Category Archives: Farm Biz
Join my Excel-VB Club & Get My Farm Business Software FREE + 3 Great Bonuses [Expires Midnight Monday, 1st August 2016]
Several variants of this time limited offer were sent out this morning, to different mailing lists of my clients, subscribers etc.
<blockquote>
I’m on a drive to recruit more members for my Excel-VB Automation club. To this end, I’m making promo offers to learning institutions (or departments within them), businesses as well as non-profits, to sign-up as “branches” of the club so they can get FREE access to weekly email. PDF, and video tips for their students/employees/staff.
Membership is $65 USD* per annum
*[Note that the equivalent fee to pay in Naira is N13,000.0 because I’ve resolved to continue – for THIS recruitment drive -using the same N200 to $1 USD rate I launched my club offer with in June 2015. Currently it’s N370 to $1 USD]
So simply pay N13,000.0 (Thirteen Thousand Naira) on or before midnight Monday, 1st August 2016, and get full membership, plus the 4 bonuses outlined below.
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Bonus membership benefit 1:
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FREE copy of any of my software of your choice. See examples like my popular Ration Formulator, Poultry Farm Manager at <a href=”http://tayosolagbade.com/sdn-sell.htm” target=”blank”>http://tayosolagbade.com/sdn-sell.htm</a>.
Get 50% off for others like General Accounts Manager, Automated Cash Bank With Bank Reconciliation, Automated Payslip Generator etc at <a href=”http://excelheaven.tayosolagbade.com/” target=”blank”>www.excelheaven.biz</a>.
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Bonus membership benefit 2:
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FREE time/effort saving Custom Automated Floating Data Entry Form incorporation into workbooks used by members for their work.
In other words, each member will be able to send in one workbook s/he uses for work, to have me incorporate intelligent data entry form based automation into it, to eliminate the need to manually interact with the spreadsheet, scrolling over large, potentially confusing areas.
Instead, s/he would simply be able to stay on the loaded form and post all needed entries into the spreadsheet without needing to go to each individual cell.
This feature can make doing your work many times more enjoyable than it currently is – and your productivity would skyrocket. You’ll be able to complete your routine spreadsheet data entry tasks in less than half the time you currently spend doing it.
To get an idea of how powerful this feature can be…
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Here’s a user guide video screenshot demonstration, for an app I built to take 1 year’s worth of income/expense cash book data:
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Name: Excel-VB driven “General Accounts Manager” with modeless floating automated data entry form
First built in 2007 for a medium sized hospital in Lagos, based on their paper based accounts & manual Excel reports.
See the video demo at
<a href=”http://
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUl4_RAja-g” target=”blank”>http://
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUl4_RAja-g</a>
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Bonus membership benefit 3:
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Each member will also get copies of demo applications I build based on real life manual workbooks I find online.
An example is the “simple accounting spreadsheet” (featured at <a href=”http://accountinator.com/2012/11/simple-accounting-spreadsheet-excel/” target=”blank”>http://accountinator.com/2012/11/simple-accounting-spreadsheet-excel/</a>) to which I recently added such a custom data entry form into.
<a href=”http://tayosolagbade.com/contact.htm” target=”blank”>Click here to request screenshot of the form during testing about 48 hours ago.</a>
It is now fully functional.
I have written to “Mark” the US based owner of the Accountinator.com accounting spreadsheet, about the “potential benefits of converting it to a full Excel-VB driven software, like mine, complete with smart data entry forms and dynamic report generation menus.
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Bonus membership benefit 4:
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Note that members will be given the Visual Basic Editor password to be able to open and view the forms, the activeX controls as well as the Excel-VB code that makes them work the way they do.
They will also get step-by-step tutorials on how I built in the form based automation.
In other words, they will get real world relevant coding knowledge they can readily put to use in their work.
Final Words
The above bonuses cannot be combined with any other offers or benefits.</blockquote>
<h3><a href=”http://tayosolagbade.com/contact.htm” target=”blank”>Click here if you’d like to take up this offer</a></h3>.
Have a great weekend.
