4gricultural Systems 18 (1985) 61-67

Book Reviews

Boehlje, Michael D. and Eidman, Vernon R. Farm Management. John

Wiley and Sons, New York, 1984. pp. 806. Price £27.00.

This excellent textbook is aimed primarily at the degree-level student

specialising in the study of farm management. It tries to cater for the
advanced student as well as the beginner, giving some guidance at the
outset on the chapters most relevant to these two groups. Though it grew
out of the authors' teaching experience in the United States and thus
reflects a unique institutional framework (particularly insofar as taxation
and other law is concerned), the book is largely concerned with principles
and procedures applicable in many other countries. For the student of
farm management, this book provides a firm base on which exercises and
case studies can build understanding of the subject.
The book's main claim to novelty is in its approach, which aims to
combine principles with procedures, drawing on a variety of disciplines to
portray the implementation and control as well as planning function of
management. In this respect it differs from the traditional 'production
theory' approach with its concentration on planning. Though such an
approach does present the authors with some problems, especially in
areas where principles are not well developed, this reviewer found it both
readable and effective in achieving its avowed aim. As well as giving the
student a more rounded view of the subject, the approach should enable
the authors to keep the interest of a wider range of students than would
the more "tradition~il' approach.
61
Agricultural Systerns (18) (1985)--~© Elsevier Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England,
1985. Printed in Great Britain
62 Book reviews

In another respect, the authors are much less successful. They pay lip-
service to current fashion by claiming that the whole text is based on a
"systems approach' to the subject, arguing that it is 'implicit' throughout,
even though the concept of'a system' is not introduced until page 667, and
this in a chapter previously designated suitable for an advanced course
rather than beginners. As Dalton (1983) has shown, the systems
perspective can provide a useful framework within which to examine farm
management, and the authors of this book miss a valuable opportunity in
not establishing this framework earlier in the book. More specifically, the
omission of any discussion of the role of systems simulation in farm
management is striking in a book which claims to adopt a systems
approach.
The format of the book is established in Chapter 1 where, having
considered the variety of goals that the farmer might be seeking to attain,
the authors describe the three functions of management--planning,
implementation and control--and the three areas--production, market-
ing and finance--where they are carried out. This chapter also lives up to
the authors" claim to adopt a wider perspective by emphasising that farms
are predominantly family businesses (a point which receives too little
attention in British farm management circles) and discussing the
implications of the family-firm life cycle for management of the business.
The next chapter with its admirably clear but concise description of the
income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement makes
the student aware of some of the principal accounting terms that will be
used throughout the remainder of the book.
The four chapters on planning that follow are the clearest example of
the authors' efforts to integrate principle with procedure. A chapter on
~Enterprise Budgets: Economic Concepts' (covering factor:product and
factor:factor relationships) is followed by another on ~Enterprise
Budgets: Computational Procedures' while a chapter on 'Economic
Concepts for Whole-Farm Planning' (covering product:product re-
lationships) is followed by another on 'Computational Procedures for
Whole-Farm Planning'. Each individual chapter is thoughtfully struc-
tured and well written, most new terms being clearly defined as they arise.
The author of the chapters on production economics succeeds in his
attempt to illustrate the theory with reasonably realistic examples drawn
from the farm. But, possibly because they are written by different authors
(or else because accounting practice is not as consistent with economic
theory as the authors would have us believe?) they are not as closely
 Book reviews 63

linked to each other with cross-references and repeated examples as one

might expect from the book's introduction. A more specific criticism of
these chapters is that they contain no discussion of management by
objectives, which is an important topic not only because it is an important
procedure for the planner but because, in its analysis of constraints and
opportunities, it highlights the farm as a system operating within a
changing environment, an idea of central importance to the student's
understanding of farm management.
Chapter 7 o n ' M a r k e t Planning' is a g e m - - a t least so far as this reviewer
is concerned. In fact it is about buying and selling. It recognises the
increased importance of these activities to the farm manager and then
goes on to discuss the six key decisions that face the farmer and the steps
involved in planning these activities. This chapter is particularly welcome
because it looks at 'marketing' from the point of view of the individual
farmer and considers it in terms of what he can do in this area to influence
his profit margins. To a British reader used to a rather different meaning
of the term, the notion of a separately-costed marketing 'enterprise' is
both novel and attractive if the farmer is to evaluate the amount of his
scarce managerial time that he devotes to the activities of buying and
selling.
The next chapter, "Investment Appraisal', contains a brief but lucid
account of the topic, assisted by some examples and then goes on to
discuss tax management within the context of current US tax law. The
inclusion of Chapter 9 ~ P l a n n i n g the Farm Business Arrangement'--
which is an account of alternative business forms written from the point of
view of planning succession for the family business--is a novel treatment
of a topic too often neglected. The planning of this event, so crucial to the
success of the family business, seems to receive almost as little attention in
farm management textbooks as it does in the farming industry itself.
After a useful introduction directed at all those students wanting to
know the "relevance' of linear programming to farm management in
practice, this chapter builds on some of the economic concepts introduced
earlier in the book to present the topic, using a detailed example,
concluding that it will become an increasingly important planning tool
for many farm firms. A final chapter on planning for advanced students
examines how risk and uncertainty can be taken into account in decision-
taking.
Of the four chapters on 'Implementation' that follow, the first, which
concerns labour acquisition and management, is the most disappointing
64 Book reviews

