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1,815 FARM UNITS plus 463 OTHERS IN PARTNERSHIPS, ETC. = 2,278 … …............................................................................. 43-59
Can My Farm Meet the Test? …...................................................................................................................................60
Analysis …
January 31, 2022
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trial court’s ruling while other aspects of
the case proceeded … application beyond Iowa. Courts in other states
facing novel issues … to look at how courts in other states have ruled on those …
October 16, 2020
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Stocker/backgrounder 50 25.8%
Other 74 38.1%
Total 194 100.0 … 1.1%
Carcass basis 2 1.1%
Other 41 22.9%
Total 179 100.0 … Tell buyer orally 39 58.2%
Other 3 4.5%
Total 67 100.0 …
January 27, 2025
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September 1, 2009
Assessing Business Opportunities
Abstract
Business development is crucial for sustained economic progress and individual well‐being.
This paper describes how to provide support for business development efforts in communities
in conflict environments or only recently emerged from conflict environments. It uses the
Cascade Approach® to provide a clear and practical framework for developing businesses that
are carefully and deliberately discovered by people who are passionate about them and are
capable of marshaling the requisite resources to transform ideas into exploitable value.
The author is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State
University. He may be reached by telephone at (785) 532‐3520 and by email at
vincent@ksu.edu.
There are worksheets accompanying this paper and they are available at www.Agmanager.info.
Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1
Research Problem and Paper Outline ......................................................................................... 1
PART I: PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................... 3
The Geography of Economic Thought ........................................................................................ 3
Our Assumptions Are Not Necessarily Universal ........................................................................ 4
Establishing the Purpose for Action ............................................................................................ 6
PART II: OPPORTUNITY DISCOVERY AND ASSESSMENT.................................................................. 8
Defining the Person Searching for Opportunities ....................................................................... 8
The Conscious Search for Opportunities .................................................................................... 9
Assessment of Identified Opportunities ................................................................................... 11
Transforming Opportunities into Exploitable Value ................................................................. 12
Marshaling of Strategic Resources ........................................................................................... 16
Assigning Responsibilities ......................................................................................................... 18
PART III: FROM STRATEGIC THINKING TO STRATEGIC ACTION .................................................... 19
There Are No Islands ................................................................................................................. 19
Executing the Ideas ................................................................................................................... 20
There Are No Linearities, Expect Breakdowns .......................................................................... 22
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 23
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 24
1
Practical Strategies for Business Development in
Conflict and Post‐Conflict Environments
Vincent Amanor‐Boadu
August 2009
INTRODUCTION
Conflicts can have adverse effects on people’s decision‐making capacity
and influence their relationships. This is because conflicts affect the
sensemaking that people bring to events and situations. Entrepreneurial
actions are based on creativity. They are driven by a way of thinking and
seeing that presents valuable opportunities which may be exploited for
the value they present. Given that entrepreneurs in conflict and post‐
conflict environments can be affected immeasurably by the subtle and
not‐so‐subtle events that define and characterize their experiences, their
ability to see opportunities and assess them is frequently affected by
these events. Thus, working in conflict or post‐conflict environments can
arduous because one has to negotiate one’s own sensemaking processes
as well navigate those of the people with whom one is working.
Despite these challenges, the work can be very rewarding if those
working on business development in these environments can develop the
right appreciation of the fundamentals of entrepreneurial business
development and understanding resource availability and constraints.
Their efforts can yield some positive effects if they can understand their
entrepreneurs’ capabilities and their capacities to overcome these
constraints as well as their audacity to drive towards their defined
objectives. These fruitful outcomes were observed in Japan and Europe
after the Second World War, when U.S. economic support under the
Marshall Plan helped leverage the inherent capabilities of Europeans and
Japanese to overcome the scourge of that conflict.
Research Problem and Paper Outline
This paper is framed to guide people working with nascent entrepreneurs
in conflict or post‐conflict environments embark on business
development initiatives. It focuses on the strategic aspects of business
development—opportunity discovery and assessment, resource
marshaling and execution of strategic plans. The tactical issues related to
business formation and marketing of products and services are treated
under a different title. Besides, the strategic issues discussed here are
less culture and location‐dependent than the tactical issues, allowing us
to discuss them in more generic terms. The paper’s overall objective,
2
then, is to provide the strategic processes that may be used to help with
business start‐ups and entrepreneurial renewal in conflict and post‐
conflict environments.
The people in conflict and post‐conflict environments are generally
different from the people who offer help and support that go beyond
culture. As Richard Nesbitt observed in his book The Geography of
Thought, these differences are embedded in the way people are
conditioned to “see” and interpret what they see. The tools for
seeing and interpreting are thought and language. Therefore,
the paper is divided into two principal parts. The first part
provides the philosophical framework for enhancing our
geography of thought capacity to facilitate business
development. It encompasses the development of a shared
seeing and a common language to communicate the thoughts
emanating from what is seen. Following that, I make the case
for clarity and completeness in the definition of the objectives
or the things that the business initiative seeks to achieve.
