Farm Management Research Research Articles

The Role of Modern Statistics in Analyzing Farm Management Data

T HE purposes of this paper are: (1) to discuss briefly the relationship of statistics to quantitative scientific research, (2) to outline some of the uses of statistics in farm management research, and (3) to list and discuss some of the arguments given for not using modern statistical methods in collecting and interpreting farm management data. Many writers, including some who have written textbooks on statistics, have confused the discussion of the use of statistical methods by classifying statistics as a method of research on the level with experimentation and other methods. On the contrary statistics is a tool which is used in all quantitative research. It is true, of course, that the statistical methods used may be simple or complex; they may be efficient or inefficient and they may give biassed or unbiassed estimates, tests, or predictions. At the minimum, data are usually summarized by averages of one sort or another. These averages are statistics and are estimates of some population values or parameters. Since the data are usually based on samples, these estimates have a sampling error. In other words, the estimates would vary from sample to sample. Appropriate statistical methods for analyzing farm management data cannot be discussed intelligently without considering the objectives of a study, the specific hypotheses to be tested and the sources of data. Statistics can make an important contribution to the success of a research study in the planning stage. A majority of the studies that end in disappointment failed in their conception and design. Other studies fail because of improper analysis and interpretation of the data obtained, but these are relatively few in number compared to the former. The main steps in scientific quantitative research might be classified as follows:

Sampling Methods in Use in Some of the Farm Management Research at Cornell

Sampling Methods in Use in Some of the Farm Management Research at Cornell

The Role of Sampling in Farm-Management Research

HE ever-changing phenomena of how farmers make a living with the resources they have available cannot be brought into the laboratory for analysis and study as can the phenomena of many of the physical sciences; nor can such phenomena be investigated by controlled experiments as is the case with many of the natural sciences. Social science research depends upon the valid analysis of representative observations of continuing ever-changing complex processes. In farm management, one of the social sciences, representative sampling is essential to valid conclusions and generalizations.

The Agricultural Economics Program of China

HIS paper' is a brief description of the principal lines of work now being carried out in the Department of Rural Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Chungking, China. The scope of work assigned by the National Legislative body to the Department of Rural Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, is rather broad. It includes: (1) the reform of land tenure, (2) the planning and supervision of agricultural credit, (3) the improvement of farm management, (4) survey and research in rural economy, and (5) other rural welfare affairs. These provisions indicate that the nature of work of the Department is both administrative and research, both action and fact-finding. In recent years, however, we have paid more attention to the third and fourth categories of work as listed above; that is, the improvement of farm management and the survey and research in rural economy. We believe that unless the organization and the operation of the farm are materially improved, the welfare of the farmer can hardly be promoted, and that before we can formulate any definite policy and put it into effect, we have to find out facts. In the following, therefore, I shall say a few more words about farm management and agricultural survey and research although other phases of work will also be touched upon. I. Reform of Land Tenure. The purpose of the reform of land tenure is twofold. The first is to protect the tenant farmers and to raise their economic standing. The second is to help and to build up owner farmers so as to attain eventually the objective that those who cultivate the land are also owners of the land and to wipe out the boundary now existing between the landlords and the tenants. The methods of approach in this connection may be described briefly as follows: (A) Protecting the tenant-In accordance with the Land Law adopted more than ten years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has instructed the various provinces to reduce land rent, specifying that the rent should not exceed 37.5 percent of the total

Forty Years of Farm Management Surveys

T WAS about forty years ago that farm management survey work, as well as other lines of farm management research, being initiated in the experiment stations of the United States. This about the time when the better agricultural areas were well on their way in the shift from self-sufficient to commercial agriculture. Although the first work in farm management surveys began about 40 years ago it may be of interest to consider somre of the earlier developments which led up to this work. Before 1900, agricultural research workers all over the country were beginning to think of going to the farms for some of their information. One of these workers L. H. Bailey of Cornell. In a lecture before the Training Conference for Rural Leaders at Cornell University in July 1911, Bailey spoke on Survey Idea in Country Life Work.' In this lecture he states that the survey idea at Cornell was really begun with a piece of work in 1890 that culminated in the publication of Bulletin 19, 'Report upon the Condition of Fruit-Growing in Western New York'. The early development of the survey idea is well explained in Bailey's lecture as follows:

