The scope of farm management -- The farming environment -- The functions of management -- The decision process -- The farm business life cycle -- A business plan -- Strategic management -- A game plan -- Crafting a strategy -- Strategic planning -- Strategy implementation -- Strategic control -- Marketing plan -- Marketing plan components -- Historical price patterns -- General price forecasting methods -- Marketing control -- Budgeting -- General budget terminology -- Types of budgets -- Microeconomic principles for management -- Budget development -- Production and operations management -- Process mapping -- Improving the current process -- Enterprise selection -- Input supply management -- Scheduling operations -- Quality management and control -- Quality defined -- The costs of quality -- Quality management -- Process control -- Tools for process improvement -- Financial analysis -- Understanding financial statements -- Measures of financial position and performance -- Initial analysis -- Diagnostic analysis -- Financial management -- Sources and uses of capital -- Calculating loan payments -- Estimating the cost of credit -- Cash flow management -- Financial control -- Investment analysis -- The time value of money -- Investment analysis (a.k.a. capital budgeting) -- Land purchase and rental -- Purchasing land -- Land rental -- Risk management -- Sources of risk -- Managing risk -- Crop insurance -- Making risky decisions -- Scenarios for management planning -- Production contract evaluation -- Types of production contracts -- Evaluating production contracts -- A production contract checklist -- Staffing and organization -- Human and employee needs -- Human resource management -- Business organization -- The future farm manager -- Farmers' responses -- Concluding comments.