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Dairy program help farms develop business plan for future success.

James Salfer

Summary

Planning your dairy farm future has been a three-year program focused to assist dairy farmers in developing a business plan. AgPlan from the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota was the template. Most participants were multigeneration farms wanting to learn skills and develop a plan to transition leadership and management to the next generation. This four-session cohort-based program is structured with short lectures, worksheets, and discussions. Learning objectives include identifying values; understanding personalities; developing mission, vision statements, SWOT analysis and SMART goals; identify roles and developing a plan to transition leadership and management.
Post class and follow up surveys indicated that 99% of participants reported the discussion and exercises were very useful or somewhat useful. Comments on what they found useful included: Resources to get things done; Useful tools for communication, goal setting and discussions to set up a plan to move forward; Making our “brains” focus on business planning; Goal setting needs to be a priority. When asked about the impact on the business, comments included: More work between family members; Improvement in communication; I’m “self-empowered” as an assistant farm manager; This was hard work and forced us to have some tough discussions; This forced us the think about what roles everyone in the family should play; This has been great; we never knew what our parents were thinking about a timeline to step back and pass on the farm.

Details

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