Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audience of this project is the over 4000 farmers who participate in farm business management programs in eleven states who provide data to the national benchmarking database and benchmark their farms bases on the results. A second audience is farmers in six partner institutions that are piloting farm financial benchmarking efforts. These farms receive in-depth financial analysis of their farms each year, including complete financial statements, ratio analysis, crop and livestock enterprise analysis and trend reports. These individual reports help these farmers guide the management of their farms and provide valuable insights for farm decision-making. Benchmark reports provide feedback to management about the financial strengths of their operations and where weaknesses may threaten their business future. Those farms that contribute data to the national database and have the ability to query the national database and directly compare their farms to peer farms. Those farms also participate in farm management training and education programs in which the results from the combined financial database become an integral part of the instructional materials. The final 2015 database includes financial data that was deemed accurate enough to include in the database from 3576 farms. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of those farms are small or mid-sized farms, the group that is most challenged in today's volatile agricultural economy. Special efforts have been made to reach organic farms, farms in organic transition, and specialty crop farms. A project in New York is aimed at small beef producers, many of whom direct market much of their production. Another new partner group includes Extension educators in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont to provide financial management training and financial benchmarks for small direct market fruit and vegetable producers. The second target group is all commercial farms, primarily in and around the states with partnering farm management education programs. The financial database created through this project is open for any producer to query the database for benchmark financial metrics and crop and livestock enterprise costs and returns. Any producer can use the Compare Your Farm tool on the FINBIN website to benchmark the strengths and weaknesses of their financial position and performance. CFFM staff and many of the educators involved in the project use the national database to provide insight to producer groups about the financial performance of different segments of the farming population in farm meetings and through media outlets. A third target audience is agricultural professionals. Agricultural educators use the national database to support teaching on financial management, Report cost and returns and financial trends; agricultural lenders use benchmark database report to support loan decisions and follow industry trends; agricultural researchers use reports from the benchmark database to support their research; and agricultural media have access to the national database to support reporting on industry trends, costs and returns, and other related topics. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the past year, farm financial analysis and benchmarking training was provided for partner groups in Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, and Tennessee. CFFM also conducted a series of five benchmark training webinars over January and February to provde training to educators across the nation. Webinars focused on advanced balance sheet analysis, advanced whole farm analysis, crop enterpise analsyis, livestock enterprise analysis, and advance enterprise analysis. Each webinar was recorded and recordings are available athttps://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/finpack-benchmarking. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The primary method used to disseminated farm financial benchmark results is through public access to FINBIN. FINBIN is open to anyone to query for summary financial information or benchmarks on financial metrics. Data queries can filter by farm sizes, type, and several other whole farm attributes. Enterprise level queries can filter by specific production practices for crop and livestock enterprises. CFFM staff and others make several national presentations each year using data from the National Database to publicize the results. Examples are the American Bankers Association National Agricultural Bankers Conference where both Dale Nordquist and Robert Craven presented, Farm Futures Summit in St. Louis, the Purdue Agricultural Credit Clinic, the Iowa Ag Credit School in Ames, and the National School for Ag Lenders in Spearfish, South Dakota, the National Extension Risk Management Education Conference in Dallas, the National Farm Business Management Conference in Sioux Falls, the Minnesota Crop Insurance Conference, and three local Agricultural Lenders Conferences in Minnesota. The Farm Financial Standards Council has incorporated benchmark reports from the National Database into its Financial Guidelines for Agricultural Producers. CFFM staff regularly receives requests from national journalists to provide insights based on trends identified in reports generated through the National Database, including Farm Journal, Farm Futures, Minnesota Public Radio, and DTN. CFFM maintains an extensive database farmers and over 3000 agricultural professionals, including over 600 educators and nearly 1,300 lenders who use CFFM tools. Data from the National Database is regularly used in educational offerings provided to CFFM contacts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) worked closely with farm business management educators in partner states to support their educational efforts in farm business management and to make the National Farm Business Management Benchmarking Database accessible to producers and to educators to support their educational programs. Complete farm financial data from 3576 farms for