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Farming Your Finances

Sandra Stuttgen

Summary

The Farming Your Finances curriculum follows the financial model continuum, beginning with farm business records, through financial statements, to decision-making. Covered concepts apply to all businesses, making this curriculum beneficial to any entrepreneur. Farming Your Finances is taught during two sessions. First developed using a dairy farm case study, the curriculum was modified in February 2019 to include a beef case farm and beginning beef enterprise analysis.

Nineteen individuals have participated since the March 2017 inaugural workshop for dairy farmers to the January 2019 workshop for a mixed audience representing dairy, cash grain, CSA, beef and maple syrup enterprises. Nine beef producers participated in the February 2019 workshop when the Farming Your Finances-beef curriculum was used.

To determine the curriculum effectiveness, we are collecting participant’s self-reported gain in knowledge scores and Wilcoxon Signed Rank analysis of pre- and post-quiz scores of the material. Participants surveyed six months after the 2017 workshop reported, “I created my own Income Statement using my farm's Schedule F” and “I calculated my farm's debt to asset ratio and rate of return on assets.”

Authors of this curriculum include Sandy Stuttgen, Agriculture Educator, Extension Taylor County
Heather Schlesser, Dairy and Livestock Agent, Marathon County.
Simon Jette-Nantel, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and Center for Dairy Profitability
Nate Splett, University of Wisconsin-River Falls Emeritus and Center for Dairy Profitability
Jenny Vanderlin, Center for Dairy Profitability

The facilitator’s manual is available from University of Wisconsin-Extension Heart of the Farm, https://fyi.uwex.edu/heartofthefarm/educational-resources/for-women-in-ag/

Details

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