Completed Project Report


Benchmarking -- Farm/Ranch Enterprises to Identify Strengths and Weaknesses and Implementation of Strategic Business Planning for South Central Utah Beginning Farmers and Ranchers

  • Award Amount: $48,478
  • Regional Center: Western Extension Risk Management Education Center
  • Grant Program: 2017 Education Projects

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Project Overview

This project increased participants' management knowledge and ability to identify production and financial risk based on analyzing benchmarks of their farm/ranch enterprises. Regular, face-to-face instruction resulted in often more than one participant per farm developing the skill to:

  1. Assign financial transactions to their key enterprises,
  2. Close out their fiscal year financials in preparation to complete a FINAN® enterprise analysis focusing on key enterprise benchmarks,
  3. Analyze the FINAN® for variances of regional, state, and national industry enterprise benchmarks,
  4. Based on benchmark variances, develop strategies to favorably influence each business enterprise, and
  5. Develop a matrix of important benchmarks to begin a historical benchmarking trend analysis tool.

At the end of the project, 28 producers completed a FINAN® analysis, with 21 having enough quality (enough financial and production detail) to submit their FINANs® to the National Farm Business Management Database, FINBIN®. Twenty-eight producer families and management teams acquired the ability to identify benchmark variances and to incorporate enterprise plans into their future management. Face-to-face instruction facilitated approximately 280 instructional activities during the project's duration. These instructional visits occurred as often as monthly and were spread out quarterly for some participants and every six months for a few others.

Number of Participants: 77

Outcomes

Project Steps

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

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EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

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REPORTS & EVALUATIONS

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DELIVERY AREA

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