About the program

The Situation

Farm records compiled by the Department of Applied Economics consistently show the net farm incomes of the most profitable and least profitable Minnesota farms differing by over $150,000. As farm incomes have become more variable, the job of managing a farm has become ever more complex.

Farm managers are managing more dollars and more people. They are often their own accountants, business analysts, market specialists, and human resource departments, as well as being production specialists.

Agricultural producers face markets with narrow margins and a great deal of uncertainty. Tools are available to manage risk, but they often come at a cost. Producers need to balance the cost and benefits of risk management approaches to protect their businesses from adversity while maintaining profitability.

The Solution

The Agricultural Business Management (ABM) program educates farm decision-makers on production, marketing, and financial management. ABM provides educational programs and software tools to educate producers and professionals on the concepts of risk management, the tools available to mitigate risk, and the historical returns to risk management approaches.

We address areas where strategic and operational management changes are needed to improve progress toward business and family goals, with a particular focus on estate planning, farm transfers, and farmland and machinery acquisition.

ABM also tracks financial performance of Minnesota farms because of their importance to the broader Minnesota economy. It provides farm management information to farmers, bankers, and others concerned with the future of Minnesota agriculture.

Serving...

• Minnesota farmers
• Farm business management association members
• Marketing clubs
• Crop insurance agents
• Agricultural lenders
• Elevator managers
• Farm business management educators
• Landowners
• State and federal policymakers

Specific Goals

• Lead audiences to understand how to develop and implement a pre-harvest grain marketing plan for their farm, and to understand the importance of revenue-based crop insurance in a grain marketing plan.
• Introduce to farm family members farm transition and estate planning information, laws, regulations, concepts and techniques, and outline potential strategies and methods farm families can use as they develop and implement their farm transfer and associated estate plans
• Provide fee-based farm business benchmarking, planning, and income tax management to members of the Southwest Minnesota Farm Business Management Association, and merge their data with that from other farms into the FINBIN farm analysis and benchmarking database.
• Develop educational materials and programs to help producers and landowners to keep abreast of the evolving marketplace for resources such as land and machinery.
• Educate producers about alternatives and consequences of emerging issues such as farm bill legislation and new technologies.

What we do

• FINPACK farm financial planning and analysis software, business plan software, and FINBIN database
• Minnesota Agricultural Risk Management Conference for crop insurance providers
• National Ag Risk Education Library
• A three hour crop insurance and marketing seminar
• A series of papers that discuss and analyze crop and livestock insurance
• Southwest Minnesota Farm Business Management Association
• Analysis of 2008 Farm Bill alternatives and implementation
• Income tax information for farmers
• Ag lenders conferences
• Farm machinery economic cost information
• Farmland rental and sales value information
• Marketing Clubs
• Master Marketer Program
• Farm Transfer & Estate Planning workshops and publications
• Winning the Game 1: Gain the Pre-harvest Marketing Advantage Workshops
• Winning the Game 2: Launch Your Marketing Plan Workshop
• Winning the Game 3: The Post-Harvest Marketing Challenge
• Winning the Game 4: Launch and Land Your Post-Harvest Marketing Plan
• Winning the Game for Dairy