Completed Project Report


Evaluating the Feasibility of Scaling Up Existing Enterprises, Adding Alternative Enterprises, Through a Systems Thinking Approach Based on Whole Farm and Enterprise Benchmarks for South Central Utah Beginning Farmers and Ranchers

  • Award Amount: $48,469
  • Regional Center: Western Extension Risk Management Education Center
  • Grant Program: 2018 Education Projects

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Project Overview

Building on previously acquired knowledge, training will focus on a "systems thinking" approach to scaling up existing enterprises or adding additional business enterprises to reduce production, market, and financial risk.

Through regular, face-to-face instruction, 34 farms (93 participants): 1) assigned financial transactions to their key enterprises using Quickbooks® or Quicken®, 2) Twenty-six farms completed a year-end FINAN® business analysis focusing on key enterprise benchmarks. The remaining project steps became a moot point due to the drought's impact on yields and weaning weights.  Many producers were in reactive mode and did not see value in bench-marking to gain any meaningful comparisons.  Twenty farms benchmarked their data with regional benchmarks but found little value in differences because of significant variances in yield due to some farms having wells, some farms having reserve water held in a reservoir, and others, the majority, simply having no water available as the mountain stream flows virtually ended in June.  
In the end, 14 producers identified benchmark variances but had no opportunity to make meaningful changes.  However, the drought’s influence did reinforce the reality of "systems" enterprise connections, scaling up enterprises or making changes in one enterprise impacting other enterprises.  Face-to-face instruction facilitated approximately 252 instructional activities.



 

 


Number of Participants: 93

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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