The Rural Voice, 1978-08, Page 33DOUAR UNE
Farming isn't all hard work,
takes management skill too
By Donald Shaughnessy, CA
Farmers are not always like other businessmen, and their
profit statements fequently cannot express their values in
monetary terms.
For farming is a way of life as much as a business, and the
degree to which a farmer pursues quality in this way of life can
often be measured by comparing two approaches which I might
call that of the 'worker -farmer' and the 'manager farmer'.
When the farmer drives home with a $75,000 piece of
machinery, that is going to work for maximum of three weeks a
year, he is demonstrating that he is
General financial advice by members of the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Ontario.
more intersted in how the machinery does the job, rather than
how much money it can earn.
This is a trait of the worker -farmer -- considering a job that has
to be done from the viewpoint of how well and effectively it can
be done. not on the cost of doing it.
A worker -farmer will frequently go for a top-of-the-line model
of a machine with a much greater capacity than he actually
needs. A manager -farmer, on the other hand, might use
something 20 years old. with the paint chipped off, if it gets the
job done reasonably well.
Take the case of a $5,000 baler that runs a few days a year.
baling 3.000 bales of hay. The worker -farmer argues that the
cmp is valueless if it is not harvested in a certain week, so the
expense is justified.
The manager -farmer knows that, too, but when he considers
the cost of buying his own baler. as opposed to having someone
elese do the baling for him, he is willing to take the risk that the
person he hires won't get the job done.
Maybe that will happen once every five years or so, but the
manager -farmer considers that an acceptable risk in comparison
with the cost of buying his own baler.
On a much larger scale. a farmer must weigh the cost of
buying a S75,000 combine, that will do the job at a 100 per cent
level against a $40.000 machine that is only 85 or 90 per cent
effective. The worker -farmer will invariably go for the biggest
and best: the manager -farmer for the one that is financially
practical.
Another difference between the two types of farmers is that
the worker -farmer considers it unthinkable to let part or all of a
crop be wasted in the field. no matter what the cost.
The manager -farmer sees the crop in a different light. If there
isa point at which it is more expensive to harvest a crop that the
cmp is worth, he will not pass that point.
Both aproaches to farming are valid and have their share of
suppr.rters. It only proves that financial statements may be able
to show how many dollars and cents a farm has earned. but not
the satisfaction and feeling of ..,complishment that the farmer
has experienced.
HOEGY
FARM SUPPLY LTD.
Brodhagen, Ontario
Tel. 345-2941
After hours 345-2243
*BARN WASHING
AND DISINFECTING
Spraying with CARBOLA
whitens and disinfects as it dries
*CATTLE SPRAYING
For Lice and
warble control.
•Seaforth
J.
•Brodhagen
•Dublin
*Mitchell
TIIF RURAI, VOICE/AUGUST 1978 PG. 33