Measuring the Agriculture BusinessPlan of Work

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Bracken County CES

Title:
Measuring the Agriculture Business
MAP:
Agriculture, Management and Decision Process
Agents Involved:
ANR
MAJOR PROGRAM 1:
Beef
MAJOR PROGRAM 2:
Farm Management, Economics and Policy
MAJOR PROGRAM 3:
Forages
MAJOR PROGRAM 4:
Soil testing
Situation:

Many producers focus on production and do not measure any aspect of the business.  In order to make profitable decisions, producers need data to measure the cost and revenue from their agricultural enterprise.  The need to improve farm record keeping and data collection is a focus of the ag finance businesses as farmers are ask more and more to provide information for capital needs.    This documentation will include actual measures of profitability of various enterprises on the farm to determine if some aspects of the overall farm need to be changed to improve the overall farm profitability.

Long-Term Outcomes:

Farmers implement systems that will help record, track, and analysis the economic viability of their decisions and be able to make necessary changes to reflect the changing market and weather conditions. 

Intermediate Outcomes:

Farmers realize how information can affect the results of the enterprise with increased profitability.  They continue to look at data to make informed decisions.

Initial Outcomes:

Farmers start to measure and record data from each enterprise, such as calf weights, cow reproductive performance, crop yields per field, per acre, and other crop measures of quality.  

Evaluation:

Initial Outcome:  Data Recording

Indicator:  Various collection methods are used to measure ag performance

Method:  Farm Record Keeping classes

Timeline:  Winter of 2021

Intermediate Outcome:  Data Analysis

Indicator:  Farmers make informed decisions based on information from measuring of agriculture production and cost

Method:  Decision making classes

Timeline:2021-2022


Long-term Outcome:  Record Keeping Systems 

Indicator:  Records are a permanent part of the management of the farm operation.

Method:  Producer visits and reports to learn how the business uses data,  Beef Producers that employ I-COW

Timeline: 2023

Learning Opportunities:

Audience:  Farmers wanting to improve profitability

Project or Activity:  Basic Farm Record Keeping Class

Content or Curriculum:  Brown Farm Record Book use and purpose class

Inputs:  Brown Farm Record Books, sample of farm expenses, and incomes to enter and learn about categories for farm accounting.

Date:  Winter 2021


Audience:  Data Analysis

Project or Activity:  Class to evaluate information and make informed decisions on

Content or Curriculum:   PRIMER workbook and software to evaluate enterprise profitability for both the short term and long term situation on the farm.  

Inputs:  Workbooks, software use, and specialist with Ag Econ and budgets

Date: Fall  2022


Audience:  Record Keeping Systems, Producers that want to evaluate the profitability of different enterprises on their farm and the ways and means to do it.  

Project or Activity:  Learn about various systems from hand written forms to computer programs

Content or Curriculum:  X10D Cattle Data Management software program offered through UK Beef IRM, Quickbooks or Quicken programs that can help with accounting.

Inputs:  UK Ag Econ Specialist, Booklets, software, membership it X10D Beef management

Date:  winter 2023



Success Stories

Tax Exemption

Author: David Appelman

Major Program: Financial Education - General

Kentucky law allows  for the purchase of inputs that are used for agricultural production as tax exempt.  This is a tremendous savings to the agricultural community, but changes are taking place that producers need to be aware of.  A new Kentucky law was passed that now requires farmers to apply for an Agricultural Exemption Number to be used when purchasing qualified items to be tax exempt.  In the past, farmers used their drivers license number when filling out a form. &nbs

Full Story

Beef Record Keeping

Author: David Appelman

Major Program: Beef

One of the most limiting factors affecting beef production in Bracken County is the lack of production data and record keeping.  Without this information, many business decisions may or may not be the best choice from farm profitability.Bracken County producers now have a new tool to use, that addresses the record keeping issue with their beef herds and that is the X10D app and web based system developed at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.  The B

Full Story
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