It’s been quite a year … and it’s not over yet. Milestones? The UK has voted to leave the EU. And the John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook celebrates 50 years in print. Not surprisingly it’s an early assessment of Brexit that’s the headline inclusion in Nix’s 2017 Pocketbook. But there are also a number of other new additions: arable input calculations are shown on the same page as the gross margins for easier analysis; once-a-day and three-times-a-day milking regimes are compared; and there are sections on cider orchards, orchard establishment costs and the capital costs of farm machinery. With most farmgate prices still at worryingly low levels, it will come as some comfort to learn that Nix’s analysis shows a fall in variable costs of production over the past two years, and this trend is predicted to continue into 2017. This drop is largely as a result of lower fertiliser prices. Whether you’re a student, farm manager or adviser, the John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook continues to be an excellent reference guide for when making management decisions and putting together the annual budget. Price for the paperback version is £25 (plus postage) and £21.50 for the ePocketbook (www.thepocketbook.co.uk).