Al6-Umcaster Farming, Saturday, May 31,1986
Test your farm financial health
Your business skills are put to
the test every day. You make
decisions and weather the out
comes. If the information you need
to manage your farm isn’t at your
fingertips, you search it out. But
where do you need to fine-tune
your management during these
tough economic times? Where can
you cut costs or change emphasis
to improve your profit picture?
Are you going to be able to get that
operating loan that will get you
through until fall? Is your farm
going to return enough to meet
your business as well as personal
obligations? Do you know how your
Belknap Livestock
Dayton, Pa.
Wednesday, May 28
Report Supplied by PDA
CATTLE 95. Compared with last
Wednesday’s market: Slaughter
cows steady to strong... Utility
slaughter steers 38.25-
42.00. . .Utility slaughter heifers
37.50-38.25... Few Breaking Utility
& Commercial slaughter cows
38.00-48, 4-5 33.75-36.25, Cutter &
Boning Utility 35.50-39, Canner &
Low Cutter 31.00-35, Shells down to
28.. Utility slaughter bullocks
40-43.75... Few Yield Grade No. 1
1185-2040 lbs. slaughter bulls 42.00-
47, #2 1840 lbs. at 39.50.
FEEDER CATTLE: Few
Medium Frame No. 1 3-610 lbs.
steers 50.50-57.50, few *2 3-405 lbs.
44.00- .Medium Frame #l-2 375-
610 lbs. heifers 38.0049... Few
Medium Frame #l-2 535-745 lbs.
bulls 39-48.50.
CALVES 73... Few Choice
vealers 70.00-83, few Good 5064.50,
Standard & Good 90115 lbs. 55.00
60, 65-85 lbs. 48.00-56... Farm
Calves: Holstein Bulls 90130 lbs.
75.00115, few down to 65.00.
HOGS 243...8arr0ws and gilts
steady to 25 cents lower...US No. 1-
2 220245 lbs. barrows and gilts
47.8048, No. 1-3 210245 lbs. 47.00
.48, No. 2-3 210255 lbs. 45-46.80, few
2-210 lbs. 4042.50, No. 2-4 220285
lbs. 41.50-44...50ws mostly $2.50
lower...US No. 1-3 350695 lbs. sows
35.00- 23.0033.00.
FEEDER PIGS 66... US No. 1-3
1030 lbs. feeder pigs 18.0031 per
head.
SHEEP 18... Few High Choice &
Prime 70-85 lbs. spring slaughter
lambs 70.00-74.00.. ..Slaughter ewes
19.00-25.50...G0ATS 20: 20.00-54;
Kids 12.00-20 - all per head.
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farm measures up financially?
A quiz distributed to farmers
through the Maryland Cooperative
Extension Service helps answer
some of thede questions and pin
points strengths and weaknesses in
a farmer’s management skills and
financial condition. The quiz
consists of eleven questions that
focus on a balance sheet, an in
come statement, a cash flow
analysis, and enterprise records. A
farmer is evaluated on the actual
financial condition as well as his or
her familiarity with the operation
of the farm.
Here’s the quiz to test the
financial health of your farm, find
your strong points and discovedr
any possible areas for im
provement. Choose a response and
enter that number in the blank.
1 My total debt is _of my
total assets
(1) less than 40%
(2) about 40-70%
(3) more than 70%
(4) don’t know
2 My current assets are.
current liabilities
(1) more than
(2) about equal to
(3) less than
(4) don't know
3 For the past two years, my
annual net farm income has
been
(1) positive both years
(2) positive one year and
negative one year
(3) negative both years
(4) don't Know
4 Interest
are 25% of i
receipts
(1) less than
(2) about equal to
(3) more than
(4) don't know
5 I've prepared cash flow
proiection for my farming operation
(1) a detailed
(2) a quick or rough
(3) no
6 I keep enterprise records
for my farming operation
(1) complete
(2) partial
(3) no
7 In three of the past five years,
my crop yields have
been normal for my farm
(1) above
(2) about equal to
(3) less than
(4) don’t know
8. My bills are
(1) on time
(2) arriving faster than I
can pay them
(3) hard to
pay, and my unpaid bills
are half again what they
were in any of the last
three years
(4) don’t know the status
of my bills
9 My level of operating credit
has the size of my operation
in the past three years
(1) decreased in relation
to
(2) kept up with
(3) increased more rapidly
than
(4) don’t know
10 Within the last year, my
lender has rejected my loan
request (If your operation does not
depend on borrowed funds, score
1)
(1) portion of
(2) part of
(3) all of
11 I have
(1) analyzed my financial
condition and my farm
appears to be stable
for the future
(2) analyzed my financial
condition as being poor
and I am considering
leaving farming within
the next three years
(3) not analyzed my
financial condition but
I am determined to
continue farming even
if it results in eventual
bankruptcy
Your'total score on the quiz can be
matched with the following
guidelines
11-12 points Your financial
situation is probably, well under
control
13-15 points Your responses in
dicate several areas to concentrate
on and improve
expenses
I total farm
16-22 points Prioritize the areas returned you’re certainly not alone
you'll work on, then tackle one or Many farmers returned the quiz
more immediately anonymously, showed that the "farm
23-33 points 1 You've indicated crisis" is no stranger Farmers are
many areas to improve Help from a encouraged to pay close attention to
lender or financial adviser could their financial health and develop a
speed your improvement timetable good working relationship with their
34-40 points; Check the number of lenders Seminars and workshops on
times you’ve given a “don’t know" farm management provided by the
response Become familiar with these Cooperative Extension Service
areas of your farming operation, then provide a good source of information
work on improvement with the help of tor brushing up on management
a financial adviser skills.- Dale Johnson and Dick
Split fertilizer applications
save money and environment
NEW YORK, NY - Farmers
who apply all their fertilizer at
once will not get the best return on
their money, Lewis Coalter, vice
president of sales, Arcadian
Corporation, recently told a group
of agribusiness investment
managers assembled in Des
Moines.
“Researchers estimate that the
average crop utilizes only 50 to 60
percent of broadcast nitrogen.
That means almost half of a far
mer’s nitrogen investment has
absolutely no effect on his yield.
The rest is lost through leaching or
denitrification,” Coalter ex
plained.
He recommended split ap
plications of fertilizer through
starters, banding, side-dressing
and other techniques to “decrease
the percentage of applied plant
food that is lost, and increase
percentage of that used by the
crop. For years, farmers have
been programmed to consider cost
per acre when determining fer
tilizer budgets. To more ac
curately figure the bottom line,
they should be looking at cost per
bushel produced,” Coalter said, as
a means of survival in a depressed
Jarm economy.
He urged improvement of the
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grower’s “fertilizer efficiency
ratio,” a number obtained, for
example, by dividing the number
of bushels of corn harvested per
acre into the number of pounds of
nitrogen applied per acre. The
lower the number, the better the
efficiency ratio, the return on
investment, and the farmer’s cash
flow.
Coalter said more efficient use of
fertilizer is possible through
greater skills involving “TPC -
timing, placement and con
centration of nutrients.” He
reported that liquid fertilizers,
which lend themselves more
readily to split applications, are
gaining market share at the ex
pense of anhydrous ammonia and
dry fertilizers, “due to better TPC
and because they are more
adaptable to new cultural
techniques, such as conservation
tillage, to control nutrient losses.
“The idea is to make fertilizer
available to the crop instead of
letting it go down the tile line. Two
of today’s major objectives -
controlling nutrient losses and
achieving high, profitable yields -
complement each other. They
make sense from both economic
and environmental standpoints,”
Coalter declared.
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