Dr. David Kohl will be touring throughout Manitoba next week as part of the RBC agricultural speakers series presenting "The Ten Golden Rules of Management".

He is Professor Emeritus in the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department at Virginia Tech.

One of the issues up for discussion will be how long the economic downturn will last for most commodities.

"The thing that we've got to watch, what could really pull us out - boost commodity prices, could be a weather aberration in a major production area in the world," explained Dr. Kohl. "I don't really see that happening. Everybody thought the El Niño to La Niña would bring major drought, well it didn't. We had people down here in the States, that had an opportunity to market $4 corn, waited till $5, only to see it go to $3."

In order to make ends meet, Dr. Kohl notes that many producers have been trying to increase efficiency and maintain costs.

He adds those that are doing this are still profiting, while those that are not, are seeing red ink on their income statements and cash flows.

Dr. Kohl will be in Winkler on Wednesday, December 7 at the Days Inn Conference Centre. Registration starts at 8:30am. Please RSVP to Jarrett Olson at 204-822-2360 or jarrett.olson@rbc.com by December 2nd.