58
-Lancaster Fannins, Saturday, December 28,1985
Brockett’s Ag Advice
: By John E. Brockett
jH Farm Management Agent
Lewistown Extension Office
Taking Inventories
Inventories should be a
necessary part of your
management job. Inventories are
not the waste of time that some of
you think they are. Let’s list some
of the uses of inventory.
Credit - a good annual credit in
ventory would be very helpful to
anyone interested in having a
sound credit program.
Analysis - a complete farm
business analysis requires annual
inventories.
Planning - an inventory can help
you plan feed purchases, fertilizer
purchases, etc. It can also give you
a good idea of what you would have
available to sell in the way of
excess crops or livestock.
Sales - yes, you can often sell ex
cess inventory. It may help pay
some of those bills. Without annual
inventories, it may be hard to
determine the amount of excess
you have.
What Should Be Inventoried?
You should inventory assests
and liabilities. Some of the
primary inventory items are:
Livestock - how many animals of
each age bracket do you have?
Harvested Crops - grain, hay,
other forage - how many bushels or
tons do you have on hand?
Supplies Orf Hand - items pur
chased in prior years that still
have some use.
Prepurchased Items - items you
bought in 1985 for the 1986 season.
Accounts Receivable - how much
have you sold that you have not
received payment for.
Don’t forget the negative items -
particularly;
Saperhopper
M.H. EBY, INC.
P.O. Box 127
Accounts Payable - unpaid bills,
especially those over 30 days old.
There are some secondary items
that can be inventoried such as
machinery, standing crops,
buildings, and land. These are
usually not as critical as the ones
above.
How To Inventory
There is nothing easy or
glamorous about taking inventory.
Perhaps we should develop an
inventory contest. Prizes could go
to (a) most accurate account, (b)
fastest inventory where everything
was accounted for, (c) highest
inventory, (d) Most Improved
Inventory, etc.
One suggestion on taking in
ventory - get someone to help so
one person can count and the other
can be a note taker. Measure bins,
cribs, silos, hay storages. You can
often save time if you have an idea
of the amount a storage will
contain if it is full.
Measures
How to measure and guidelines
on capacities are often considered
as problems by those who make an
attempt to inventory crops. I have
a mimeograph with inventory
guidelines. If you want a copy, just
ask for it.
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