Business Commons^™

Clearing The Air, Mike Carroll

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

This edition of the Western Australian Journal of Agriculture contains an exchange of letters between 20 farmers and myself, prompted by the article by Ross Kingwell in the last issue of the Journal (Volume 34, No. 4, 1993).

The article was entitled 'Agriculture's Economic Performance', and dealt with some of the economic forces in agriculture, including the terms of trade, productivity growth and the growth of exports. However, it is evident from the following letter and from other comments that the worthwhile content of the article was negated by some unfortunate phrasing, and a too compressed treatment of a complex …

Zack : A Computerized Farm Budgeting Program, Mark G. Stevens, Alan Peggs

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Developed by the Department of Agriculture, ZACK enables farmers to throw away their pencils, rubbers, calculators and cash-flow forms and use a computer to prepare their annual farm plans and cash-flow budgets.

West Midlands Development : The Economics Of New Land Development, I J. Moncrieff

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

THE economics of new land development cannot really be separated from the financial aspects.

However, financing development is such a personal business that for general advisory purposes the distinction must be made.

For this reason, the article which follows largely avoids the financial side and is devoted to a consideration of some of the economic factors involved in the development of new land in this area.

Sheep Programmes For Esperance Settlers With Limited Finance, R J. Doyle, G. D. Oliver

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

FARMING in the Esperance region has now passed through the phase of experimentation into the phase of consolidation.

But not all new settlers are prosperous.

On occasions, a lifetime ambition to own and operate a farm has ended in failure because the settler has been forced through economic circumstances to give up his block.

Too often this follows the unequal struggle of trying to develop a block with too little capital.