Farming and agriculture is the main industry providing every single human food and nourishment. Without farms, people would scarcely be able to suffice. With the growing population, industrialization, and an increase in natural changes, farmers have been facing many issues.
A typical farmer has less land than is economically profitable due to which they barely break even. Modern machinery is expensive due to which the farmers are required to be selective, leaving most of the process a labor-intensive one, furthering the loss in productivity.
Enterprise farm management is a relatively modern concept, which caters to categorizing and utilizing the physical and biological resources of a farm to its full potential to maximize crop yield and minimize losses.
Here, decisions involved in operating and organizing the farm are made and implemented according to the specific requirements of each farm.
Basic Concerns of Farmers
Land, Labor, and Livestock – A practiced farmer is aware of the description of the farm, the surrounding roads, markets and suppliers, and other such facts. The size of a farm is an indication of its potential. The number of productive men or work units and the livestock units kept also play a role in determining the size of the farm and how profitable the farm is.
The measure is a standardized one where the type of farmland or the animals around the area is not privy to consideration. Many farmers will choose to buy or loan additional land to increase their volume as they believe it can increase outcome and profitability.
In some countries, due to patterns of land tenure on inheritance, one farmer hordes multiple farming lands at some distance from each other.
Practices like this keep the overall productivity low as the focus isn’t on maximizing the efficiency of the farming practice but instead only to heighten profits.
Finance Management– Farmers need to have financial tools to help analyze, plan, and control the business. Including financial statements also gives clarity on the liquidity of the farm, which is the ability to meet financial obligations on the due time. Having these statements is what keeps a farmer from falling into legal and accounting trouble.
The traditional farmer considers the land, labor, and livestock to be the most valuable resources of a farm. At times, the farmer himself will become the manager and calculate these things in hopes of saving cost and maximizing efficiency.
But since this capital is in the hands of the governing body, the traditional farmer without thorough knowledge has lost independence and due to poor planning, expensive failures often occur.
What Does a Farm Manager do
A farm manager is the one who is responsible for the management and maintenance of the entire farm. There are different types of farms, according to which the main duties of the farm manager will be defined. For example, if we look at crop farms, the manager will be in charge of fertilizing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and spraying crops with fertilizers and anti-pest medicines.
There are four main types of farms, mainly:
- Crop farms: These farms grow cultivated plants that harvest food, clothing, and fuel mainly. A farm manager would be responsible for tilling, planting, spraying, fertilizing, cultivating, and harvesting the crops along with ensuring that these harvested crops are packed and stored right.
- Horticulture: This field of agriculture deals with the science and business of plant cultivation methods. A farm manager here would oversee the production of ornamental plants and nursery flowers.
- Aquaculture: These farms are mainly focused on sea-food like fish, crustaceans, and aquatic plants like nori or seaweed. The source of water can be from oceans, fresh waters, and so on. The farm managers here would organize stocking the sea-food, feeding them and keeping them fresh, and packaging them to be sold for consumption.
- Livestock: Here, the farm raises domesticated animals for labor or food and fiber. The farm managers take over feeding the animals and keeping them healthy, ensuring clean living spaces for the animals and all breeding activities.
Each type of farm manager might need to take over different activities and have different skill sets, but they also need basic information about what they’re growing and how to handle business.
Features of Farm Management Software
In the era driven by data, insights into practices of farming too can be revolutionized to change how farming is seen and practiced for the entire community of agricultural workers. Not only a farmer but also every person and sector in the agriculture chain, including consultants, dealers, manufactures, and retailers are benefitted from digitizing farm culture.
Using good enterprise management software that is integrated onto the cloud helps organizations to collect, monitor, and improve their practices based on farming data from the app. A specific algorithm runs the data and provides role-based access to the farming data, which allows the manager of the farm to make more informed decisions.
With access to the software, managing any aspect of your farms like crop cycles or employee performance is easy to handle. Keen and accurate insights on pest management and control or weather disturbances are all tracked and displayed in real-time.
Enterprise farm management software allows the traditional farmer to complete independence and authority while connecting them to the latest farm practices, the best equipment, and the best market strategies to optimize their profits.
- Live visuals and information of the Farm – You can personalize your dashboard to give a live diagrammatic representation of all farm-related information.
- Digitized data – Real-time farm information is automatically digitized and put forth in a way anyone can understand and is location-specific
- Broadcasted News and Schemes- Farmers can connect with farmers around the world and broadcast their latest successful practice, their grievances, and updates about the market.
- Advisor for crops- The software comes with channels where you can get advice from an expert about how best to manage your farm and how to solve the issues you face.
- Crop Schedules– You can customize and set crop schedules for watering, fertilizing, and dissemination, so you never forget to ensure the safety of the crops.
Making use of Enterprise Farm Management software is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get started on thoroughly planning out your farm and optimizing the aspects that govern your profits.