Stephen Covey defines this as “first things first” in his highly popular
bestseller, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
The second part of the paper uses the foregoing philosophical framework
to lay out a process for embarking on entrepreneurship‐driven business
development. The process presented here is based on the Cascade
Approach® I have developed and have been using with various
organizations for the past 15 years. The process involves the crafting of a
strategic direction for the business initiative—encompassing a vision,
mission and core value—and the development of an operations plan to
achieve the vision. We define the business’ objectives within the context
of specific business initiatives, developing a process for scoping for
opportunities and crafting strategies for translating the selected
objectives into exploitable value. The execution of the resulting plan
depends on resources and this is presented and discussed in the final
section of the paper.
The foundational philosophy of the strategic processes presented in this
paper is the metaphor of the river’s ultimate purpose: the desire to
empty itself into a larger body of water. The river’s commitment to this
purpose is such that it cannot be stopped regardless the size and might of
the obstacles in its path. It may be slowed down, but in the end, it
always achieves its purpose. This thought is reflected by Margaret
Wheatley in her book Leadership and the New Science. This metaphor is
appealing because the river exhibits the primary characteristics of
successful entrepreneurial business developers: tenacity, commitment
and passion.
3
PART I: PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK
The Geography of Economic Thought
Many years ago, I was a graduate student in Nigeria, working on the
economics of small farmer agriculture. My major professor, a respected
Nigerian production economist, invited me to accompany him to a
seminar at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) one
afternoon. The seminar was on the price response of Senegalese rice
farmers and was being presented by a visiting World Bank economist.
The essence of the presenter’s story was that an increase in rice price led
to a decrease in rice supply. He concluded from this that the African
small farmer is irrational because supply should increase with price
increases.
The room, filled with many of my professors, was very quiet after the
visiting economist completed his presentation. I could not understand
their silence because there was, obviously, something drastically wrong
with the irrationality conclusion. I knew this because I have lived with
some of these small farmers. But beyond my individual anecdotal
evidence, my master’s thesis was showing similar results—a negative
supply response—but I could not believe irrationality was a reasonable
explanation.1 I think my old professor invited me because he thought the
seminar will help me.
I asked the presenter what was measured as the farmers’ response to
price. “Did you measure production, acreage, marketed surplus or did all
of these return the same sign on price?” I asked.
After a little discussion, it became obvious that the measured response
variable was marketed surplus. That is, they measured how much the
farmers offered for sale, and not how much they produced.
“African small farmers will sell less of their total production when price
goes up and vice versa,” I heard my professor say something to that
effect. This is because African small farmers have a constant demand for
money—just enough to meet their purchase needs (school uniforms and
fees, books, salt, fish, etc. The negative sign on price was not due to
irrationality of the African small farmer at all, but to the capturing of the
wrong response metric to price.
Martin Brownbridge and his colleagues provide empirical support for the
constant demand for money theory as well as the low rate of savings
1 …
March 7, 2025
Methods and Supporting Information
roast, beef
sandwiches and other beef-based meals. “Pork” … pork roast, ground pork, and other pork-based meals.
“Chicken” … chicken, chicken sandwiches and other chicken-based meals.
“Fish/Seafood” …
March 7, 2025
Methods and Supporting Information
roast, beef
sandwiches and other beef-based meals. “Pork” … pork roast, ground pork, and other pork-based meals.
“Chicken” … chicken, chicken sandwiches and other chicken-based meals.
“Fish/Seafood” …
March 7, 2025
Methods and Supporting Information
roast, beef
sandwiches and other beef-based meals. “Pork” … pork roast, ground pork, and other pork-based meals.
“Chicken” … chicken, chicken sandwiches and other chicken-based meals.
“Fish/Seafood” …
August 1, 2018
Breakout Sessions
income-§108(f)(5). (does not affect other Fed. Programs where discharge … 500,000 (MFJ); $250,000 all others• Indexed• Applies at … and higher life assets to other entity with more income– …
May 19, 2014
Grain Market Outlook
2014 CME eSoybeans
12/20/2013 – 5/19/2014
Close: $12.36 ¾ on May 19th
Page | 3
May 13th to a high of $12.44 ½ on May 19th, before closing at $12.38 ¾ on that same day. Prior to the May 9th
report, NOV 2014 soybean futures had trend sharply higher from a low of $10.88 ¼ on January 31st to a high of
$12.49 ¼ on April 28th prior to moving generally lower to the May 16th close of $12.21 ¼.
I‐C. U.S. Soybean Supply‐Demand
U.S. Soybean Acreage, Yield & Production
Following from the results of March 31st USDA NASS Prospective Plantings Report, the USDA projected
that 2014 U.S. soybean total planted acreage would be a record high 81.493 million acres (ma), up from 76.533
ma in 2013, 77.198 ma in 2012, and 75.046 ma in 2011 (Table 1 and Figure 2). In addition, the USDA projected
2014 U.S. soybean harvested acreage to be 80.5 ma, up from 75.869 ma in 2013, and 76.164 ma in 2012, but
up from 73.776 ma in 2011.