Farm Management Research Needs in New England

HE NEEDS for research in farm management in New EngTland are probably little different in general outline from those of the rest of the country. The simple fact of the matter is that during the years of the great depression in the thirties, and up to the onset of the war, farm management research in many places has been pretty much at a standstill. The energies of the researchers in this field have been absorbed merely in keeping up with the developments under the AAA, SCS, FSA and other programs and trying to see what they were doing to agriculture. The war with its production goal programs, price supports and ceilings, and labor shortages, has cast the researchers still more in the role of observers. But as the war ends, the agriculture of this country will be faced by the need for adjustments more far-reaching than in any other few years in its history. It is high time, therefore, that research in farm organization and related subjects shift quickly from the passive to the aggressive. This paper presents the results of some thinking along these lines mainly in terms of the concrete situations in New England.

Contribution of Farm Management Research to Attainment of Production Goals

Contribution of Farm Management Research to Attainment of Production Goals

Forty Years of Farm Management Research

Forty Years of Farm Management Research

Land Classification, Land-Use Areas, and Farm Management Research

Land Classification, Land-Use Areas, and Farm Management Research

Comments on Sampling to Increase the Usefulness of Farm Management Research

Comments on Sampling to Increase the Usefulness of Farm Management Research

Orientation of Farm-Management Research to Low-Income Farms]: Discussion

Orientation of Farm-Management Research to Low-Income Farms]: Discussion

Orientation of Farm-Management Research to Low-Income Farms

Orientation of Farm-Management Research to Low-Income Farms

Orientation of Farm‐Management Research to Low‐Income Farms: Discussion by Phillip F. Aylesworth

American Journal of Agricultural EconomicsVolume 23, Issue 1 p. 239-245 Article Orientation of Farm-Management Research to Low-Income Farms: Discussion by Phillip F. Aylesworth Phillip F. Aylesworth, Phillip F. Aylesworth Farm Security AdministrationSearch for more papers by this author Phillip F. Aylesworth, Phillip F. Aylesworth Farm Security AdministrationSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 February 1941 https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/23.1.239AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume23, Issue1February 1941Pages 239-245 RelatedInformation

Procedures Which Increase the Usefulness of Farm Management Research

Procedures Which Increase the Usefulness of Farm Management Research

Dr. Schultz on Farm Management Research

W ITH the general import of Dr. Schultz's paper on farm management research in the August number of THIS JOURNAL, the writer finds himself in full accord. No more pertinent general criticisms of much of past research could be offered than the two with which he begins his analysis, namely that it has not provided an adequate basis for adjusting farm organization and practice to economic change, and that it has not adequately related the individual farm economy to the economy of the whole. But certain passages in it do not seem to the writer to hold together very well. therefore seems worth while to undertake a restatement of a few of Dr. Schultz's propositions. One of the points of emphasis in the article relates to inputoutput ratios. Dr. Schultz says that a good deal of effort is now going into determining physical input-output constants, and that such an approach to farm management analysis is inherently unrealistic and that trying to work up these constants is a poor use of the resources of agricultural economists. And yet in another paragraph he writes: It follows that what is important on the physical side in farming is not what input-output rates are possible under controlled laboratory conditions but what technical rates are possible in practice and which the farmer expects. is the latter that enter into his decisions and plans. is these that must be ascertained if we are to predict the actions of farmers. These expected technical rates, however, will probably vary significantly from farm to farm within any given area or type.

Theory of the Firm and Farm Management Research

Theory of the Firm and Farm Management Research

Adapting Farm Management Research to New Opportunities

The opportunities referred to in this paper are not strictly new. They center on the needs for farm management research which have developed since 1929. There will be general agreement that during this period the demand curve for the farm management product has shifted significantly to the right. As a result we have calls for new types of farm management analysis, and for changes in emphasis on old lines of work; but most important of all, new channels have been developed for application of the results of our research work-in other words, there is a new market outlet for the product.

Farm Management Research and Changing Price Relationships

Farm Management Research and Changing Price Relationships

Farm Management Research in Relation to Agricultural Adjustment and Rehabilitation

Farm Management Research in Relation to Agricultural Adjustment and Rehabilitation

Statistical Analysis in Farm Management Research

Statistical Analysis in Farm Management Research