By Jonathan LaPorte
What are the best opportunities to maximize profits in 2022? In any given year, there are tried and true methods that every farm pursues. Minimizing our investment in input costs or securing optimum prices for production are just a few. But deciding which opportunities are best this year is more difficult with additional factors of supply chain concerns and availability of inputs. As we move into spring, these factors have many farm managers continuing to weigh options and finalize plans.
As your farm’s manager, you may be considering making last minute changes as well. The use of budgeting tools can be a helpful way to fine-tune your plans. Michigan State University Extension offers several decision tools through the Farm Management website. Many of these tools focus on creating a projection of each individual enterprise. But what does the overall picture look like once those budgets are put together? MSU Extension has released a new decision tool to help answer that very question for your farm.
The MSU Cash Flow Estimator is intended to help create an overall cash flow projection for a farm’s business. Farm managers can create three types of projections based on which production enterprises make up their farm. The projection options include crops only, livestock only, or crop and livestock combined.