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:  Complete

Intermediate Outcome:  Data Analysis

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

Method:  Decision making classes

Timeline:Complete

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 X10D

Timeline: Fall of  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:  Complete

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: Spring 2024

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 2024