More 'B4 Angus champs ' %'W Judge Conrad Grove of Downingtown, also slapped a South Branch entry for his grand champion bull. 3 Bar Cody 1292 was jointly exhibited by South Branch and Dale and Carol Thompson of Potlatch, Idaho. / * "I*S( r South Branch Camilla Bell 332 was named grand champion female of the 52-head Angus show at the Maryland State Fair in Timonium. She is owned by South Branch Farms and GH2 Angus Associates, both of York. Fresh feeder cattle arriving daily at our Leola yards. Give us a call to see what we have on hand. ’ * -t Hog Division (Mon., lues., Wed. & Sat. A.M.) 717-291-8912 Ed Prosser's Home 717-367-2368 ,-v ATTENTION CATTLE FEEDERS Main Office 717-397-1411 Brocket's Ag Advice By John E. Brockett Hi Farm Management Agent Lewistown Extension Office Financial Problems? Who doesn’t have financial problems today? Certainly all types of farmers are on the down side right now. What will happen to family farm agriculture? Win it be replaced by something else? Will investors own all of the good farm land in the forseeable future? Who will these investors be - business corporations, insurance com panies, foreign investors, non farming individuals, or retired farmers and their heirs. The final and most important question is what about YOU? Will you be a farmer in 1985 or 1990? If you are, then how many of your neighbors will go out of business so you can survive? These are cruel, hard nosed questions that are not even nice to consider -am I not right? But you had better consider all of them because you hold a major part of the answer in your own hot, grubby hands. Your survival - no, not just survival, but rather your success, is a vital factor in the continuance of the family farm system in agriculture. Some Ideas If you are going to succeed in this not very cheery world of com petitive agriculture, you will have to be better than you have been in the past. You will have to be above average especially in financial management. You will have to learn new ideas and techniques. Don’t say “I’m too old”. That is so much nonsense. The only time you are too old is when you are dead. Financial Management This is a strange entity to many farthers even though many of us have talked about it for years. Now more than ever a successful far mer is going to have to learn how to manage his finances. It is even more important than production management. Financial management will be the key as to whether you survive or not. If only we had the publicity awards for top financial managers that we have for top DHIA herds, top corn club farmers, or show winners, there might be more of you who would still be around 10 years from now. What is financial management? It is the ability to look at, analyze, and use in decision-making items such as cost returns, profits, and balance sheets. Financial management is also the ability to know how far you can stretch a dollar before it breaks. Finally, financial management is being able to use present and past results to budget and project realistically into the future. Now let’s look at some of the things a financial manager must do: 1. Be cost conscious - know what it costs to produce a product. Once you know how much it costs to produce something, the next step iw shat makes up this cost. Average costs are not good g LANCASTER STOCKYARDS Bill McCoy’s Home 717-569-5044 Pat McCoy's Home 717-656-8076 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 13,1984—D5 enough. You must Know your cost. 2. Be return or profit conscious - it ifj essential to know the cost, but it is also important to know the return. Sometimes a low cost per unit can be achieved by starvation, which results in low production per unit. The end result is usually failure. 3. Use production management tools for a number of reasons. Let’s use soil tests as an example: a. Can be used to make the best possible use of the fertilizer and lime dollar. b. Can be used to help set priorities on fields for allocating limited fertilizer and lime dollars. In many cases, it would be wise to just use lime if dollars were short. c. Can be used to help you put on a balanced nutrient program rather than a hit or miss program hoping for a savings of nutrients for the future. 4. Keep records - always, always, always keep and use records. They are dull. They are miserable. They are lifeless. They also may be the thing that helps you stay in business as a successful farmer. If you can put up with them, they will serve you well. I’M NOT L10N... The Classified Livestock Section Has Beastly Selections)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers