Business Management

Agronomic crops management is an essential part of agronomic crops production. Find information on farm management and budgeting for agronomic crops, including community-supported agriculture, crop insurance, marketing, and diversification.

Farm Management for Agronomic Crop Producers

Running an agribusiness operation is always going to be challenging. If your focus is agronomic crop production there’s crop planning and land management, diversification, marketing, and farm transition, to name just a few.

On this page, Penn State Extension experts have compiled numerous business management resources for agronomic crop producers. The Farming for Success workshops, for example, provide an opportunity to see research plots in the field, learn from Penn State and Ag industry professionals, and visit with industry sponsors.

For commercial farmers looking to spread the risk, diversification is important – crop rotation will replenish soil nutrients, and planting small grains before row crops may enable you to produce two crops on the same land within a 12-month period.

Crop planning plays a vital role in farm management for agronomic crop producers, because if you can get things organized during the winter, planting crops during the season is much smoother. But what crops should you be growing? Which are the most profitable? Are there crops better suited for your location?

Hemp production, for example, may fit your business model, but it poses certain challenges regarding accessing markets, developing budgets, and uncertain prices. If you’re considering growing hops commercially you need to find buyers for your produce. Working capital, land, storage, equipment, and labor also need sourcing.

Corn and corn silage are both crops that producers can grow on a budget. Using an Enterprise Budget for corn can help determine costs, and there are several enterprise budgets available on the web for other agronomic crops such as an Organic Grain Crop Enterprise Budget.

Some other considerations agronomic crop producers need to be aware of include marketing their crops. If you do it right, there might be no need to seek outside funding, such as the Pennsylvania Small Business Advantage Grant for BMPs. Understanding how buyers use grain discount schedules and value your crops, means you’ll be able to position yourself more favorably in the marketplace.

Agronomic Crop Insurance and Crop Yield

There are steps a producer can take to maximize agronomic crop yields, but agronomic crop insurance is crucial for preserving production capacity. Crop insurance policies are renewable annually, requiring you to provide documentation of yields after a harvest season ends.

Crop insurance is a tool that producers use to financially recover from natural disasters and volatile market fluctuations. Widespread heavy rain, for example, can delay corn and soybean planting. A prevented planting claim could be made to help cover the losses.

Producers of industrial hemp can also protect against the risk of producing a crop for which there are no pesticides labeled for use in industrial hemp for weeds, insects, and diseases. Federally subsidized crop insurance is sold by private insurance companies. Private insurance companies also offer a number of different policies for industrial hemp producers, covering the same perils as crop insurance and THC levels that test above allowable limits for industrial hemp.