With all the uncertainty in the farm economy and fluctuating
commodity prices there is a need for financial and business education to
support and assist farmers, especially beginning and young farmers. To address
this, the Ag Business Management Team developed a program to provide beginning
farmers with the education necessary to build farm business management skills for
their operation.
A four-part workshop series was developed; each workshop site
had four separate topics, and the participants were encouraged to attend all
four workshops per site. The topics were goals and business planning, ag taxes
and business entities, finances and financial statements, and land rent and
grain marketing. As a result of attending the workshops farmers are now better
able to know their farm goals, finances, know their cost of production, and
have a better understanding of ag taxes. Our goal was to promote better
internal decision-making skills and foster stronger relationships with internal
and external partners.
Each location had four separate workshops all with a
different topic. The four separate sites were Lamberton, Owatonna, Clearwater,
and on Online webinar with people from all over Minnesota. This program was
designed as a cohort and each participant was encouraged to attend all four
workshops per site. We taught a total of 178 young and beginner famers at the
in-person workshops and the four-part webinar series had 166 participants.
There was an average of 15 people for each in-person workshop and 42 for each
webinar session. We taught a total of 145 unique and 344 total participants
throughout all 16 workshops!
This grant was an overall success. We exceeded our overall
attendance expectations. 100% reported an increase in understanding of
agricultural taxes and financial statements. 98% reported being able to use the
information gained from the workshop.