Non Technical Summary
The Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) will maintain and expand the existing national farm financial database, FINBIN, with a focus on expanding collaborations to help producers answer important financial and economic questions relating to topics such as conservation practices, direct marketing, and aquaculture. This project will continue to work to remove geographical barriers from farm business management education by continuing to pilot the virtual farm business management program with the Farmer Veteran Coalition in various regions of the country. This project will also collaborate with partners to expand the emerging aquaculture benchmarking project and other emerging programs across the country. CFFM will work with collaborators to increase the amount of direct marketing and value-added enterprises submitted to the national database, making it more representative of the entire spectrum of U.S. agricultural producers. To enhance the efficiency of financial analysis from contributing programs, this project will expand the use of a cloud-based version of FINPACK (FINPACK+) for farm business management educators. Additionally, this project will develop the ability in the national database to benchmark fields using cover cropping practices over multiple years to better assess any potential impacts of those practices.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
601	6030	3010	25%
602	6030	3010	75%

Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 602 - Business Management, Finance, and Taxation;

Subject Of Investigation
6030 - The farm as an enterprise;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;

Goals / Objectives
This project aims to increase the viability and success of U.S. producers. Project goals include:Maintain and expand FINBIN (FINBIN.umn.edu), the national farm financial benchmarking database, through collaboration with partners to gather data across farms which are operationally and geographically diverse.Expand cooperation and collaboration among farm financial management education programs and organize innovative efforts to expand the diversity and number of farms in FINBIN.Advance research related to cost of production and other farm profitability factors by leveraging the aggregated data in FINBIN.Provide training, assistance, and software to states with farm management associations and emerging programs to facilitate standardized financial analysis procedures.Provide benchmarking assistance and information to small and medium-sized producers to improve their profitability and their abilities to manage their operations during periods of high risks, volatility, and financial stress.

Project Methods
1. Maintain and expand FINBIN, the national farm financial benchmarking database, through collaboration with partners to gather data across farms which are operationally and geographically diverse.2. Expand cooperation and collaboration among farm financial management education programs and organize innovative efforts to expand the diversity and number of farms in FINBIN.3. Advance research related to cost of production and other farm profitability factors leveraging the aggregated data in FINBIN.4. Provide training, assistance, and software to states with farm management associations to facilitate uniform financial analysis procedures and software.5. Provide benchmarking assistance and information to small and medium-sized producers to improve their profitability and their abilities to manage their operations during periods of high risks, volatility, and financial stress.