Top Farmer Conference: January 10, 2025

As one of the most successful and longest-running management programs specifically crafted for farmers, the Purdue Top Farmer Conference is a one-day event for agricultural producers and agribusiness professionals looking to navigate the complexities of today's agricultural landscape. Participants will have the opportunity to network with peers and hear from farm management experts and agricultural economists from Purdue, Farm Credit Services of America, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Acres, a land value data analytics company.

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Crop Budget Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet can be used along with the Purdue Crop Cost & Return Guide to examine gross revenue, costs, and earnings for crop enterprises.  The user can evaluate up to three full-season crops, and the wheat double-crop soybean system. Updated November 2024.

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Agricultural Jobs & Labor Update

Labor availability and labor retention are big issues in the U.S. economy and that’s especially true for agribusiness firms and for commercial scale farm operations. According to the latest Purdue Agricultural Job Market Report, job postings are up by 50%. More employers are seeking entry-level candidates with higher levels of education. Additionally, it has become more common for employers to include salary information in their job postings as a way to encourage applications. In this episode of the Purdue Commercial AgCast, host Brady Brewer joins Josh Strine, a Ph.D. student in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics, to discuss the Purdue Ag Jobs Dashboard.

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Agricultural Job Market & the Purdue Ag Jobs Dashboard

Wondering what the current agriculture job market is? 

In this episode Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture’s ag economists Brady Brewer and Nathan Delay discuss the agricultural job market and the Purdue University’s Department of Agriculture Economics Ag Jobs Dashboard from research conducted by grad student Doug Abney.

The dashboard is an overview of monthly data collected of the agricultural job market over time, starting the summer of 2021. Slides and a transcript from the discussion are available.

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Precision Agriculture and Technology

Precision agriculture utilizes biotechnology and nutritional technology; monitoring, measuring, and information technology; and process control technology to increase resource efficiency, reduce input cost, and/or improve product value.  This series of articles will discuss precision agricultural technologies, potential payoffs of using these technologies, and the capabilities and skills that will be needed to manage these technologies.

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Crop Cost and Returns

On this Purdue Commercial AgCast episode, Dr. Michael Langemeier and Dr. Brady Brewer discuss the latest numbers from the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture’s decision tool along with tips on how to use this tool to make farm operating decisions.

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Financial Management – Statements & Analysis

A series of financial management articles that examine financial statements and financial analysis. Financial management involves the evaluation of liquidity and solvency, financial planning, acquisition and use of financial resources, asset purchases and farm growth, and relationships with agricultural lenders.

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Is it Feasible for my Farm to Add an Operator or Hired Employee?

As a farm expands, it is important to evaluate the feasibility of adding an operator and/or hired employees as well as the feasibility of purchasing or renting additional land, and machinery and equipment.  The feasibility of augmenting labor on a farm depends on two critical factors: gross revenue and profitability.

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International Differences in Labor Efficiency and Productivity

Examining the competitiveness of crop production in different regions of the world is often difficult due to lack of comparable data and agreement regarding what needs to be measured.

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Assessment of Management Skills

Assessing management skills is an important part of benchmarking farm performance and figuring out where improvements may be needed.

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How Can I Improve Labor Productivity?

Labor efficiency and productivity can be improved by examining per unit costs among inputs and making appropriate adjustments to a farm’s input mix.

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