This project brought producers together with experienced professionals to prepare financial and production bench marking information onto a single page showing 4 years of measuring points. The focus was on two study areas: 1) farm families in grain production and 2) livestock producers with both new and continuing operations. During small group sessions, participants were presented current financial information from 2015 performance and projections for 2016.
One-on-one meetings with producers were conducted to take that general knowledge and applied specifically to their farm's financial risk characteristics. This benchmarked data was presented as it applied to 3 different producer age groups to further enhance the relevancy. Producers received access to daily information via the University of Illinois farmdoc daily news articles.
- 65 farms completed a benchmark exercise that measured comparative performance.
- 97 farms completed a comprehensive year end accrual financial analysis.
- 38 farms completed a 2016 cash flow projection.