Present-day farm operations are becoming more and more business oriented. Farming is more than just producing crops, it requires farmers and landowners to address profitability, fertility, conservation, and tax issues to name just a few. Being a good producer is no longer good enough to remain in business. The key to becoming a successful farmer today is being a good producer as well as a good farm manager.
Farm management is one of the most important resources in operating farms. Farm management determines how the farm-life will be organized, resources allocated and activities performed. It deals with various strategies and methods to keep a farm productive, sustainable, resistant and profitable.
- Knowledge base of best practice processes – The importance of a knowledgeable and professional farm manager is essential for maximizing the appreciation and income of investment farmland. To be successful, farmers need the skills to produce what the market wants and what satisfies consumers. A knowledge base of best practice processes with information about when and how to perform some activities in field, pests treatments and their products and fertilizers enabling farmers to make informed decisions.
- Personal data – Farm management system enables you to collect, process, store and disseminate the data in the form of information needed to carry out the operations functions of the farm. This can be data of land use (land preparation, yields, fertilization and protection management, crop rotations), data of inputs used, product price and input cost, their unit and total cost and where to obtain them. Accurate personal records, along with financial and production data, will help farmers analyze the information and make the necessary adjustments to operate more efficiently, thus increasing profitability.
- On –time information – In agriculture, farmers have multiple risks to deal with, such as weather conditions, diseases, demand, supply or market prices for their goods, which are often far beyond farmers’ direct influence. If adverse events occur, they must be traceable through the system and immediately visible in the farm management software (in real-time) to prevent further waste and damages. Scheduled and on-going activities, along with consumption of resources must be recorded and performance has to be measured on hourly and daily basis for every cost object employed and every activity triggered in farm’s ecosystem.
Farm management software helps farmer engage in strategic, tactical and operational planning. It also works towards a much higher degree in organization, assessment and optimization of performed work on the fields. The farmer becomes equipped with a tool which puts all of his field work and paperwork under unified control simpler than ever.
