Completed Project Report


Application of AgFA to assist young farmers to improve financial decision-making in an increasing-risk environment

  • Award Amount: $41,645
  • Regional Center: North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center
  • Grant Program: 2011 Unrestricted Grants
  • Project Director: Jenny Vanderlin
  • Email: jmvander@wisc.edu
  • Organization: Center for Dairy Profitability

Extension RME Regional Centers
Extension Risk Management Education Region Map

Project Overview

This project employed the AgFA Benchmarking database to assist WI producers in the high risk ´transition-into-farming´ group. This group generally borrows directly or receives loan guarantees from FSA, with the requirement they receive financial management education. It is intended that these farmers will build their knowledge-base and application of financial management, however, it isn´t evident that this is being achieved; producers are not reaching the next level in their financial planning. In response, this project involved four steps: 1) building an interface for AgFA to collect financial, production and descriptive data from the FSA financial records; 2) coordination of the project with FSA and lenders to participate in collecting data; 3) provision of statewide workshops on analyzing, benchmarking, and decision-making for farmers with their own AgFA reports in hand; and 4) provide participants with their report(s) against appropriate benchmarks.(182 total = producers, lenders, FSA officers, county agents)

Number of Participants: 182

Outcomes

Project Steps

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

There are no promotional materials available for this project.

EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

There are no educational materials available for this project.

REPORTS & EVALUATIONS

There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.

DELIVERY AREA

DESCRIBE ANY UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF THE PROJECT:

HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE PROJECT IF YOU WERE TO DO IT AGAIN?

WHAT WERE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR YOUR PARTICIPANTS?

INDIVIDUAL STORIES / EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS / QUOTES