Conferences
Long-Term Impacts of West Virginia University Extension Risk Management Educational Dinner Meetings
Jodi Richmond and Ronnie Helmondollar
Summary
The West Virginia University Extension Service (WVES) has developed an effective vehicle to deliver current agriculture information to producers statewide. Since 2000, WVUES has implemented the educational dinner meeting format to hold educational agriculture opportunities for farmers throughout West Virginia. These meetings are held in over 34 locations annually with at least 15 different presenters. They are designed for new and experienced farm families in WV that are operating on a slim margin. The meeting format provides a locally funded and prepared meal, networking between farmers, and the opportunity to hear from keynote presenters on topics of vital interest to WV and US agriculture production. Topics covered include risk management, livestock production, farm business management, and other best management practices. This format has been tremendously successful in generating an audience and continually drawing in agriculture producers.
Recent long term evaluation has documented that a large portion of the producers are gaining knowledge from the programs and implementing production techniques, improving their economic outlook and managing risk on their farms. The results indicated 80% of respondents participating in 2012-2014 feel they have increased their knowledge due to the dinner meetings; 71% have made a change in farming practice due to the dinner meetings with 30% have implementing a risk management strategy due to the dinner meetings. Additionally, 60% have increased their farm income and 28% have decreased their expenses (over 70% of these producers felt it was “somewhat” or “a lot” due to the dinner meetings for each of those questions).
Presentation Materials
Details
| Conference | 2017 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference |
| Presentation Type | 30-Minute Concurrent |