Times are changing. Until fairly recently many farmers were simply producers. Their energies were focused on growing crops and producing livestock. Selling was often just a matter of sending produce to the local saleyards or silo or contacting their stock and station agent. Producers were price takers rather than price managers. Now many farmers have become marketers rather than just producers, and in the near future many more will make the fundamental shift from an on-farm focus as price-takers to a wider approach that includes price risk management and marketing. Official marketing authorities are playing less of a role in marketing Australian agricultural produce. As part of this deregulation, farmers have many more choices, marketing tools and options that they can use to their advantage provided they know how to use them. At the same time consumer expectations have become more complex. Farmers find themselves required to respond to concerns about animal welfare practices, health and food safety aspects of their products, and the environmental and ethical impact of their production methods. The marketing landscape has therefore become more complex and producers need good marketing skills to navigate their way through the pros and cons of the many alternatives they face. This is the challenge for producers—to apply a balance of production, finance, people and marketing skills to run their farm businesses successfully. This book gives farmers the tools to become a marketer rather than just a producer. It details market specifications, product promotion, quality control and how to respond to consumer demands for animal welfare practices, health, food safety, environmental and ethical issues.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... tively small scale. By far the most important step in this direction has been taken by the Federal Government through the Office of Markets and Rural Organization of the Department of Agriculture. This office was originally provided for by Congress in 1913 and it was organized in May of that year. To develop the work of this office along sane scientific lines and at the same time to placate both the radical agitators who demand drastic action and the conservative business interests who look on this new phase of governmental activity with suspicion and misgivings, has been and is a difficult task, largely because of the lack of trained men to undertake the work. By gradual and careful selection of men the Office of Markets is developing a staff of investigators who are doing valuable work, the results of which will form the most important source of detailed information concerning marketing methods in the future. The main branches of work that have been taken up are as follows: cotton handling and marketing; cooperative purchasing and marketing; market surveys, methods, and costs; market grades and standards; city marketing and distribution; transportation and storage; marketing five stock, meats, and animal by-products; business management and accounting in marketing; grain marketing; marketing by parcel post and express; and miscellaneous problems in marketing.1 The Office of Markets rendered valuable assistance in framing the United States Cotton Futures 1 See statement of C. J. Brand in Congressional Record, Jan. 28, 1915, pp. 2705-2707, and article by the same author in Annals, Nov. 1913, pp. 252-259. Act, the enforcement of which has been placed in its hands. It has also helped in framing other legislation that has been presented to...