the 2015 fiscal year was collected and compiled in the National Farm Management and Benchmarking Database at http://www.finbin.umn.edu. Farms have been compiled and included in the database from 10 states (Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin). That data has been collected and is undergoing review for accuracy and consistency. CFFM staff continues efforts to work with Cornell University Extension to prepare data from New York. Additional training for Cornell educators was conducted in May. CFFM is currently working with Extension Farm Business Management leaders in the New England states to investigate the creation of benchmarks for direct marketing producers in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. CFFM has also established procedures to work with private groups as Benchmark Affiliates. To date, three private farm consultants have partnered with CFFM to add data to the National Database. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of the farms included for 2015 are small or mid-sized farms, the farms that are most vulnerable to today's volatile agriculture. Twenty-two percent (22%) are beginning farmers who have been in production agriculture for less than ten years. Special efforts have been made to incorporate data from organic, specialty crop and farms in organic transition. The 2015 database, compiled during 2016, includes 64 organic farms, 31 specialty crop farms, and 11 farms in organic transition. Each participating farm completes an annual financial analysis of their farm which includes preparation of balance sheets, income statements, and other whole farm metrics. This whole farm data is then allocated to enterprises to develop enterprise performance reports. These individual farm datasets are then compiled into local benchmarking databases to support local educational programs and to analyze for outliers. Finally, the local databases are rolled up into the National Database and again tested for outliers and data integrity. An important part of the training and work with participating groups is to assure consistent procedures are employed to provide assurance that data is accurate, uniform, and complete. Consistent software setup files have been created and maintained for each participating group to assure that each participant is using a consistent chart of accounts. In the past year, CFFM staff completed work with the New England project leaders to create a charts of accounts for direct marketing farms in the New England states. The National Database is maintained at the University of Minnesota and is open to all producers to generate benchmarking reports on farm financial statements, Farm Financial Standards Council ratios, other whole entity reports, crop enterprise analysis reports and livestock enterprise reports. During most recent twelve-month reporting year, 35,502 benchmarking reports were generated through FINBIN, an increase of 2,000 reports over the previous year. Additional software tools are available to contributing producers to benchmark their operations against selected peer groups by type of farm, size of farm, location, enterprise, and various production technologies. Funding from this project was used to develop and implement a major revision of the FINBIN website to make it more mobile-responsive. Another feature was added to make it possible to generate panel data reports, adding greater insight into the financial performance of panels of farms over a period of years. In addition, a new online data repository, the FINPACK Vault, was developed and released to provide an efficient and secure way to share data between educators and database reviewers, as well as improved data backup capabilities. CFFM hosted a Benchmark Project Leaders meeting in November which brought together leaders from each partner group to discuss shared goals, progress, ways to expand the database, evaluation, and plans for the future. Beyond contributing producers, the National Database site provides tools for any producer across the U.S. to benchmark key financial metrics against a selected peer group of farms. In addition to providing benchmarks for participating producers, the information compiled on these farms provides researchers one of the largest and most complete data sets on the actual costs and returns on various organic and specialty crop enterprises. CFFM provides ongoing training to support education programs in farm business management. The FINPACK software used to compile the individual farm analyses is continually evaluated and improved to make this process more efficient. CFFM staff publicize the National Database and the insights that can be gained from the data in various national venues and media outlets. CFFM continues to explore opportunities with groups in other areas, including options for "virtual" farm management programs to reach farms where farm management educational programs do not exist. Efforts continue to use the national database to support research programs. CFFM participated in a project to collect and use data on farms transitioning to organic production to create educational tools on business planning for transitioning farms as part of an Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative project led by Rob King at the University of Minnesota. CFFM is also participating in a project led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology to provide data to evaluate whole farm crop insurance alternatives for organic producers. CFFM conducted an online evaluation of the benchmark projects across the participating states. Responses were received from 363 producers and 85 educators. Farm producers responded that benchmarking was most valuable to evaluate enterprise costs (84% very valuable or valuable). The average producer responded that these benchmarking efforts result in an estimated $12,000 gain in annual profits.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Mahnken, Curtis, Benchmarking Evaluation Survey Results, Center for Farm Financial Management, University of Minnesota, 2016.
