Business Management
Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning for Your Pork Production Operation
Publish Date: September 24, 2007
The Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP) concept has been developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to address conservation planning for animal feeding operations. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes that CNMPs address the requirements of the Nutrient Management Plan necessary for the maintenance of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit [1]. National USDA policy states that animal feeding operations should have a CNMP to be eligible to receive certain cost-share funding, such as Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) assistance. In 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (Farm Bill) increased the amount of conservation program funds available to animal feeding operations, and introduced the mechanism for using certified Technical Service Providers (TSP) as a source of technical assistance for producers. Producers can contact a TSP, request the development of a CNMP and then potentially be reimbursed for a TSP’s services with conservation program funds, depending on fund availability in their state.
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Commodity Options as Price Insurance for Pork Producers
Publish Date: June 3, 2006
Most pork producers are familiar with insurance. Producers insure buildings against fire, equipment against accidents, and their lives against death or injury. Insurance buyers trade a small but certain loss by paying an insurance premium to guard against the possibility of a large but uncertain loss. In pork production, one of the greatest risks faced is that of unfavorable price change. Market hog prices have been so uncertain that many times prices expected to be profitable when decisions were made regarding facility investment, breeding or feeder pig purchases ended up unprofitable instead. Additional risk also may be incurred on the feeding side as feed price increases and may wipe away anticipated profits. Because of these risks, producers might want to insure against unfavorable hog or feed price moves while retaining their ability to profit from favorable price changes. Producers have this opportunity by using the commodity options market.
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Credit Score: What it Means to your Business
Publish Date: June 3, 2006
Along with the credit report, lenders can also buy a credit score based on the information in the report. That score is calculated by a mathematical equation that evaluates many types of information that are on your credit report at that agency. By comparing this information to the patterns in hundreds of thousands of past credit reports, the score identifies your level of future credit risk.
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Cash Flow Budgeting A Weather Forecast for Your Business
Publish Date: June 3, 2006
Cash flow budgets should be thought of in the same way we think about weather forecasts. Many producers complain that cash flow budgets aren’t accurate and many times miss the mark by the end of the accounting year. Don’t we say the same things about weather forecasts? Producers say it is hard to forecast price, production, input costs and other items needed as they develop the cash flow budget. The budgets are hardly ever 100% accurate. Weather forecasts are similar. Despite the fact the weather forecast isn’t accurate; we still look to the forecast every day. It still gives us a better look at the weather around us than if we had no forecast at all. Cash Flow Budget can be looked at in much the same way. While they are not going to be 100% accurate, cash flow budgets give us a very good idea of what the business’s future will hold based on the facts and information we have about how the business performed in the past. Most successful producers depend on cash flow budgets like they depend on the weather forecast, even though neither are 100% accurate.
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