We work on the basics and applications of accounting and strategic and operational planning as well as on implementing and controlling strategies in the agriculture industry.
Our focus is on the preparation, implementation and monitoring of business strategies, on management accounting and on the effects of the agri-political and agri-legal setting on farms and on the upstream and downstream value chains.
Our main activities include:
SWOT-based strategic planning in agricultural companies for comprehensive sustainability, corporate social responsibility, implementation and monitoring of strategies using industry-specific instruments (Balanced Scorecard)
Book-keeping, analysis and planning for companies on the basis of the three annual financial statements and key indicators (or indicator systems), direct costing, full costing and activity-based costing, static and dynamic capital expenditure budgeting methods
Optimal legal forms and business development for changing agri-political and agri-legal conditions, capital expenditure steps involved in farm handovers, potential of and instruments for cross-farm cooperation
Combining the value chains of a variety of regional stakeholders into production, collaboration and sales networks in and outside the region (‘nested markets’)
Once-a-day (OAD) milking towards the end of lactation represents an up-to-date advance in the animal-friendly and environmentally and socially sustainable tradition of grazing milk cattle on alpine pastures in summer. In Switzerland farmers are not allowed to supply OAD milk. In this project we analyse OAD milking under Swiss conditions, optimise the economic efficiency of the practice and produce manuals for the introduction of OAD milking on alpine and home farms. The manuals will be available from 2019.
In September 2018 the project partners launched a two-year inter-farm collaboration project. The aim is to permanently reduce variable and structural costs in Freiburg canton and to boost agricultural income by generating additional services in agriculture. We coordinate and coach the project partners, supply the basics of business management and provide scientific support.
The project ‘Digital management for the agricultural sector’ sets out to use artificial intelligence to develop a tool for farm management and accounting. The aim is to boost both the management benefit across the industry and the level of independence on farms. To achieve this we shall be providing the farmers with a platform that will enable them to communicate and to work together to develop and apply practice-oriented opportunities.
Are you interested in working with us or would you like to know more about our research activities in the field of business management in the agriculture industry? Please contact us.