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Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audience of this project is the over 4000 farmers who participate in farm business management programs in eleven states who provide data to the national benchmarking database and benchmark their farms bases on the results. These farms receive in-depth financial analysis of their farms each year, including complete financial statements, ratio analysis, crop and livestock enterprise analysis and trend reports. These individual reports help these farmers guide the management of their farms and provide valuable insights for farm decision-making. Benchmark reports provide feedback to management about the financial strengths of their operations and where weaknesses may threaten their business future. Those farms that contribute data to the national database and have the ability to query the national database and directly compare their farms to peer farms. Those farms also participate in farm management training and education programs which in which the results from the combined financial database become an integral part of the instructional materials. To date, 3436 farms have contributed data for 2015. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of those farms are small or mid-sized farms, the group that is most challenged in today's volatile agricultural economy. Special efforts have been made to reach organic farms, farms in organic transition, and specialty crop farms. A new project in New York is aimed at small beef producers, many of whom direct market much of their production. Another new partner group includes Extension educators in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont to provide financial management training and financial benchmarks for small direct market fruit and vegetable producers. The second target group is all commercial farms, primarily in and around the states with partnering farm management education programs. The financial database created through this project is open for any producer to query the database for benchmark financial metrics and crop and livestock enterprise costs and returns. Any producer can use the Compare Your Farm tool on the FINBIN website to benchmark the strengths and weaknesses of their financial position and performance. CFFM staff and many of the educators involved in the project use the national database to provide insight to producer groups about the financial performance of different segments of the farming population in farm meetings and through media outlets. A third target audience is agricultural professionals. Agricultural educators use the national database to support teaching on financial management, cost and returns and financial trends; agricultural lenders use benchmark database report to support loan decisions and follow industry trends; agricultural researchers use reports from the benchmark database to support their research; and agricultural media who have access to the national database to support reporting on industry trends, costs and returns, and other related topics. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?CFFM provides extensive training to farm business management educators involved in benchmarking projects. Training focuses on providing complete, accurate and consistent financial reports to producers, how to use the reports to educate producers in financial management, and how to follow consistent procedures so that the National Database provides consistent feedback to producers. CFFM piloted a new approach to training during this period by offering a hybrid live broadcast via webinar of a local training program on farm enterprise analysis. Twelve educators from Minnesota and Wisconsin attended the 10 hour in-depth training session on-site while approximately 25 educators from partner farm business management programs around the country attended via webinar with full video and audio. CFFM also provided on-site training for educators in Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and North Dakota as part of this project. In addition, CFFM hosted several webinars for educators to update them on changes in the financial analysis tools and recommended procedures for the 2015 analysis of participating farms. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The primary way results are disseminated is through public access to FINBIN. FINBIN is open to anyone to query for summary financial information or benchmarks on financial metrics for specific sizes and types of farms and specific production practices for crop and livestock enterprises. CFFM staff and others make several national presentations each year using data from the National Database to publicize the results. Examples are the American Bankers Association National Agricultural Bankers Conference where both Dale Nordquist and Robert Craven presented, Farm Futures Summit in St. Louis, the Purdue Agricultural Credit Clinic, the Iowa Ag Credit School in Ames, and the National School for Ag Lenders in Spearfish, South Dakota, the National Extension Risk Management Education Conference in Dallas, the National Farm Business Management Conference in Sioux Falls, the Minnesota Crop Insurance Conference, and three local Agricultural Lenders Conferences in Minnesota. The Farm Financial Standards Council has incorporated benchmark reports from the National Database into its Financial Guidelines for Agricultural Producers. CFFM staff regularly receives requests from national journalists to provide insights based on trends identified in reports generated through the National Database, including Farm Journal, Farm Futures, Minnesota Public Radio, and DTN. CFFM maintains an extensive database farmers and over 3000 agricultural professionals, including over 600 educators and nearly 1,300 lenders who use CFFM tools. Data from the National Database is regularly used in educational offerings provided to CFFM contacts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Work continues to expand the National Database to additional geographic regions. Additional training is planned for participants in the New York and New England projects in winter, 2017. A project has been initiated with the University of Tennessee Extension and initial on-site training was recently provided. Efforts are under way to bring the South Carolina database up-to-date. A project is also in its initial phases with Auburn University. A meeting of benchmark project leaders is planned for November to discuss ways to expand the database and efforts to assure data accuracy and consistency. Project leaders from fifteen states are expected to attend. Software changes will be implemented to make use of the FINPACK