The forecast 2014 proportion of harvested‐to‐planted acreage for all U.S. soybeans is projected to be
98.7%, down from 99.1% in 2013, but comparable to 98.7% in 2012 and 98.3% in 2011. The U.S. average and
median (i.e., the 50th percentile or “middle”) soybean percent harvested‐to‐planted acreage over the years of
2004‐2013 have both been 98.7% , with a high of 99.1% in 2007 and 2013, and a low of 98.3% in 2011. Using
the 2004‐2013 average percent harvested‐to‐planted acreage proportion of 98.7% would lead to a projection
of U.S. 2014 harvested acres of 80.469 ma – marginally less (down 31,000 acres) than the USDA’s projection of
80.5 ma, and within the rounding error of 100,000 acres for the forecast.
The projected 2014 U.S. average soybean yield of 45.2 bushels per acre (bu/ac) would be a record high, up
from 43.3 bu/ac in 2013, the drought affected 2012 yield of 39.8 bu/ac., and the historic high of 44.0 bu/ac in
2009 (Table 1 and Figure 3). Based on these 2014 acreage and yield forecasts, the USDA projected 2014 U.S.
soybean production to be a record high 3.635 billion bushels (bb) – which is up from 3.289 bb in 2013, 3.034
bb in 2012, 3.094 bb in 2011, 3.329 in 2010, and 3.359 bb in 2009 (Table 1).
U.S. Soybean Total Supplies
The USDA estimates that total supplies of U.S. soybeans for “new crop” MY 2014/15 are 3.780 bb –
resulting from beginning stocks of 130 mb, projected 2014 production of 3.635 bb, and projected imports of 15
mb (Table 1). Total supplies of 3.780 bb in “new crop” MY 2014/15 would be a record high, comparable to
3.655 bb in MY 2006/07 (2nd highest), 3.261 bb in MY 2007/08, 3.185 bb in MY 2008/09, 3.512 bb in MY
2009/10 (4th highest), 3.495 bb in MY 2010/11 (5th highest), 3.325 bb in MY 2011/12, 3.239 bb in MY 2012/13,
and 3.519 bb in “current year” MY 2013/14 (3rd highest). Beginning stocks of 130 mb in “new crop” MY
2014/15 are down from 141 mb in “current year” MY 2013/14, 169 mb in MY 2012/13, and 215 in MY
2011/12, and is comparable to the low of 112 mb occurring in MY 2004/05, and to what is at least a 40 year
low of 103 mb in MY 1977/78.
U.S. Corn Use by Category & Total Use
Domestic Crush: Projected U.S. soybean domestic crushings of 1.715 bb in “new crop” MY 2014/15 is up
from 1.695 bb for “current” MY 2013/14 (which as lowered 10 mb from April), 1.689 bb in MY 2012/13, and
from 1.703 bb in MY 2011/12 (Table 1 and Figure 4). The record high amount 1.808 bb of U.S. soybean
domestic crushings occurred in MY 2006/07, followed closely time and quantity‐wise with 1.803 bb in MY
2007/08.
Page | 4
U.S. Soybean Exports: Projected U.S. soybean exports of 1.625 bb in “new crop” MY 2014/15 would be a
record high, up from the current forecast high of 1.600 in “current” MY 2013/14 (which was raised 20 mb from
April) (Table 1 and Figure 4). Beginning in MY 2006/07, U.S. soybean exports were 1.116 bb, followed by 1.159
bb in MY 2007/08, 1.279 bb in MY 2008/09, 1.499 bb in MY 2009/10 (3rd highest on record), 1.501 bb in MY
2010/11 (2nd highest on record), 1.365 bb in MY 2011/12, 1.320 bb in “last year’s” MY 2012/13, 1.600 bb in
“current” MY 2013/14 (the historic record high if actually attained), and now the projected record high of
1.625 bb in “new crop” MY 2014/15.
Regarding the current pace of U.S. soybean export shipments and sales, as of May 8th, with 40 of 52 weeks
(76.9%) of “current” MY 2013/14 complete, 1.558 bb of U.S. soybeans had been shipped for export – equal to
97.4% of the USDA’s updated projection of 1.600 bb for “current” MY 2013/14. United States’ export
shipments will need to average only 3.5 mb per week through the remainder of the “current” 2013/14
marketing year to attain the USDA’s May WASDE projection of 1.600 bb. This compares to U.S. soybean export
shipments of 10.0 mb and 9.9 mb which occurred during the weeks ending May 1st and 8th, respectively. As a
result, these recent U.S. soybean export shipments were “ahead of pace” to meet the USDA marketing year …