Tayo
THE FARM CEO (Issue 55): On-farm biosecurity as perceived by professionals visiting Swedish farms, Protecting produce: Ten African countries get biosecurity investment, Australia and Africa to work together on plant biosecurity
This week’s theme for the Farm CEO newspaper is Biosecurity.
1. On-farm biosecurity as perceived by professionals visiting Swedish farms
On-farm biosecurity is an important part of disease prevention and control, this applies to live animal contacts as well as indirect contacts e.g. via professionals visiting farms in their work.
The objectives of this study were to investigate how professionals visiting animal farms in Sweden in their daily work perceive the on-farm conditions for biosecurity, the factors that influence their own biosecurity routines and what they describe as obstacles for biosecurity.
2. Protecting produce: Ten African countries get biosecurity investment | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian
The Australian International Food Security Research Centre recently announced the launch of a two-year, $800,000 initiative for sub-Saharan Africa. The project aims to help 10 countries become better equipped to combat plant biosecurity threats.
So, what is biosecurity?
Biosecurity broadly refers to ways of preventing or mitigating the threat of pests and diseases affecting animals, plants and humans. It can include food safety hazards, animal diseases and plant pests.
3. Australia and Africa to work together on plant biosecurity
PRESS RELEASE
29 October 2014
A cadre of ‘change champions’ are to be trained to improve plant biosecurity in ten east and southern African countries.
Plant biosecurity specialists in national plant protection organisations, and in trade and private sector organisations have identified plant biosecurity training needs for ten African countries. Matched training in Australia will follow, with the resulting ‘biosecurity change champions’ working to improve regional biosecurity to impact farmer incomes, food security and safe regional trade of agricultural products.
The Australia-Africa Plant Biosecurity Partnership held a workshop on 27-28 October in Nairobi that has pinpointed key areas where Australian expertise can strengthen African biosecurity. East and southern African countries that are included at this stage are Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Click here to continue.
Protected: THE FARM CEO (Issue 54): Sustainable Crop Production, The race to create super-crops, New methods of crop production and farmland birds: effects of plastic mulches on species richness and abundance
Protected: THE FARM CEO (Issue 53): Chlorophyll Meters for Nitrogen Fertilizer Management, Satellite Driven Tractor That Downloads Soil/Crop Data, Sensors, Food, Automation & Engineering
[RECOMMENDED] Comparative Feed Values for Swine
<h3>Introduction</h3>
Feed costs represent 65%-75% of the variable costs of swine production. As a result, feed costs play a major role in determining the profitability of a swine enterprise. While corn and soybean meal are the industry standards for supplying energy and protein, there are many suitable alternatives that meet nutritional requirements while reducing the cost of the ration.
Price relationships vary greatly depending on seasonal variability, global and local markets. Pork producers must be able to evaluate the cost effectiveness and nutritional value of various feed ingredients in order to supply a nutritionally-balanced diet at a minimal cost.
Introduction
Cost
Relative Value
Protein Quality
Nutrient Availability (Digestibility)
Anti-Nutritional Factor
Palatability
Inclusion Rate
Nutrient Variability
Stability
Relevant OMAF Factsheets
Nutrient Composition and Suggested Maximum Inclusion
Factors Affecting Inclusion Rate of Alternative Feed Ingredients for Swine
<a href=”http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/swine/facts/03-003.htm” target=”blank”>Continue reading</a>
NEW FRAUD. PLS BEWARE!! [Phony Kidnappers Playing Mind Games Over The Phone to Get Money]
Last week I heard the audio of a truly audacious 419 fraudster trying to impersonate an online banking support officer over the phone (click link below to listen).
419 over the phone. What an embarrassment to Nigeria! – YouTube
Since then I’ve become convinced that anything is possible in today’s Nigeria.
That’s why I share this on my blog – better safe than sorry as they say.
NEW FRAUD. PLS BEWARE!!
Given below is what happened to someone & he has narrated this in his own words:
” I received a call from someone claiming that he was from my mobile Service provider and he asked me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3G update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting,I did not question, but just shut down my cell phone. After 45 minutes I felt very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce his name.
