If you had a business card, what would it say?  Would your titles include; Chief Grower, Lead Mechanic, Soil Specialist, Veterinarian In Training, Lease Negotiator, Master of Plant Disease and Pest Management, Farmland Acquisition Guru, Commodity Marketing Analyst, Procurement Manager, and Meteorologist?  -I bet your card would include all of that and you would have even more titles.  That’s the thing about being a farmer or rancher; you wear a lot of different hats. 

One really important “hat” you probably wear has to do with how your business is run from a financial stand point.  We aren’t just talking about basic accounting and balancing a check book here.  Most ag producers are their own chief financial officer.  (Here is a general job description for a CFO. Check the description to see if you are already doing any of these tasks, or if you SHOULD be doing these tasks, but are neglecting them for lack of knowhow)

As agriculture becomes more and more complex, farm and ranch managers need to understand and communicate in the financial world.  The Center for Farm Financial Management has created a new online workshop series to help ag producers (and anyone who works with them) understand and use common financial statements and measures.  Their new website, Interpreting Financial Statements and Measures (IFSaM), is intended to teach producers the basics of interpreting the 4 major financial statements and the 21 financial measures recommended by the Farm Financial Standards Council. 

IFSaM is a series of online videos that producers can work through at their own pace.  Each session provides benchmarks, based on actual farms, that producers can use to evaluate their own financial position and their financial performance.  Case farm examples are used to bring the data to life.  There are also optional “test your knowledge” quizzes at the end of each session.  In total, there is over 2 ½ hours of information. 

Here is the kicker: It’s free.  This series was created with funding from the North Central Risk Management Education Center. 

IFSaM is located at http://ifsam.cffm.umn.edu/

Innovators, Investors, and Friends of Sustainable Agriculture; be advised… Agriculture 2.0, the pre-eminent gathering for the entrepreneurs, investors, food producers, and experts working to catalyze -and capitalize on- the transition to a more sustainable agricultural and food system. After an extremely successful inaugural conference in New York City last month, they are delighted to invite you to the next Agriculture 2.0 conference.

What? Agriculture 2.0, the conference for innovators and investors working toward a more sustainable food system

Where? The Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, California

When? Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Why?

•             Find funding for your agri-venture.

•             Identify unique investment opportunities.

•             Learn what's new and exciting in sustainable agriculture.

•             Meet industry leaders and future leaders.

•             Network with other innovators in the field.

•             Become a part of the force driving sustainable agriculture into the mainstream.

•             There are so many reasons to attend!

They are currently recruiting entrepreneurs who are profit-driven and shovel-ready and investors who are poised to contribute the capital that will drive the transition to a more sustainable food system. 

Registration will open November 12th, but mark your calendars today.

•             Apply to present your business at Agriculture 2.0

•             Become a sponsor or exhibitor

A provision in the 2008 Farm Bill that gave Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract holders a financial incentive to transfer their CRP land over to young and minority farmers has now been stalled. The plan would have been a real help to beginner farmers, especially those who desire to implement sustainable or organic farming practices but have an extremely difficult time finding viable agriculture and land. (Productive arable farmland that has not been treated with pesticides or fertilizers for several years)  The original Farm Bill plan provided the CRP landowners with an extra two years worth of program payments for selling or leasing long term to a new farmer.   -But now the program is stalled because the government is scared of law suites from environmental groups; the very types of groups that lobby for more sustainable agriculture and organic farming practices.  (can you say ironic?) The USDA has faced numerous lawsuits in the past over its handling of the CRP land program and now they have decided to put the beginning-farmer program on hold until an environmental impact study can be completed.   With this delay, the program may not be available for a year or more and by then, millions of acres of CRP land could be in the hands of already established farms using conventional commercial farming methods.

For the week of October 4 to 10, 2009. Not your average farm news, and not intended to be all inclusive of every article related to US agriculture.  It’s just meant give you a few pieces from here and there that you probably didn’t read in your local paper. 

USDA OKs $17.4M loan for Kansas wind farm project
Forbes
The US Department of Agriculture will loan about $17.4 million to Greensburg Wind Farm LLC, a subsidiary of John Deere Renewables. ...

Congresswoman Seeks Grassroots Solutions to Dairy Crisis
Lancaster Farming
When US Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper hosted a dairy solution forum at the Butler Farm Show Grounds this past Monday, she did not come with a solution to ...

Low quality makes farmers discount spring wheat
The Associated Press
"What we're seeing on our farm is about a (percentage) point less than average; it's running around 13.5 when normally it's around 14.5," said Richard, ...

FFA teaches kids where food comes from
Marion Star
The US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service reports the average age of US farm operators increased from 55.3 in 2002 to 57.1 ...

Family Guy maze cut into corn field at farm
Telegraph.co.uk
The programme is shown on the Fox Network in the US, and BBC3 in Britain. “They waived the rights and all that," Mr Connors added. ...

Fun Friday: Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm gets my vote!
Examiner.com
Originated in 1975 as a “you pick garden” where the public was welcome to do their shopping right off the vine; David told me, “people were coming up to us ...

Roger Beachy: GM crop pioneer now US farm science chief
New Scientist
US farm research is getting a shake-up with the creation of a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to fund academic agricultural research. ...

The Voice of Agriculture - American Farm Bureau
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 9, 2009 – “The American Farm Bureau Federation supports the U.S. Trade Representative's request for a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel in its case against the European Union's ban on ...

Searching For Dragons
By Grant
Also during this time, U.S. Department of Agriculture policy began favoring larger farms (the average U.S. farm size grew from 100 acres in 1930 to almost 500 acres by 1990), and production for export. ...

Greensburg to receive $17.4 million wind farm loan | Washington ...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will loan about $17.4 million to Greensburg Wind Farm, LLC, a subsidiary of John Deere Renewables. The remaining $5.8 million will come from an equity investment by Deere & Company. ...

US agriculture head on breaking dairy boom and bust
By guy.montague-jones@decisionnews.com
During a visit to a farm in South Dakota this week, AP quoted US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack as saying: “I think really what will be next in line is a longer term discussion about whether or not we need to make structural changes ...

Web Research U.s. Farm Grants Writing Jobs
Web Research U.s. Farm Grants. I need research done on grants that are available to farmers in the United States This information will be used in a guide ...

Survey shows US farm income down
Rabobank conducted its Farm & Ranch survey to gauge farmers confidence among target regions in the U.S. Its research found less than 5% of farms saw an ...