"Applied Farm Management"

Farm Management is about managing and optimizing farming "systems". It includes, Financial Management but is much more than just that. Farm Management takes into account the best and most up to date scientific, technological, economic and market research available and applies it to farming systems with the objective of achieving the best outcomes in terms of overall profit and sustainability. It also involves applying that research to an individual farming operation whilst at the same time accounting for the farm's unique variables. Those unique variables include the plight of the farmer, his/her strengths and weaknesses, the nature of the land being farmed and the "climate", (in every sense of the word), in which each individual farmer operates.

It is not uncommon for a good farm management practitioner, be they a farmer or advisor, to identify and understand the application, and "practical fit" of research better than the researcher. Likewise, it is not uncommon for the good farm management practitioner to be able to communicate that research and its potential to a farmer in a language that is understood by the farmer. In addition to those attributes, good farm management practitioners are also adept at problem solving and at being reactive or proactive when farming circumstances change.

Lincoln College (now Lincoln University) and Massey University became internationally famous because of their unique applied approach to "Farm Management".
People who graduated from those institutions with degrees and diplomas at Lincoln University in farm and horticultural management actually had a comprehensive understanding of the industries in which they were involved and felt comfortable when in the company of practitioners. With very few exceptions, that couldn't be said of the graduates of tertiary agricultural institutions in many parts of the world whose focus, in the main, is based on academic achievement. Such graduates, although having a sound theoretical knowledge, often feel like a fish out of water and have problems when applying that knowledge in a farm situation.

In academic circles, Farm Management isn't considered to be a science and is therefore often misunderstood, ("mis-underestimated" to quote President Bush"). It's probably controversial to say that even in Massey and Lincoln whose academic base has broadened beyond agriculture in recent times, that the very meaning of "Applied Farm Management", which once differentiated and made those institutions internationally unique in the eyes of the world's agricultural communities, is also somewhat misunderstood. Having said that, it is a positive that Lincoln has re branded its self as a "Land Based University" and one can only hope that "applied " will be part of the mix.

There is no question, if New Zealand is to have an economic future it must be based in the area where we have a significant competitive advantage, Agriculture. With free markets opening up as we speak agriculture and agribusiness must be supported by a long term and well funded agricultural science and research programme in tandem with an applied farm management bedfellow.

i.Agri is offering a free - no obligation internet series on the fundamentals of "Good Farm Management". It is designed for folk with a genuine interest in farming profitably. To view the introduction to the series click here