I quickly turned on my cell phone and saw several missed calls from my family members and the others were from the number that had called me earlier –I called my parents and I was shocked that they sounded very worried asking me whether I am safe.
My parents told me that they had received a call from someone claiming that they had me with them and asking for money to let me free. The call was so real and my parents even heard ‘my voice’ crying out loud asking for help.
My father was at the bank waiting for next call to proceed for money transfer. I told my parents that I am safe and asked them to lodge a police report .Right after that I received another call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour which I refused to do and hung up.
They kept calling my cell phone until the battery had run down. I myself lodged a police report and I was informed by the officer that there were many such scams reported. MOST of the cases reported that the victim had already transferred the money! And it is impossible to get back the money.
Be careful as this kind of scam might happen to any of us!!!Those guys are so professional and very convincing during calls. If you are asked to shut down your cell phone for updates by the service provider, ASK AROUND!
Your family or friends might receive the same call. “Be Safe and Stay Alert!Please pass around to your family and friends !!!v
DONT JUST READ, SHARE WITH OTHERS
1 min ·
Pri
Source: Click here.
You Need This to Sell More Successfully (True Stories)
Recently, a new Farm CEO client in a neighbouring West African nation called to inform me about a 64bit error he was getting in trying to run my <a href=”http://tinyurl.com/RealRationDemo” target=”blank”>Excel-VB Ration Formulator software</a> he’d purchased.
<b>I immediately knew what the problem was and what he needed to do to correct it – because that was not the first time I’d gotten such feedback. </b>
In line with my Best Practice for Continuous Improvement disposition, past occurrences had caused me to create a generic PDF guide document which explained in detail what the problem was, and the steps to be taken to rectify it.
So I sent him the PDF and then wrote via Whatsapp a follow up message suggesting he find a “reliable computer software person” to help him do the needed reinstallation to replace his 64bit MS Excel version with the 32bit version for which my app is designed.
<b>To my surprise he wrote back saying:</b>
<blockquote>
“The good news is that the error has resolved…Am a software developer with over 20 years experience”
</blockquote>
<b>As you can imagine, my reply to that message was:</b>
<blockquote>
“Super! And to think I was suggesting you find a “computer software person” looool!”
</blockquote>
For me, the fact that he is a trained IT guy who has chosen to buy and use my app is a major win!
It proves that my software meets a badly felt need for people in a way that makes even those with the skills feel there is no need to try developing the solution themselves.
<h3>Incidentally another Farm CEO, this time from an Asian country, who called me last week, also turned out to have considerable IT experience…</h3>
This latter individual has shared screenshots from several apps being used in farmer networks out there in his country.
However for feed formulation, he complained that a locally developed software he bought is impractical.
He added that an MS Excel workbook based solution he uses to formulate rations for his animals is not automated like mine is with Excel-VB code, hence his interest in buying mine.
We’ll see how that goes…
<h3>The above individuals are some of many who reach out to me daily, who actually go on to do business with me.</h3>
Of the rest, a number (for some strange reason), have for years routinely sent me requests asking for FREE copies of my software, despite the fact that I clearly state in my Youtube demonstration videos and on my web pages that they are for sale.
After I noticed that trend, I got used to simply ignoring such enquirers.
This latter Farm CEO had initially contacted me last year, and after I sent my usual “call me on my mobile” response, I’d forgotten about him and moved on.
<b>He’s now came back this year and asked “How much is your software?” – suggesting that he really needs it and has been following or keeping track of my work since 2015.</b>
Our phone conversation, when he called in response to my request, was quite animated and interesting. We would go on to chat further via Whatsapp, until I advised him on details he’d requested about buying the app.
That we’ve gotten this far, from the “cold” beginning we had about 12 months ago, is proof of the power of a well implemented Web Marketing System (WMS).
It keeps “selling” you to the prospect, moving him/her closer to buying in the sales process/cycle.
As a result you are always in a position of strength I.e you do not chase them. Instead they come to you on your own terms!
<h3>it goes without saying, however, that getting a WMS that works like mine will NOT happen overnight. </h3>
But when developed and implemented correctly, for the right length of time, you can get a WMS that yields similar benefits to mine with minimal trial and error.
