6 Farm Management Questions for 2018

(Brent and David originally wrote this piece for the January 2018 issue of Successful Farming, available here.)

With budgeting and planning for 2018 underway, many producers are considering what might be in store for 2018 – and beyond. As the saying goes, the best-laid plans often go awry. In many cases, unknown factors outside of farmers’ control – such as weather or commodity prices – can significantly impact their bottom lines.

While you don’t know the future, you still must make plans and run your businesses in an uncertain world. This leaves you in a bit of a quandary about how to make decisions and estimates for the future. There are a variety of approaches you can use, but by focusing on the right questions, thinking critically about them, updating ideas as more information becomes available, and thinking about what is causing changes to the forecasts, you can make better decisions. (more…)