have several copies of this important and useful book on their shelves.Review of the first edition'It is an essential volume for any commercial organic farmers or budding organic farmers bookshelf. It will no doubt also be a very popular read and provide much food for thought amongst many agricultural students ': New Farmer & Grower.Jon Newton is an agricultural consultant specialising in organic and sustainable agriculture based in North Wales, UK.

Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty

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A much welcomed volume on sustainable agriculture

Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521794811

Book Description

A move toward more flexible, sustainable agricultural practices is increasingly being seen as the way to address or avoid environmental and economic problems associated with existing, predominantly intensive, farming systems. Through case studies taken from around the world, this book examines the implications of adopting more ecologically sound agricultural practices, at both individual farmer and larger-scale agro-ecosystems levels. The emphasis of the book is on human and social aspects, rather than on agronomic or economic considerations. The authors focus on the learning processes necessary to initiate and to facilitate learning through participatory approaches and appropriate institutional support and policy structure.

Customer Reviews:

A much welcomed volume on sustainable agriculture.......1999-09-02

This much welcomed volume begins with the disquieting fact that high-energy, chemical-input and intensive farming continues as the dominant model for agricultural development, with all its increasingly unacceptable hazards to human health, ecosystems and the landscape. As an alternative, the book looks to the development of more sustainable, productive and less destructive forms of resource use. However, this depends not only on the redesigning of the agronomic and technical make-up of farming but also on the development of organisational and human capacities aimed at maintaining and enhancing the natural resource base. Essential to this task is building of improved institutional frameworks for facilitating learning about the potentialities and difficulties of sustainalbe agricultural and environmental practice, as well as new methodologies geared towards understanding and improving forms of collective action. The various chapters - some build upon case studies, other addressing policy intervention and outcomes, and yet others exploring underlying theoretical issues - tothether add up to a formidable collection that explores the many analytical and practical problems entailed. Although the authors differ somewhat in their treatment of the notion of 'sustainability' - a slippery concept in the best of writings - one finishes reading the book convinced that here we have a work that makes a valuable contribution to the general debates on sustainable resource use by its emphasis on the emergent properties of collective decision-making. Many of the contributors have longstanding experience of participatory types of interventions and research at the level of farming populations: they now turn their experience and expertise to deal with more complex issues associated with the roles of 'local' and 'external' actors in the management of larger scale agro-ecological systems. The book identifies social constructivism as the epistemological basis for addressing social learning processes and organisational practices central to managing sustainability, since actors often disagree over the definition of the problems for solution and the means to be used. In other words we are confronted by 'multiple realities' which militate against concerted action aimed at specific objectieves. The building of bridges between these differing social worlds rests then on an awareness of how social coalitions and common points of view are and can be constructed socially. While participatory approaches recognise the necessity of such 'social' work, it has only recently that the theoretical potential of social constructivism has been taken up systematically in applied fields such as agricultural extension. The present volume represents a clear affirmation of the usefulness of this approach. The chapters of the volume are grouped into five parts. Part I consists of an introductory chapter which provides a general theroretical and thematic overview of the book. This is followed by two other contributions - one which identifies and criticizes policy options for supporting sustainalbe agriculture, and the other which offers a stimulating elucidation of the underlying philosophical and theoretical foundations of a new social-learning approach that addresses the issues of 'facilitating learning through making things visible, helping people to reconstruct realities through experimentation, discourse, observation and meaningful experience' (Woodhill and Röling, p. 68), and it points to the importance of creating 'new platforms' of understanding between the various (potential conflicting) actors necessary for the successful management of ecosystems. Part II explores the dynamics of environmental policy implementation and farmer responses in three contrasting European cases: Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands. The examples differ in the extent ot which farmers were involved or involved themselves in the development of these policy frameworks. Part III concentrates on issues relating to how farmers learn about and implement measures towards sustainalbe agriculture. Here the examples and issues are taken up range widely: from Europe (four Dutch experimental projects dealing with sustainable arable agriculture, and eco-farming in Germany), Asia (problems of integrated pest mananagement in Indonesia, and lessons learnt from Asian user-responsive, participatory agricultural research) and Australia (a government initiated participatory learning and research programme aimed at improved fallow management). Part IV moves the discussion to consider the processes involved in 'platform' building at rural and larger agro-ecological systems or water catchment levels. The chapters focus on the building of learning 'communities' concerned with sustainable agricultural practice. Contributing chapters are from the USA (methods and experiences of THe W.K. Kellogg Foundations's integrated farming systems programme), Australia (Landcare movement) and the Netherlands ('nature' policy). The concluding chapter (part V) offers a useful analytical overview of hte many interrelated arguments presented earlier. It underlines that the main contirbution of the book lies in its empahsis on 'what ecologically sound practice implies for the human actors involved'', - not only farmers but land users and other stakeholders interested in the countryside, and its analyses how conditions for generating favourable change might be created. Yet as the authors persuasively argue, the critical conditions are not, as economists are prone to suggest, primarily related to pricing and fiscal inducements; but rather they result from the complex social interplay of 'policy, institutional and behavioural change'. This book, then, deserves to be read and its arguments assessed not only by practising communication, participatory research and agro-ecological specialists, but also by all those interested in rural change and development. Scholars and students of sociology, anthropology and political economy would, I believe, particularly benefit from plunging somewhat more into the 'worlds of practice'.

Introduction to Food and Agribusiness Management

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Introduction to Food and Agribusiness Management
Greg A. Baker , Orlen Grunewald , and William D. Gorman
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0130145777

Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America

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Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America
Gene C. Wilken
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520052773

Book Description

Is traditional farming a thing of the past? Have we fallen into a technological trap where the modernization of agriculture is the only solution to world food production? Focusing on the farming practices of Mexico and Central America, Good Farmers examines in detail the effectiveness of sophisticated traditional methods of soil, water, climate, slope, and space management that rely primarily on human and animal power.

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