Farm management, from the start
Starting Point
Ponto de Partida · Punto de Partida
You already know how to produce, and produce well. Managing is a different skill, and no one taught it to you. Here is the start, in seven steps, in the order each depends on the last. You are always on one step, and each has a "done" you answer yes or no yourself.
Start hereSay what you want from the farm
You run the farm on autopilot, without having decided what it is for you.
Done when: you put your goals in order and turned the main one into a target you can check, with a number and a date.
Touches the compass for everything
Open the stepRecord what happens
You decide from memory, and memory loses the detail.
Done when: one full cycle recorded, in a way you can look up later: operations by area, farm cash split from the family's, people and hours, documents with deadlines, and what you have already sold.
Touches production · people · finance · marketing · sustainability
Open the stepTurn the records into numbers
You have the papers, but you do not know what they say.
Done when: you know what your unit costs (a bushel, a hundredweight, a head), how much machinery and labor per area, and what each area produced.
Touches finance · production · people · marketing
Open the stepPut next year on paper
You buy the input and produce without having decided the whole year.
Done when: before the first purchase there is a written plan: what to produce where, how much labor and machinery, how much has to be sold to cover each bill, and the bad-year test.
Touches planning · people · finance · marketing · sustainability
Open the stepSet who does what
Everything runs through you, and it stops when you are away.
Done when: every recurring decision has an owner and a backup, and each operation done by someone else has an agreed way in writing.
Touches people · production · finance · sustainability
Open the stepMake the agreed work happen when you are not there
You agree on it, but in your absence it comes out different.
Done when: what you delegate goes out with a work order and comes back checked, and each window begins with a conversation that is recorded.
Touches people · production
Open the stepCompare and correct every year
You repeat the year without knowing whether the past decision was good.
Done when: after each cycle you compare planned against actual and correct the next year in writing, for at least two cycles in a row.
Touches all the axes
Open the stepReached step 6? You have closed the loop of management, from plan to correction. Each step opens onto the technical articles for that axis. Nothing here promises a result: the steps are in the order each depends on the last, not by how much they pay.