Know your 2013 Cost of Production

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Calculating cost of production (COP) is an important part of marketing but not every farmer keeps a close eye on their COP.

OMAF offers some tips on developing a COP budget, which is impossible without good farm records. While the format can vary, typically a COP budget includes gross revenue, direct variable costs, indirect variable costs, fixed costs and net profit or loss. Several other resources are available to help farmers ensure their COP calculations will have maximum impact on a business. Farms.com Market School’s 10th Episode is an 8 minute in-depth analysis of COP calculations, particularly on a per bushel basis, and their benefit to any marketing plan. In addition to enhancing marketing plans, COP calculations can be useful benchmarking tools.

Refer to the TIP report (derived from the entire AgriStability database) for industry benchmarks based on similar farm types and income ranges.

CQM Refresher Courses

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Now that early adopters of the CQM program are due for re-validation, requests are coming in for refresher sessions just prior to the arrival of field service representatives.

If you are concerned that you may have fallen into bad habits in the last two years which may prevent you from passing this round, please call for a review of your records (be aware, however, that fees are no longer covered by Dairy Farmers of Ontario).

A year in review…

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2012 was an explosive year as far as writing contracts went! For a look back, check out my recently updated Portfolio. And stay tuned for more! With a number of contracts already booked into May 2013, there are many more exciting topics yet to come.