Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This project aims to collect farm-level production and financial data from New Mexico producers using a two-prong approach. First, it utilizes agricultural accountants and takes advantage of farmer's existing relationships to minimize producers' effort for participating in the Farm Business Management and Benchmarking (FBMB) database. The approach will make submissions faster, easier, and more accurate. Second, the project seeds the use of regional Annie's Project locally-led programs to identify and develop relationships with community leaders and ensure by-in and engagement with key farmers in each targeted area. The highly collaborative approach strengthens connections between farmers, university educators, agricultural accountants and other professionals, and NMSU extension systems.The extensive interactions funded through the grant continually highlight the critical role of the collected information for the agricultural service sector, policymakers, and applied agricultural research. The significant portion of the grant dedicated to face-to-face meetings serves to obtain quality information and build a farmer support network. The project also intends to summarize key findings and observations in the form of extension articles and outreach documents.The project does seek designation as a Center of Excellence.
Animal Health Component
95%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
95%
Developmental
5%
Goals / Objectives
1. Expand the FBMB prevalence in the West and increase the number of included crops by adding New Mexico farmers, including the addition ofseveral specialty crops and produce crops to the existing National Database. The inclusion of New Mexico producers is also likely to increase the number of minority farmers, especially Hispanic and Native American farmers.2. Offer two types of training to NM agricultural producers. 1) Help expand"Annie's Project" groups and associatedtrainings; 2)offer trainings specific to FBMB to help farmers to submit and utilize their own data.3. Develop a new protocol for working collaboratively with agricultural producers and their accountants to facilitate submission of farm financial data.
Project Methods
Outreach activitiesThe outreach follows two main approaches. In the first year the PIs will present the importance of financial benchmarking at each of the major commodity group meetings. The second approach is to develop deep relationships through the support and creation of "Annie's Projects."Presentations to help generate interest at these commodity group annual conferences will be made in the first year. Workshops targeting these meetings will follow the conference in the second and third years. These commodity groups include:New Mexico Farm & Livestock BureauNew Mexico Joint Stockmen's AssociationSouthwest Hay AssociationNew Mexico Chile AssociationNew Mexico Farmers' Market AssociationNew Mexico Dairy Producers AssociationNew Mexico Cattlegrowers' AssociationNew Mexico Woolgrowers' AssociationNew Mexico Farmers' Marketing AssociationWestern Pecan Growers AssociationAdditional presentations will be made to these conferences to widen the use of FINBIN benchmarking. These meetings all are held in Las Cruces or have online capacity, so no expense is added to the budget.NMSU Cooperative Extension In-Service Training related to FBMB benchmarking tools can be included in the 2023 & 2024 updates. The benefits and method of contributing data can be included in the 2022 update.NMSU Cooperative Extension Service Beef and Livestock Update - This is an extension service training targeted at New Mexico beef producers. Training related to FBMB benchmarking tools can be included in the 2023 & 2024 updates. The benefits and method of contributing data can be included in the 2022 update.New Mexico Agricultural Leadership (NMAL) Program - this program promotes understanding of agricultural issues and policies among recognized and emerging leaders of the industry.To sustain the project outcomes in target regions, we plan to leverage on resources of Center of Excellence in Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems (CESFAS) within NMSU ACES. One of the project collaborators is the current co-director of the center. Our approach will build on and contribute towards CESFAS's goal to develop and expand the value-added agribusiness New Mexico. The reliance on the Annie's Project creates a natural avenue for extension education. The ability to use financial benchmarking will support efforts for sustainable farm businesses contributing to economic development. The financial benchmarks across different important commodities and regions will strengthen collaborative research efforts and farm management teaching.Annie's Project An agenda for the Annie's Project from Eastern New Mexico is included in the Appendix. One of the main benefits of Annie's Project is the creation of a local advisory committee consisting of respected farmers from the area. This advisory committee helps develop the agenda, so the topics covered are customized to the region. This also allows the focus to expand beyond just financial concerns to include interdisciplinary topics to increase the sustainability of farms and ranches.Annie's Project targets women to offer a new way to recruit farmers. The areas targeted are agriculturally important regions, with careful thought about how the regions would expand the FINBIN database. Regional Annie's Project groups created are shown in the map in the appendix.FBMB WorkshopsAnnie's Projects and commodity conferences will be followed with intensive workshops The locations for the third year may be adjusted based on demand, but with attention paid to serving the entire state and our different farmer types, ethnicities, and sizes.-------Data Contribution ApproachFarmers can choose to provide data through their accountants or by participating in a FBMB workshop. The steps for submitting data include:Participating farmer hears about the importance of the program from a producer meeting, podcasts, social media, an Ag Science Field Day, from an Annie's Program participant, or from their banker or accountant. They receive a participation permission form, sign it, and submit it to his/her/their accountant. The form will include the production yield, acreage, or head count information necessary for creating benchmark data, to be submitted by farmer and passed on as part of total data submission from accountant.The accountant notifies NMSU PIs of their willingness to participate on behalf of a client (the notification instructions will be included with farmer permission form).Accountant assigns an anonymous producer number to that farmer and runs the reports necessary/available for creating a data submission to FBMB Database. The accountant uploads the file to a Dropbox folder shared with them. Each farm will have a subfolder named with the producer number. If there are questions, technical issues, or incomplete reports, this number will allow resolution of issues without revealing the farmer's name.Funding is provided in the grant to pay accountants $100/participating farm. This hopefully prevents any additional cost from being charged to participating farmers. It also provides an incentive for accountants to help promote participation in the program.Permission form may be revoked by farmer at any time, but pending legal approval, it will allow for annual submission until revoked.Alternative to working with an accountant, farmers could submit data developed through participation in an FBMB workshop following an Annie's Program meeting or a commodity group conference.Once data is received, faculty and graduate students use FINPACK software to convert data files to FBMB-compatible format.RankEm Software is used to pull files together into a state database, which is submitted for compilation into the FBMB National Database. After an error-checking process, the data is available online.