especially in view of the authors' assertion of the need to draw on other

disciplines in the study of farm management. While containing a brief
description of procedures for recruitment and selection and discussing
different types of incentive payment schemes, the authors fail to draw on
the considerable work of occupational psychologists and other social
scientists in the area of human motivation at work. While briefly
mentioning the role of training in adapting the man to fit the job, they
make no mention of the place of method study and ergonomics in
adapting the work to fit the man. These other topics are of importance
irrespective of whether it is family or hired labour that is being considered.
The remaining chapters on 'Implementation' cover the acquisition and
management of land, depreciable assets and financial capital. Though
greatly influenced by the distinctive tax and legal systems of the United
States as well as a variety of other institutional differences--most
noticeably the plethora of land-leasing arrangements which have been
developed--these chapters still retain some usefulness to the student of
farm management from other countries. All contain generalised
principles which can guide decision-taking in these three areas whatever
the institutional framework.
Chapter 16 briefly develops the concept of the control function of
management from a view of the farm as a system and the point that farm
managers need to have 'a basic understanding of the biological
production process' in order to develop an effective plan and control
system is well made. In distinguishing between formal and informal
information systems the authors illustrate the fact that 'management by
wandering around' can be just as important on the farm (though in this
case enabling the manager to gather informal information) as it is in
Hewlett-Packard. However, the authors' suggestion that the amount of
time and effort expended is the most important criterion for deciding
whether to formalise the information system neglects the fact that no
effective means has yet been devised for measuring some of the important
variables under managerial control on the farm, and these must inevitably
be the subject of informal information gathering.
Finally, the concept of preliminary, concurrent and feedback controls
established in this chapter is developed in the remaining two chapters of
the book to illustrate the mechanisms which can be developed for
production enterprise control, marketing and financial control.
This review has given some indication of the breadth of the subject of
farm management as well as the length of this book. The authors' initial
 Book reviews 65

claim that the subject is much more than a particular application of

production economics is well supported and, apart from the exceptions
noted above, the areas which are relatively thin (the implementation and
control aspects) are so because insufficient attention has yet been devoted
to them by researchers in the field. By providing a useful textbook for the
present student of farm management, the authors may help to stimulate
others to give these two aspects of farm management more attention in
the future.

REFERENCE
Dalton, G. (1983). Managing Agricultural Systems, Applied Science Publishers,
London.
Andrew Errington

France, J. and Thornley, J. H. M. Mathematical Models in Agriculture.

A Quantitative Approach to Problems in Agriculture and Related Sciences.
Butterworths, London, 1984. Price: £35.00.

The primary aim of this book is stated to be 'to teach agricultural

scientists when and how to attempt to express their ideas mathematically,
how to solve the resulting mathematical model and compare its
predictions with experimental data'. Introductory chapters discuss the
role of mathematical models in agriculture and agricultural research; the
techniques of dynamic deterministic modelling and mathematical
programming and the testing and evaluation of models. Specialised
chapters follow on growth functions, weather, plant and crop processes,
crop responses and models, plant diseases and pests, animal processes,
animal products, and farm planning and control. The exercises at the end
of each chapter, with solutions, and a glossary, make the text suitable for
self-tuition. There is an extensive bibliography on mathematical
modelling in agriculture.
The general philosophy of this book is that deterministic mathematical
models, that is, models based on the individual animal or the individual
plant and at a sufficiently deep biological level that the mechanisms are
invariant from individual to individual and understood qualitatively and
quantitatively, should be used. The difficulty with this approach is that
the required biological level, even if it exists~ may be so deep that the