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Coaching vs. Evaluations To Improve Ag Employee Performance
One of the most difficult things farm managers have to master is coaching employees. Using appropriate coaching methods with employees will help you as a manager to achieve the desired employee performance you are looking for in your operation.
Crop Rotation Potential: Improving Soil Health & Farm Profitability
Two-year corn-soybean rotation coupled with heavy chemical inputs has become the routine practice of agricultural production in the Midwestern United States. According to USDA/NASS data, corn and soybean prices received by producers in South Dakota both reached the peak levels of $7.39 and $16.00 per bushel, respectively, in August, 2012.
Why Precision Agriculture?
When precision agriculture comes into a conversation a few questions arise. Three of those questions might be: What is precision agriculture? How does precision agriculture make our farm more profitable? What do I do with all this data?
Employee Turnover: It Is Important in Agriculture Also
Lots of conversations in agriculture lately focuses around labor or the lack of a labor pool of employees. This is the case not only for dairy farms, but also within the entire agriculture industry.
Alternative Calving Considerations
Structuring a calving program that best suites farm and ranch operations can be challenging. Of primary concern are: weather, labor, market timing, and animal health considerations, with weather possibly being the most volatile factor, as it ranges from challenging to catastrophic in some years.
Soybean Production: Cost-effective pest management practices
Chemicals were one of the most expensive individual costs in soybean production, behind only to seed in the non-land cost category. The average cash-rent soybean production farms incurred a crop chemical cost of $39/ac in 2015, an 88% increase from 2010.
Is Agritourism for You?
Do you like people and wish to provide educational or entertainment opportunities that showcases your farm or ranch? If so, agritourism is an opportunity you may wish to explore!
Agritourism
When a producer has decided to sell a product directly from the farm, entertainment or tourism-based activities could be incorporated to create larger appeal. Agritourism could add value to the farm visit though education, entertainment, outdoor recreation, dining, relaxation or other avenues, potentially drawing more customers in.
Cybersecurity Planning: Securing the Future
With reliance on digital technologies, precision agriculture requires securing data and implementing key strategies to safeguard digital assets and maintain operational integrity and confidentiality.
Ag Cybersecurity and Social Engineering 101
Social engineering is manipulating individuals to share confidential information and compromise security. By understanding the basics of social engineering, stakeholders can take proactive steps to ensure the resilience of agricultural systems against cyber threats.