Four farm financial topics (recordkeeping, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow) were covered in the series with hands-on activities to help participants to understand the concepts, with other complementing topics by local speakers. In order to reach farm women across the entire state,
programs were offered where the keynote financial speaker provided lessons via
Zoom technology to local host sites. There was at least one facilitator at each host
site conducting a hands-on activity which helped participants apply the
information to a real-world case farm. There were 32 locations that hosted 685 participants
and over 50 Kansas extension educators who were involved in making this program
a success.
The need to teach these financial concepts was great. The agriculture
economy is in a difficult time following a long period of poor prices and
trade uncertainty in agriculture. Many participants reported gaining tools that
they would be able to implement into their own farm operations.
When the pandemic hit, this program again reached out across the state, providing two webinars on what was happening with commodity prices and why, and how producers should adjust their financial management plans. This resulted in an additional reach of 216 participants for this project.