Conferences
Heart of the Farm Wisconsin Women in Agriculture Program Statistics & Trends
Jenny Vanderlin
Summary
The Heart of the Farm Conference Series (HOF) empowers Wisconsin farm women in production, price, financial, legal and human areas of risk management education. Heart of the Farm conferences bring women together in a professional setting and provide education to improve their competence in farm business management and production. By providing opportunities to network with their counterparts, these conferences attempt to decrease the social isolation experienced by many farm women. Since 2002, there have been 20 Heart of the Farm one-day conferences across the state. Three locations consistently host a HOF conference each year, providing infrastructure to continue the Heart of the Farm one-day conference program.
Evaluations indicate participants contribute a large percentage of labor and management to the farm operation. Heart of the Farm participants indicate they share many of the decisions for the farm business, including long term planning and farm investment decisions. Previous HOF participants identified the most important factors that drive their decisions to attend farm educational workshops; with the most important being the information is pertinent to their business. The experience and information gathered from five years of HOF evaluations will assist farm business educators with developing programs that both men and women will value. Coordinators of HOF will share the details of planning and executing a farm women’s program including how far in advance to start promoting to the details that make women feel welcome at a mixed gender Extension program. Evaluation analysis comparing statistics across the five years of HOF will be presented.
Presentation Materials
Details
| Conference | 2007 National Extension Risk Management Education Conference |
| Presentation Type | Concurrent |