Farm Management Research Research Articles

A National Program of Farm Management Research

A National Program of Farm Management Research

The Theory of Combination of Enterprises on Individual Farms

The writer desires first of all to confess that unfortunately no new revelations on the theory of combination of enterprises have come to him in the preparation of this paper. Merely to review the contributions of other workers in this field may seem like threshing over old straw. This is especially true since the theories bearing on this subject have been admirably stated by a number of writers in recent farm management literature.' However, a review of the farm management research work to date, especially as it relates to the problem of combining enterprises on individual farms, leads to the conclusion that there are some phases which need to be given greater emphasis in the future if the results are to show real progress in the field. First of all we need to close the gap between the broad economic principles, which form the foundation for our approach to the farm management problem, and to the analysis of specific problems on individual farms. In other words, we should try to place the problem of the combination of enterprises on the individual farm in its proper setting with respect to the general economic principles which have a bearing on that problem. This may mean a preliminary qualitative analysis and later a refinement, testing, or application of such principles; or all of these steps in some instances, but the important point is that the analysis is not complete before the nature of the connection of the principles to the specific problem is decided.3 Secondly, we need closer analysis of the situation on actual individual farms if our conclusions are to have as much validity as we would like to claim for them. This involves more detailed information on the nature of each individual enterprise in the business; but also, and more important perhaps, a greater realization of the complexity and the essential unity of the organism called a farm business.

Research in Farm Management: Scope and Method

Research in Farm Management: Scope and Method

A Study of the Human Factor in Farm Management

Most farm management studies of the factors affecting the financial success of farmers have dealt with farm organization and farm practices. Comparatively little attention has been given to the farmer himself who develops and directs the organization and determines the practices followed. It is hardly fair to assume, however, that farm management investigators have failed to recognize the importance of personal and family characteristics and considerations as factors affecting farm earnings. Farm management is a comparatively new branch of research. The first definite program of farm management investigation in the United States was initiated by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in 1902. Two years later the first farm management work of the United States Department of Agriculture was started. In many states farm management research has been in progress less than a decade. As in any new field of study, the investigators started first with the most obvious and easily measured phenomena and gradually developed technique for more intricate studies.

Philosophy of Aereboe as Related to Scope and Method of Research in Farm Management

Philosophy of Aereboe as Related to Scope and Method of Research in Farm Management

Coordination of Farm Management Research in the Western States

Coordination of Farm Management Research in the Western States

The Use of Detailed Cost Studies in Improving Farm Organization in a Community

In presenting this subject I am assuming that the primary purpose of detailed cost studies as well as of all other lines of farm management and farm organization research is to help individual farmers in the organization and operation of their business. Incidentally there are collected through the detailed cost method a large number of general facts pertaining to the business of farming which are exceedingly valuable in studying agriculture as a whole, its relation to other industries, and the general subject of the distribution of the national income. However, I believe that the major emphasis in this type of research should be placed not on the gathering of a large number of general facts in regard to certain groups of farms or concerning farming as an industry, valuable as these may be, but primarily and fundamentally on those specific facts that are most useful to the individual farmer in determining the most profitable or desirable utilization of the resources at his command. It is on these grounds that we can best justify the use of public funds for this type of investigational work and it is by this standard we must measure the success of our projects in this field. It may be well here to review briefly the development of detailed cost studies. The first detailed studies in the cost of producing farm products were commenced January 1, 1902, in Minnesota by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in cooperation with the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture. Three groups of fifteen farms each in different sections of the state were studied by the route method. This type of research has been maintained continuously in Minnesota up to the present time with the exception of two years-1918 and 1919-when war conditions so disorganized the personnel and made farming conditions so abnormal that the work was temporarily suspended. It was renewed January 1, 1920, and two routes of twenty-four farms each are now being maintained in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. This type of work has been adopted from time to time in various parts of the country until at present twenty states are conducting detailed cost 69

Research in Farm Economics and Farm Management

Research in Farm Economics and Farm Management