Posted: September 8th, 2016

write a report on your farm in the Future Farm Business Game.

Assignment topic
Using your own results during the management period and those of your fellow students, write a report on your farm in the Future Farm Business Game. The decisions made by the different groups and the outcomes will be discussed at the end of the session. In particular discuss;
1. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your own farm at the end of the management period which includes:
a. Profit after tax;
b. Proportion of the farm in crop and pasture and variation thereof between years;
c. Rainfall and its variation across years (mean and standard deviation), plot a graph;
d. Gross margins as a basis for making decisions. What is gross margin and how does variation in rainfall and market cause gross margin to change from year to year?
e. How did the commodity prices change and how did you respond to the price signals?
2. KPIs of your farm compared to the groups in the class at the end of the management period. Compare and contrast why the differences occurred and what choices produced those results given that everything except the management and choices were similar.
3. Did you choose to plant trees? Where did you place them, when during the management sequence and why? How did this compare to the other students?
4. Did you choose to plant perennial pastures? Where did you place them, when during the management sequence and why? How did this compare to the other students?

This assignment addresses the following:
1. Analyse the relationships between social, economic, environmental and cultural factors on agricultural systems and implications for structure of agricultural businesses;
2. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of enterprise diversity within a farming system and explain the importance of biodiversity;
3. Demonstrate skills in succinct report writing, good organisation, logical argument and presentation skills.

Length
Written report: 1,000 – 1,200 words, not including tables, graphs and references.

Marks