The farm manager is employed by a farmer to manage a farm or group of farms. Farm managers are responsible for obtaining better yield and profitability by deciding on the crops, livestock management and production, plan farming activities, supervise other staff, planting, spraying crop protection chemicals, harvesting the crops, marketing and selling crops, documentation of all details including financial aspects of the farm and strategic planning. Crops range from cereals, grains, oilseeds, vegetables and vegetables whereas livestock includes cattle, poultry and pigs.
Many of the farms are spread over a large area and are managed by corporates or company management. The farm managers are assigned work based on the area and complexity of the farm. If the farm is spread across a large area, the farm management is deployed among many farm managers that will be responsible only for the part of the work assigned to him/her. If it is a smaller or less complex farm, one manager handles the entire farm management and if need be, does the labour work as well. The laborious activities include driving tractors on the field, operating machinery and equipment, spraying fertilizers and managing livestock etc.

Key roles and responsibilities of a farm manager

The roles and responsibilities of the farm manager are diverse few of which are mentioned below:

• Deciding on the type, quality and quantity of the crops to be planted
• Preparing plans for the mode of harvest, harvesting schedules and collaborates with the farm operators for carrying out these activities
• Budgeting the farm management and accomplishing the farm activities within the planned budget
• Hiring employees for minor duties such as managing work schedule, daily wages, feeding livestock and managing the harvest
• Arranging for regular maintenance of field equipment, machinery and farm buildings
• Purchasing farm supplies like agrochemicals and seeds, feed for livestock
• Management of sales and marketing of farm products like crop harvest, dairy production, and livestock
• Meeting the deadlines for producing yield and sending the yield to market for auctions
• Monitoring the quality and quantity of crops and maintaining animal health
• Updating knowledge on plant and animals diseases and taking necessary measures for treating the same
• Preserving environmental biodiversity and undertaking protection activities if need be
• Keeping a track of health and safety of farmworkers and other staff

In addition to the ones mentioned above the farm managers also supervise various activities for generating extra income such as wind power generation, processing and selling farm products, breeding special herds, field sports, fishing and worm farming. They also make necessary arrangements for holiday stays on the farm.

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