Using Days Suitable for Fieldwork Information in the Farm-Management Decision-Making Process

Several sources of risk influence production decisions and impact yields and profits in the production of cotton. Weather risk is of concern to farm decision makers for timing of applications, machinery management decisions and whole-farm planning. A first step in the farm management decision-making process is to determine the expected number of days suitable for fieldwork. Although the number of good days to conduct field operations varies each year, the probability of having a certain number of days can be estimated from USDA data. Even with sufficient understanding of the optimum timing to plant cotton, making farm management decisions such as machinery management and acreage allocation without information on the probabilities of suitable days for fieldwork may lead to unsuccessful farming operations.
Row crop farm sizes have increased over time, partly as a result of efficiencies associated with larger equipment conducting field operations in a shorter amount of time. Conducting field operations such as tillage, planting, spraying and harvesting in a timely manner are important to obtain optimal yields to maximize whole-farm profitability. Too-early or too-late planting may adversely impact crop yields. Machinery management decisions such as choosing machine sizes relative to farm acreage should be made considering equipment efficiency and the likelihood of having sufficient days suitable to operate the machinery in the field. The farm decision maker has to evaluate the tradeoff between the added cost of machinery and completing field operations in a timely manner. Additional machinery requires increased capital investment while field operations conducted at non-optimal times lead to reduced yield. Debate often arises relative to machinery sizing and being over or under equipped for a particular farming operation. Knowing basic information on days suitable for fieldwork is important for machinery management, acreage allocation and financing decisions.