A Discussant's Views of Computerized Budget Development, Distribution and Use

These remarks relate to papers presented by Lampher, Krenz and Kletke. Budget development, distribution and use has always been a perennial concern of farm management personnel. However, as Lampher pointed out, many agricultural economists gave low priority to cost and return budgets in recent years. This is clearly a case of professionals abandoning one of the basic tools of their trade, thereby shortchanging agriculture and the profession. Fortunately, a return to the fold is in evidence with all the interest in cost of production. The three papers indicated that there are major problems associated with developing cost and return budgets. Data input will always be a problem but it is not insurmountable. The problem, then, really involves defining procedures and techniques that minimize difficulties associated with data input.