CONCLUSION
There will be a greater degree of coordination of production,
marketing, and consumption in the years ahead. Contracts will play
a much greater role. Here the farmer can provide his own “supply
management” by wiser use of markets and outlook information,
quicker adjustments to changing market needs, and more production
for a market. A greater use of contracts in production and marketing
will make it possible for a farmer to know where the market is before
the acre is planted or the animal produced. This will help gear pro-
duction to market needs and avoid the accumulation of huge sur-
pluses of unwanted products.
Producing for specification certainly is not as easy as talking about
it and writing about it. But hard or easy, it is going to be a way of
life for more and more producers in the future, and we must find a
way to do it well enough to succeed—and soon enough to avoid the
adoption of programs that will limit opportunity, retard change, and
inhibit growth.
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