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FM100 Farm Management Library Guide

Lesson topics include understanding management, planning operations, making cost control decisions, making production decisions, estimating production costs, adjusting for change and safety-related lessons.

A "real world" management experience:

The availability of up-to-date prices and production information on internet provides many opportunities for the classroom. This information is very useful when incorporated into AgEdNet.com lessons. It makes them dynamic and more relevant to the students.

Farm management Library lessons provide students with a number of opportunities to plug in current price data when doing exercises. The weather-related lessons challenge them to understand various weather maps and reports you may have available.

Developing a management plan is extremely important to the success of any producer. Having access to current information allows students and teachers to develop plans based on real, current information and follow it through to analyze its success.

Some possible activities and projects:

  • Have students estimate the "weather risk" in grain markets by reviewing long-range technical charts. What have been the extent of price swings when weather cut crops short?


  • Ask students to determine this year's weather risk. Direct them toward long-range weather features. Also have them review corn crop progress reports released weekly by the USDA. Resulting activities could be writing individual papers, a written group report or a class discussion.


  • Have students prepare enterprise budgets with the current price information, including crop or livestock prices as well as inputs such as feeder cattle, feeder pigs and feedgrains.


  • Have students use current data to update production cost budgets from this library.

Have students make up a small farm newspaper on farm management issues.

Suggestions for using AgEdNet.com lessons:

  1. Lesson format: AgEdNet.com lessons follow a similar lesson format and include student lesson text, exercises, assessment and teacher's guide. LEARN MORE.
  2. Lesson extras include matching with National AFNR standards, internet resources, worksheets, PowerPoints, vocabulary crossword puzzles, glossaries and a search engine. LEARN MORE.

Photo credit: NRCS photo by Norm Klopfenstein.