Using cost accounting in nursery management

Controlling costs is a vital management function. As nursery managers we play a major role in controlling the cost of reforesting every hectare of cutover that must be planted. At the nurseries we have learned many ways of saving money; however, in the field I have seen an ever-increasing demand for more expensive stock, where consumers are not held accountable for costs but only for results in terms of survival and growth. With the skyrocketing costs of tree planting this may not be an undesirable trend, but because many of my remarks are directed towards nurserymen, I also appeal to our tree planters to get their priorities in order with respect to spending in reforestation. Whoever spends it, we must give the taxpayer value for his money. All expenses should be controllable by someone at some level. Obtaining cost accounting information on a bare-root production nursery is different from a manufacturing situation due to the time span of 2 to 5 years and the influence of many uncontrollable cost factors. Present inflation rates make historic costs useless. As well, changes and improvements in production processes need to be assessed at least annually and preferably more often.

Download this file:

Download this file

Details

Author(s): A. Wynia

Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 1981

Event: Proceedings of the 1981 Intermountain Nurserymen's Association meeting
1981 - Edmonton, Alberta