Annie’s Project, Heart of the Farm, and Beyond—Moving Past Introductions to Farm Financial and Risk Management

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Annies Project, Heart of the Farm, and
BeyondMoving Past Introductions
to Farm Financial and Risk Management

• Aliesha R. Crowe
• University of Wisconsin-Extension
• Rusk County

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University of Wisconsin Program on Agriculture
Technology Studies Research

• most farm women are responsible for the financial
  record keeping on their farm and also share in
  the decision-making to borrow money and/or expand
  the operation¹

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Other Responsibilities
Source Wisconsin Family Farm Facts, No 20,
September 2003. PATS-research findings
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Farm Women in Rusk County

• 306 Woman Operators2
• 31 Sole operators
• 275 woman operators on farm with more than one
  operator
• 58 Principal operators3
• Producers are interested in Measuring enterprise
  profitability, low cost production systems, cost
  of production calculations, dairy herd health,
  private woodlot management4

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HEART OF THE FARM--WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE ANNIES
PROJECT Mission Farm Management and Production
Education for Women Improving Farm Business
Decision-Making Goal The Heart of the Farm -
Women in Agriculture Conference Series and
Annie's Project address the needs of farm women
by providing education on pertinent topics,
connecting them with agricultural resources, and
creating support networks.
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Possible Future Topics
Heart of the farm will continue to
provide program topics identified by women in
agriculture. Future program topics may
include Farm Transfers Nutrient
Management Financial Software Retirement Farm
Safety Marketing Production Issues Risk
Management
Mission
Farm Management and Production
Education for Women Improving
Farm Business Decision-Making
Goal
Heart of the Farm Women in Agriculture
Conference Series
The Heart of the Farm Women in Agriculture
Conference Series addresses the needs of
farm women by providing education on pertinent
topics, connecting them with agricultural
resources, and creating support networks.
For More Information about the Heart of the Farm
program contact Joy Kirkpatick,
608.263.3485 (joy.kirkpatrick_at_ces.uwex.edu) or
Jenny Vanderlin
608.263.7795
(jmvander_at_wisc.edu)
www.uwex.edu/ces/heartofthefarm
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Pictures and Comments
2005-06 Schedule November 2005 Marinette
County Contact Scott Reuss, Marinette County,
715.732.7510. February 2006 Rusk County Contact
Aliesha Crowe, Rusk County, 715.532.2151. 2
March 2006The Plaza Hotel Eau Claire,
WI Contact Bob Cropp, Pepin County,
608.272.5214. 3 March 2006 LaSures
Hall Oshkosh, WI Contact Kevin Jarek, Outagamie
County, 920.832.5119.
An excellent chance to network and meet a
support group
The humor everyone used was very uplifting
Only women...It was great meeting
other women
It was so nice to finally have a farm women
meeting
Sponsors
Excellent Conference! I enjoyed it very much
and learned a lot about myself and about how I
can improve our lives on the farm
This was my first Extension Program, it was an
Excellent Experience!
Women have different needs and
bring different issues to the field
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One day conferences in Rusk County

• 2003 Got Risk, Play (stress management),
  Health Insurance, Planning for the 5Ds(18 women)
• 2004 Health Care Options Managing Family, Farm,
  Jobs, and Personal Priorities Price Risk
  Management, Nutrition, Tatting (21/12 women)
• 2005 Cancelledonly 5 women pre-registered
• 2006 Farm transfer female leadership in
  agriculture nutrient management value-added
  agriculture trends (15 women)
• 2007 Two advanced focus topics Dairy Price
  Risk Management, and Using Excel for
  recordkeeping(6 women)

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Other Women in Agriculture Programs

• 2003 HOF Network formation
• 2003 HOF Mini-conferenceBusiness Management
• 2004 Women Investing
• 2006 Individual Financial Management Counseling
  (2 women 5 families)
• 2006 Annies Project (15 women)

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(No Transcript)
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Evaluations from HOF and Annies

• Would rather have known more financial
  information
• HOF Financial, farm accounting, computer
  software
• Annies Project Request for entire workshop
  COP (4), market analysis, excel spreadsheets,
  Production record-keeping

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Moving Beyond the Introductory Programs

