Best Practices to Managing Farm Financial Health and Wellbeing

Most farmers and ranchers—and, particularly beginning farmers and ranchers—do not have the financial capacity to hire financial managers to manage their finances for them. The onus is therefore placed on the farmer to assume the multiple roles of accountant, business manager, and farmer at the same time. The tried-and-true approaches to addressing financial risk begin with the development of a whole-farm risk-management plan. We provide best management practices to manage and mitigate the whole-farm, and whole-family risks associated with finances, production, marketing, legal issues, and human interaction (Nickel, 2020).