If you’d like to have such a system setup to get you talked about and referred to both on and off the web in a way that attracts the right QUALITY of buyers to you, <a href=”http://tayosolagbade.com/” target=”blank”>click here to learn more about a Promo Version of my WMS Development Service that includes 12 Month FREE Support</a>.
PII 021: Proven Secret to Succeeding in Making Your Own Animal Feed
The first thing you have to do is to have a sound theoretical foundation in the science of feed formulation, in order to be able to competently derive ration formulas using any combination of feed ingredients.
Now, fundamental to your success in formulating and compounding rations that work for your animals will be determining what the nutrient requirements are for the target animal you have in mind.
Over the past week, I have taken phone calls from a Rabbit Farm CEO based in a Ghana, as well as a Contract Broiler Farm CEO based in India, on the subject of feed formulations.
SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE
Tayo Solagbade’s
Performance Improvement IDEAS
(PI Squared) Newsletter
Monday 4th July 2016
NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016. I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.
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PII 021: Proven Secret to Succeeding in Making Your Own Animal Feed
The first thing you have to do is to have a sound theoretical foundation in the science of feed formulation, in order to be able to competently derive ration formulas using any combination of feed ingredients.
Now, fundamental to your success in formulating and compounding rations that work for your animals will be determining what the nutrient requirements are for the target animal you have in mind.
Over the past week, I have taken phone calls from a Rabbit Farm CEO based in a Ghana, as well as a Contract Broiler Farm CEO based in India, on the subject of feed formulations.
The former has since gone on to purchase my Excel-VB Ration Formulator app and Feed Formulation Handbook. The latter, has expressed interest in doing the same thing.
But I bring my discussions with them up mainly to illustrate just how seriously a lot of Farm Business Owners take the subject of feed formulation for their livestock. The reason – as many of them will readily tell anyone who asks – is that 65 to 80% recurring expenditure on livestock farms goes to feeding of the animals.
This requirement makes it imperative for the farm owner who wishes to achieve and maintain long term profitability, to actively monitor the results s/he gets from feeding specific rations to the animas. And that will be done in comparison to the cost of making and serving such rations.
Most of them have found through hard experience that suppliers of commercial feed they depended on were not consistent in delivering feed with the desired nutrient profile – despite the high prices for their products. This meant the farm businesses were losing on multiple fronts, and ultimately unable to boost output and profitability.
What the smart thinking amongst such Farm CEOs decides to do is what I recommend that ALL results focused farm business owners do i.e. to TAKE OWNERSHIP CONTROL of making your own feed!
It does not mean you have to go borrow money you don’t have to install expensive feed milling equipment. That could be a long term goal you set for yourself. However in the short term, you simply need to find a reliable milling company and then send your optimized feed formulas there to have feed you derive bagged for use on your farm.
For as long as you carefully monitor how your feed is milled and bagged, from selection of QUALITY feed ingredients, down to actually production at the mills, you should have no problems getting the projected nutrients into the final feed you serve your animals. And their performance will show!
Note that I say all the above on the assumption and expectation that you WILL ensure you ration formulation computations are done – ALWAYS – using verified laboratory based analysis of feed ingredients used in the mills. And this should not be hard to achieve if the feed mill company you choose is diligent.
Standard best practice requires that they obtain laboratory nutrient analyses for the different batches of feed ingredients they stock and use.
So, in deriving the ration formulas you will have milled and bagged for you, the first thing you must always do is to get such results and punch the nutrient analyses results into your software. Without doing that, you would be wasting your time and shooting in the dark as far as ration formulation is concerned!
It goes without saying that the reason for that is obvious. You cannot do any sensible calculations about quantities of maize, soya beans, and wheat offals to mix together to achieve a desired feed nutrient profile, if you do not know, for starters what amounts of nutrients (e.g. protein, energy etc) each one contains!
Choosing to use textbook or estimated values would be like gambling. When dealing with farm production, depending on luck is never wise, and is likely to cost you more than it can ever yield in the long run.
