STEVE MEYER, MOE RUSSELL TO HEADLINE RISK MANAGEMENT SESSION AT PORK$HOP.08

Steve Meyer, Ph.D, President of Paragon Economics	Moe Russell, MBA, President of Russell Consulting

CPA firm Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth, LLP and FBS Systems, Inc. have announced that noted economist Steve Meyer will team up with risk management authority Moe Russell to keynote the PORK$HOP.08 management seminar on June 4th, 2008 in Clive Iowa.  The event will be held at the DeWaay Capital Management headquarters in Clive, Iowa one day prior to the World Pork Expo.

Dr. Meyer is founder and president of Paragon Economics, a consulting firm working primarily in livestock and meat marketing.  The company's clients include the National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and National Hog Farmer magazine.  Dr. Meyer is a frequent guest speaker for many pork- and livestock-related companies and organizations.  He is perhaps best known as the lead author of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Daily Livestock Report.

Dr. Meyer's professional career includes positions in sales, sales management, business development and academia. Prior to founding Paragon Economics, he served as Director of Economics for the National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board from 1993 to 2002.

Moe Russell is President of Russell Consulting Group.  He provides consulting services to clients throughout America specializing in risk management services, human resource management, business planning and feasibility analysis.  He grew up on a diversified grain and livestock farm near Monticello, Iowa where he and his family are still involved in production agriculture.

Moe spent 25 years with Farm Credit Services and served as Division President-Branch Lending, where he managed 500 people in 82 branch offices in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, serving 45,000 customers with over 4 billion in loans outstanding.

From May 1997 to July 1998 Moe managed Roach Ag Marketing's US operations doubling the office base throughout the Midwest to include seven offices.  Roach Ag Marketing Ltd. is a commodity brokerage and consulting firm.

Moe has international consulting experience in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Middle East, and South Africa.  Moe is an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University where he teaches management and business courses.

In addition to the risk management session, Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth will be releasing their 2007 Cost of Production Benchmark study and FBS will be conducting software training.  The full agenda and registration details will be sent to interested parties and posted on the FBS website in April.  To request this information click on this link.

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By following a standardized, logical process, a farm budget can be prepared both quickly and accurately.  In the past two issues we've covered the preliminary steps:

1.	Gathering the "known facts" from last year's accounting and inventory records.
2.	Preparing a field-by-field crop production plan based on real-life products and practices and expected yields.

This month we'll continue on that logical path by incorporating input purchases and marketing plans using FBS's LifeCycle™ Budget software.



Input Purchases
When it comes to production inputs, computerized budgets can take advantage of "20/20 hindsight."  In other words, purchases can be recorded after the planned applications compute the product requirements.  Here's an example:

In the prior chapter we recorded a crop macro entry named "Spring Corn" that contained the "recipe" for the planned chemical tank mix application and seed variety.  As a result of this entry, a "requirement" of 31.48 (bags) of Pioneer 36V75 was created.  By choosing option #2, "Purchase Crop Inputs," and then selecting that seed number you can again see a negative inventory of 31.48 bags for 36V75.

•	Enter the purchase date, which in this case is January.
•	Choose the input type (Seed, Chemical, Fertilizer, Fuel)
•	Select the Account and Division.
•	It's easiest if input purchase go through a generic Center such as "Unallocated."
•	Enter a Quantity that cover the requirement.  In this example, the 32 bags are purchased, resulting in a projected ending inventory of .52 bags.  (In the real world this seed will, of course, be used.)
•	Enter the expected Unit Price for the input.  Total Price is then calculated.

Crop Sales Entries

•	Chose the sale date, S for crop Sales, the Account the Division
•	Select the Marketing Center.  The net crop inventory—with all activity for the year for this center—will then be displayed.  Note:  some users will find it advantageous to set up marketing centers by crop year to separate old crop from new crop inventories.
•	Enter the Quantity and Unit Price; Total Price will then calculated.

Results

•	Crop input purchase flow automatically to the appropriate account and month on the Cash Flow Budget.  You can drill down on each cell to examine the contents or adjust the quantities, varieties, prices and dates.

•	Likewise, Crop Sales are transferred automatically to the Cash Flow Budget and also allow drill-down and modification of the sales detail.

In upcoming issues we'll cover the final three steps:  Overhead Adjustments, Capital Purchases/Sales and the Financing Plan as well as show how the Production, Input Purchase and Marketing plans are accomplished with livestock.

For a limited time, LifeCycle™ Budget is ½ price (normally $995.00) when purchased with an FBS module of equal or greater value.

To view the LCB product sheet and sample reports, click here.

To purchase and activate your LifeCycle™ Budget, call the FBS Sales Department at 800.437.7638.

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