Economics of Farm Management in a Global Setting

Dr. Kent Olson is professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is involved in applied research, on-campus teaching, and extension education. He has taught farm management for 25 years on campus and in extension settings. His research emphasizes farm level management issues, especially the interaction between farming and the environment, sustainable agriculture, decision-making, alternative production technologies, and the impact of government policies. Dr. Olson has also been the state coordinator for two farm record associations in Minnesota. He grew up on a farm in north-central Iowa, graduated from Iowa State University, and was a farm management extension specialist at the University of California-Davis before joining the faculty at Minnesota in 1985. He and his siblings continue to own and manage a farm in Iowa.

• Preface. Acknowledgments.Chapter 1 Managing the Farm in an Integrated World Economy.Chapter 2 Management.Chapter 3 Business Plans.Chapter 4 Lessons from Microeconomics.Chapter 5 Lessons from Macroeconomics.Chapter 6 Government Policies Affecting Farming around the World.Chapter 7 Strategic Management: Planning.Chapter 8 Strategic Management: External and Internal Analysis.Chapter 9 Crafting Strategy.Chapter 10 Strategy Execution and Control.Chapter 11 Marketing Basics.Chapter 12 Financial Statements.Chapter 13 Financial Analysis.Chapter 14 Financial Management.Chapter 15 Enterprise Budgets: Uses and Development.Chapter 16 Partial Budgets.Chapter 17 Whole-Farm Planning.Chapter 18 Operations Management for the Farm.Chapter 19 Quality Management and Control.Chapter 20 Investment Analysis.Chapter 21 Land Ownership and Use.Chapter 22 Risk Management.Chapter 23 Production Contract Evaluation.Chapter 24 Human Resource Management.Chapter 25 Business Organization.Chapter 26 Farm Transfer and Succession Planning.Chapter 27 Farming in the Future.Appendices.Glossary.Index.