Farm Succession Planning » Strategic Planning for Business

afimilk® – Modern Dairy Farm Management Seminar

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:58:22 +0000

Founded in 1977, SAE Afikim is the global leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing cutting edge computerized systems for the modern dairy farm and herd management.

A pioneer in the field, SAE Afikim introduced the world’s first electronic milk meter over 25 years ago and since has continued to provide advanced solutions for the milking parlor having installed more than 1600 computerized management systems, 110,000 milk meters and over one million ID tags in more than 50 countries on five continents.

Duration : 0:5:56

By coupling its outstanding R&D resources to its vast field experience SAE is poised to provide front line decision-making tools for increasing dairy farm profitability. SAE’s expanding product range formulated professionally sound answers for comprehensive turnkey projects.

Leading the company’s product basket is Afimilk, a modular computerized system for the management of intensive dairy farming and AfiFarm, a fully integrated software program supplying the farmer with real time information for short term tactical and long term strategic decisions.

More recently, SAE Afikim has begun marketing its innovative systems adapted to pasture extensive interface areas as well as for small ruminant (Sheep & Goats) dairy farms.

Additionally, SAE Afikim has launched AfiEnterprise, a division responsible for providing entrepreneurs and early stage dairy investors with the structural elements and technical components need to establish a profitable dairy farm enterprise – from sheds to milking centers.

Workplace Conflict Resolution Important Tips

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:10:31 +0000

The only business without conflict is a person working completely alone on a desert island.

Well that’s not true – there just wouldn’t be anyone around to witness it.

In a family owned business conflict takes on an additional element, we’re related to each other and when you get under my skin there are limited options available to me.

Their demoralizing management style grates on you but there is little you can do about it.

And if it’s a subordinate that’s defiant and troublesome – you can’t fire them when they are your sister, cousin, nephew, or uncle.

These sorts of conflicts are a normal part of life on the farm.

The key to proper resolution of these inevitable conflicts is having a set of rules and practices to tip the momentum of your conflicts toward a mutually beneficial resolution.

The place to start when implementing meaningful conflict resolution is with the individual. Each individual is always first responsible for the way they interact within their work environment.

You are the one person you have control over.

Here are some tips for conflict resolution.

How Will You Compensate The Important Members Of Your Farm Strategic Planning Team, and Where Will They Come From?

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:52:00 +0000

The best farmers understand that farm strategic planning concerns looking down the road at what’s coming around the bend.

In addition they understand that if everybody is on the same page when it comes to considering benefits of their strategic planning, they will be a lot more committed to take part in it and take advantage of the final results.

Any time people are focused on the future beyond this growing season they end up asking the question, what’s important about that, when presented with options, possibilities, and plans for growth.

Farm strategic planning is all about seeing your plan of action more clearly to help you, as an organization, make choices that profit the long term aims of the farm along with the family.

The strategic planning web sites, text book, and how-to books appear to miss the point when they identify the importance of the strategic planning team by implying that a farm business must be big enough to have the employees hanging out geared up to take on another task, that of being part of the strategic planning team. That invalid presumption eliminates about 75% of all the companies on the planet.

Let’s say you could potentially contact the top people possible, people that have different viewpoints whose knowledge just might help you create a sensible strategy. They could help you come up with and maintain an actionable strategic planning strategy over the long run. And also because there’s never any kind of charge for their wisdom, your strategic planning team will operate continuously always.

Many successful farmers regularly contact members of their trade association, other farmers and leaders whose results have been proven over the years and in whose ideas they trust.

During the cold months you may meet up in person, maybe in advance of or just after an association event. In the busy time of the year you meet over the phone. Simple and effective.

Individuals who are closing in or retirement add experience to the team. Those who are in the middle of their careers, perhaps with kids to consider, add an additional dimension, while successors of successful farming operations attempting to develop the farm business one stage further expand the range of diversity.

The result, insights coming from a variety of points of views that provides a priceless richness to the process.

When using the constant feedback from your strategic planning peer group it is possible to more easily target strategic opportunities all around you that would have stayed unseen to you without their well considered input.

As you and the other members of your strategic planning peer group put your intentions of paper and keep them in front of each other you will develop an environment for continually look at and adjust your evolving mission statements.

Continuously articulating your goals for the future as they are continually refined by your strategic planning peer group will keep the important next steps always in view.

Taking action yourself or delegating it to the individuals within your organization who have the energy, authority, and accountability for their completion is all that now stands between where things are today and where you want them to be in the future.

better decisions from a farm b2b peer group –> When you make better decisions you get better results. Successful farm strategic planning is the result of continuously making better, more informed decisions. The best decisions are typically those made in collaboration with people whose success we respect and whose opinions we trust. When we harness to power of our peers we make better strategic planning decisions 100% of the time.
Click here to find out how this is possible!

Farmers Doing Estate Planning Want To Know The Characteristics of Exceptional Business Accountants

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:49:56 +0000

Is there anyone more important than your business accountant when you are considering the most effective way to manage the farm?

Not only is the role of your business accountant critical with the day to day strategic financial management decisions, their insights are vital when it comes to estate planning and planning for succession.

So, what are the characteristics of an exceptional farm business accountant?

In a nutshell exceptional business accountants are well trained, experienced accountants who work well with others.

For example, an accountant who is not a CPA yet who is willing to call in specialists whenever and wherever needed is more valuable to you and your business than a hot shot expert who suffers from the NIH Syndrome (Not Invented Here) who is unwilling to admit to their limitations and actively seek advice from others on your behalf.

Read the entire article right here: Characteristics of Exceptional Business Accountants

Planning And Succession – Better Results Come From Higher Productivity

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:23:46 +0000

I’ve really never met a farmer who has ever done a formal productivity assessment.

If they had they would know how unproductive their days are, in terms of bottom-line results.

We all spend a huge percentage of our time doing stuff – working harder though is not the answer. It used to be, but not any more.

An honest productivity assessment would uncover just how productive your efforts are.

The 80/20 rule, often called the Pareto Principle, illustrates that often 20 percent of efforts lead to 80 percent of our results.

What would our bottom line results be if we could devote dramatically more than 20 percent or even 30 percent of our time to staying focused and productive?

When you are a life member of our community you have access to Passing Down the Farm 2010.

You will come away with a better understanding of the power of letting go, the benefits of sharing responsibility, and you’ll be ready to focus on what’s really important – stop majoring in minors and get on with it.

You’ll also learn how to leverage the power of your peers – to dramatically expand your decision making ability, you’ll stop dithering about important decisions because your successful peers will have helped you test your assumpyions thoroughly!

Here s an article that will tell you a lot more about it, Three Smart Ways To Plan Your Day For Higher Productivity

Farm Succession Planning » Strategic Planning for Business

afimilk® – Modern Dairy Farm Management Seminar

Recommended Reading

Workplace Conflict Resolution Important Tips

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How Will You Compensate The Important Members Of Your Farm Strategic Planning Team, and Where Will They Come From?

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Farmers Doing Estate Planning Want To Know The Characteristics of Exceptional Business Accountants

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Planning And Succession – Better Results Come From Higher Productivity

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