Vault to compile data into local databases more seamless. Training for ten newly hired educators in the Minnesota farm business management system will be conducted in January. A series of training webinars will be broadcast for new educators across the country in January and February. An online evaluation of the value of benchmarking to FINBIN users has been added to FINBIN and results will be reported in the final report for this project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) worked closely with farm business management educators in partner states to support their educational efforts in farm business management and to make the National Farm Business Management Benchmarking Database accessible to producers and to educators to support their educational programs. To date, complete farm financial data for 2015 from 3436 farms from ten farm management education programs have been added to the National Farm Management and Benchmarking Database at http://www.finbin.umn.edu. Farms have been compiled and included in the database from 9 states (Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin). Additional data has been collected and is currently being screened for accuracy from Ohio and additional farms from Michigan. A renewed effort will also be made to bring data from the South Carolina Farm Management Association up to date. That data has been collected and is undergoing review for accuracy and consistency. CFFM staff continues efforts to work with Cornell University Extension to prepare data from New York. Additional training from Cornell educators is being planned for the coming winter. CFFM is currently working with Extension Farm Business Management leaders in the New England states to investigate the creation of benchmarks for direct marketing producers in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. CFFM has also established procedures to work with private groups as Benchmark Affiliates. To date, three private farm consultants have partnered with CFFM to add data to the National Database. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the farms included for 2015 are small or mid-sized farms, the farms that are most vulnerable to today's volatile agriculture. Twenty-two percent (22%) are beginning farmers who have been in production agriculture for less than ten years. Special efforts have been made to incorporate data from organic, specialty crop and farms in organic transition. The 2015 database, compiled during 2016, includes 62 organic farms, 31 specialty crop farms, and 10 farms in organic transition. Each participating farm completes an annual financial analysis of their farm which includes preparation of balance sheets, income statements, and other whole farm metrics. This whole farm data is then allocated to enterprises to develop enterprise performance reports. These individual farm datasets are then compiled into local benchmarking databases to support local educational programs and to analyze for outliers. Finally, the local databases are rolled up into the National Database and again tested for outliers and data integrity. An important part of the training and work with participating groups is to assure consistent procedures are employed to provide assurance that data is accurate, uniform, and complete. Consistent software setup files have been created and maintained for each participating group to assure that each participant is using a consistent chart of accounts. In the past year, CFFM staff worked with the New England project leaders to create a charts of accounts for direct marketing farms in the New England states. The National Database is maintained at the University of Minnesota and is open to all producers to generate benchmarking reports on farm financial statements, Farm Financial Standards Council ratios, other whole entity reports, crop enterprise analysis reports and livestock enterprise reports. During most recent twelve-month reporting year, 35,502 benchmarking reports were generated through FINBIN, an increase of 2,000 reports over the previous year. During the past year, a major revision of the FINBIN website was completed to make it more mobile-responsive. Additional software tools are available to contributing producers to benchmark their operations against selected peer groups by type of farm, size of farm, location, enterprise, and various production technologies. Beyond contributing producers, the National Database site provides tools for any producer across the U.S. to benchmark key financial metrics against a selected peer group of farms. In addition to providing benchmarks for participating producers, the information compiled on these farms provides researchers one of the largest and most complete data sets on the actual costs and returns on various organic and specialty crop enterprises. CFFM provides ongoing training to support education programs in farm business management. The FINPACK software used to compile the individual farm analyses is continually evaluated and improved to make this process more efficient. CFFM staff publicize the National Database and the insights that can be gained from the data in various national venues and media outlets. CFFM continues to explore opportunities with groups in other areas, including options for "virtual" farm management programs to reach farms where farm management educational programs do not exist. Efforts continue to use the national database to support research programs. CFFM participated in a project to collect and use data on farms transitioning to organic production to create educational tools on business planning for transitioning farms as part of an Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative project led by Rob King at the University of Minnesota. CFFM is also participating in a project led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology to provide data to evaluate whole farm crop insurance alternatives for organic producers.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
FINBIN, Center for Farm Financial Management, University of Minnesota, http://www.finbin.umn.edu
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Nordquist, Dale W, Donald L. Nitchie, Garen J. Paulson, Tonya L. Knorr, Janet M. Froslan and Connie VanderPoel, 2015 Annual Report of the Southwestern Minnesota Farm Business Management Association, Staff Paper 16-2, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, April 2016.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Nordquist, Dale W, 2015 FINBIN Report on Minnesota Farm Finances, Center for Farm Financial Management, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, April, 2016.
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