Major topics include market structure, the transportation system, futures markets, and the relationship between consumer demand for food and the farm-level demand for agricultural commodities. This course is designed to provide training in the application of managerial functions and principles to business firms and institutions serving agriculture. Emphasis is placed on the decisions and decision making processes involved in the acquisition, organization and management of human, financial, and physical assets for non-farm agribusiness firms. This course emphasizes the planning function of managing a farm business. The course deals with procedures for individual enterprise planning, whole-farm planning, and cash flow planning emphasizing budgeting throughout.
Laboratory exercises focus on understanding the procedures.
This course provides students with a framework for analyzing natural resource management decisions. Applications of microeconomic theory are made to the management of soil, water and other resources, with special emphasis on the institutions impacting management opportunities. Major topics include supply of and demand for natural resources, resource allocation over time, rights of ownership, and public issues of taxation, police power and eminent domain. Agricultural finance deals with management problems associated with farming and ranching from the time of acquisition until the business is transferred to the next generation. Building on the basis provided in AGEC 3313 or 3413, attention is given to planning, acquiring, and controlling the financial resources required for farming and ranching.