• Heart of the Farm Network Formation
• No regular meetings
• Virtual connection
• Mentor/Mentee farmers

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Moving Beyond the Introductory Programs

• CASE STUDY FARM 1
• Farm woman attended HOF Conference in 2006
• Husband/Wife purchased their own farm in 2006
• Finpack Analysis of Farm Financial situation
  summer 2006
• 2006 Annies Project Participant

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CASE STUDY 1 After attending Annies Project
in Fall 2006 My goals are make a business
plan get the somatic cell count down get the milk
output up get the parlor built protocols for dry
cows, mastitis, milking, fresh cows, calf feeding
dry cow housing "system" and cleanliness dry cow
feeding dairy cow housing for winter and feeding,
both physical feeding and nutritional calf
housing for winter and a grazing plan for them,
again physical feeding and nutritional raising
our bull calves for organic feeders All without
spending a million dollars! I think it can all be
done without a terrific outlay of cash, but I
think the benefits will really make a difference
in my bottom line as well as SCC, cow longevity,
decrease in teat damage and many other things.

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Case Study 1

• Formation of a Milk Money5 Team to address milk
  quality goals
• Team members farm woman, milk plant rep,
  veterinarian, UWEX Ag. Agent
• Met for three months
• Cultured all high cell count cows
• Updated milking system
• Began transition to Organic treatment protocols
  because of Organic Certification
• Evaluation of dry cow housing
• Currently writing her business plan

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Case Study 1
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Case Study 2

• Farm Familycurrent husband/wife operators
• Older children interested in participation in
  farm
• Want to expand on current record-keeping
  practices including use of computer software
• Annies Project 2006 participant

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Case Study 3

• Operates farm with Husband
• Attended all HOF conferences, Annies Project,
  and HOF network planner
• Currently using computerized records
• Utilized state specialist for evaluation of
  buildings for low-cost parlor installation
• Financial Management Counseling--calculated
  break-even point, Cost of Production

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Case Study 3

• I am interested in the Team Profit.  We are at
  a point here that we are contemplating either
  expanding or quitting.  We are also thinking of
  moving all operations to our place and not
  renting landlords.  I told my husband that
  we need help in evaluating our situation.

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Impact
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Impact
SHORT TERM MEDIUM TERM LONG TERM

• Learning
• Awareness

• Decision-making
• Purchasing software
• Using break-even analysis
• Practice
• Implementing practices from teams
• Using Software

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Tools

• Topic specific workshops
• Balance Sheet Challenge6
• Excel Exercises7
• Cost per CWT8 spreadsheet

• Farm Specific Programs
• Milk Money Teams
• Team Profit
• Computer Software training

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Example Exercise
Balance Sheet Challenge
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Summary

• Establish programs specifically for Women in
  Agriculture
• Provide relevant topics for farm woman who are
  making decisions and playing vital role in farm
  operation
• Provide opportunity to network with other farm
  women
• Provide programs that do more than scratch the
  surface of topic or issue based on participant
  input
• Provide farm-specific programs that involve all
  operators

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Resources

• 1. Wisconsin Farm Family Facts, The Roles of
  Women on Wisconsin Dairy Farms at the Turn of the
  21st Century, No. 16, November 2001.
• 2. 2002 Census of Agriculture County data, 504
  Wisconsin, Table 48
• 3. 2002 Census of Agriculture County data, 503
  Wisconsin, Table 47
• 4. Rusk County Agriculture Survey 2003
• 5. Worlds Best Milk Quality Website
  http//www.uwex.edu/MilkQuality/
• 6. Survivor--The Balance Sheet Challenge, Robert
  K. Cropp, UWEX
• 7. Spreadsheets for Farmers http//www.spreadsheet
  s4farmers.com/worksheets.html
• 8. Center For Dairy Profitability Decision Making
  Tools http//cdp.wisc.edu/Decision20Making20Tool
  s.htm

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Aliesha R. CroweRusk County UW-ExtensionAgricult
ure Agent311 E. Miner AvenueSuite
S140Ladysmith, WI 54848phone[phone]fax
715-532-2279aliesha.crowe_at_ces.uwex.eduhttp//rus
k.uwex.edu