With dropping grain prices and prospects for a burdensome carryover, grain producers are placing extra scrutiny on their production costs for the growing season ahead. For that reason, the Crop Production Week Special Session this Thursday evening will deal with managing farm costs and getting the best bang for your buck.
Doug Faller, the policy manager for APAS, the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan will address farm input costs. While employed with Saskatchewan Agriculture, Faller had a lead role in developing a farm input price survey, but the survey was discontinued many years ago.
“These days, there isn’t as much price transparency on fertilizer, crop protection products and the other basic inputs,” notes Faller. “Producers have to do their own research to get the best value for their money and larger volume purchases can often command preferential prices.”
“Is there a need for a price input survey to be re-established? Can producers get better pricing by combining forces? I’m looking forward to throwing those questions to the audience and getting their feedback,” says Faller.
Allyn Tastad, a partner in the Saskatoon accounting firm of Hounjet Tastad Harpham will be presenting his firm’s TOP TEN business mantras including:
- Know your numbers
- If there’s cash, there’s never a problem
- Did you know you’re going to die at the end of this?
Tastad is hopeful that within his firm’s TOP TEN, there will be at least one or two key directives that each of the attending farmers will be able to take back and apply to their own operations. He says that in 2012, amongst the firm’s top farmers, cash costs excluding the farmer’s own salary averaged $1,675 per day.
The Special Session is a presentation of all the organizations involved in Crop Production Week / CropSphere. There’s no charge to attend and everyone is welcome.
Crop Production Week Special Session Ballroom B, Saskatoon Inn
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