Farm Management Teaching and the Development of Professional Farm Management at Lincoln University

Farm Management developed in NZ through the work of Flay during the restructuring of farm debt following the great depression. The critical aspect of the restructuring was the preparation of productive budgets upon which sustainable debt levels were established. The preparation of these budgets required a comprehensive understanding of the farm system and its productive capacity. The first Farm Management course established at Lincoln in 1938 was based on the restructuring experience of Flay and his colleagues. Following the Second World War this training course provided the agriculturalists who serviced the post war boom in agriculture. Farm Management teaching was based on what was termed the whole farm approach and involved the intensive use of case study visits to commercial farms. Because the early emphasis of farm development was physical in nature this tended to be reflected in the early Farm Management curricula. However as the development emphasis changed so did the curricula and in the 1970s financial planning became a more important component. Developments in the Farm Management discipline have included accounts analysis, the use of computers and the application of techniques such as linear programming, systems analysis and other advanced methodologies. All of these have made some contribution to the discipline's development but the basic teaching method has still centred upon the whole farm approach and the use of case study visits to farms. Although in the future computer technology and other developments will play an important role in the development of Farm Management the basis for understanding farming systems will be most effectively achieved through the whole farm approach.