In summary therefore, what I’m saying is that IF you want to succeed in making your own feed, the very first thing you need to do is GET YOURSELF very familiar with the science of practical feed formulation and compounding.
If you’re planning to use software for deriving your ration formulas, this becomes even more important – otherwise you’ll end up a victim of the “Garbage-In-Garbage-Out” syndrome.
For this reason I always recommend that prospective buyers of my Excel-VB Ration Formulator, if not proficient in feed formulation, also purchase and diligently study my Handbook on the subject.
It sells for $82 USD in my online store at
http://www.lulu.com/shop/tayo-solagbade/practical-livestock-feed-formulation-handbook/ebook/product-20817463.html
But you can get it for MUCH lower (specifically $35 USD) if you contact me directly and buy it along with the software: click here to do so now.
SDN Blog™
New posts from last week*
Monday:
[Tuesday]:
[Wednesday]:
[Thursday]:
[Friday]:
N/A
[Saturday]:
[Power Point Slideshow Explanation & Exercise Tip] How to Open a Website from MS Excel using ExcelVB code
[Sunday]:
THE FARM CEO (Issue 52): Five Essential Poultry Layer Farm Production Records, Five Powerful Tools for Accurately Measuring Your (Farm) Business’ Health, Five Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits without Raising Prices
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Tayo K. Solagbade* Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist *Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic) Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others. Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners). Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software. He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others. In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region. His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details). In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager. In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting. Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc). When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter. You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook. Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity. ====
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THE FARM CEO (Issue 52): Five Essential Poultry Layer Farm Production Records, Five Powerful Tools for Accurately Measuring Your (Farm) Business’ Health, Five Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits without Raising Prices
In this week’s non-password protected issue of The Farm CEO newspaper, I feature 3 articles from my Cost-Saving Best Practice Farm Business Ideas series.
<h3>1. Five Essential Poultry Layer Farm Production Records</h3>
In this article, I discuss five (5) important farm production records a poultry farmer needs to diligently capture, to ensure s/he can take timely farm planning decisions that will result in the best possible performance.
The records discussed are operational in nature, and NOT financial. Relevant financial records – and related Key Performance Indices (KPIs) – useful for farm business evaluation will be highlighted in a future write-up.
At various points below, I have highlighted certain important farm production KPIs. The idea is to illustrate real world relevant…
<a href=”http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/five-essential-poultry-layer-farm-production-records/” target=”blank”>http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets/five-essential-poultry-layer-farm-production-records/</a>.
<h3>2. Five Powerful Tools for Accurately Measuring Your (Farm) Business’ Health</h3>
Sometimes you need to get a loan from a bank; win over equity investors or attract strategic partners. If you’re a big thinker, you could even have a vision to sell your farm business’ shares in the capital market. Or you might want to expand by buying another farm(s). And sometimes you may just want to ascertain that all is well with your farm. The requirements to be met for each of the foregoing will differ.
But one thing is certain: To do any of the above, you need accurate production records to generate reliable financial performance indicators! As long as you keep good production records, don’t be in a hurry to hire a potentially expensive expert.
This article discusses five powerful financial performance indication tools…
<a href=”http://nigeriabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-powerful-tools-for-accurately-measuring-your-farm-business-health.html” target=”blank”>http://nigeriabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-powerful-tools-for-accurately-measuring-your-farm-business-health.html</a>.
<h3>3. Five Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits without Raising Prices</h3>
This article will interest you if you run a farm business (or are aspiring). With today’s tough economic conditions, any smart business person will be open to ideas that can help boost profits.
Read the strategies outlined below with an open mind. They are not based on unfounded assumptions or theoretical musings. Rather, they have been used to increase profits without raising prices, in real-life batch operations similar to farm businesses. Adopt them today and begin to reap improved farm profits!
<b>1. Reduce Your Variable Costs: </a> Aim to spend less to produce the same farm output. I refer here to routine expenses to keep your farm business running.
Identify items responsible for up to 80% of your total…
<a href=”http://africabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-proven-ways-to-boost-farm-profits-without-raising-prices.html” target=”blank”>http://africabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-proven-ways-to-boost-farm-profits-without-raising-prices.html</a>.