ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some important attributes of a good record-keeping system and some decision-making applications with a computer. The computer is a natural tool to aid the farm or ranch manager in both record keeping and decision making. Two separate but related types of records are important to agriculturalists are financial and physical. Good decision makers are going to be the survivors in agriculture. The agricultural production process spans a considerable length of time. Steps in the decision-making process are define the problem, collect data related to the problem, analyze the data and determine alternative solutions, project the consequences of alternative solutions, decide on an action and implement the decision. The computer is an excellent tool for storing and retrieving information. It has the ability to store and assimilate volumes of data into meaningful reports for farm managers and operators.
