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Solutions for Success Seminars

Steven Johnson and Alejandro Plastina

Summary

Presenting current farm financial issues in large group settings can prove challenging. Current constraints such as working capital, liquidity, cash flow management and various crop risk management strategies need to be addressed.
In 2015 and 2016, the Farm Credit Services of America (FCSA) credit team provides the farm financial backgrounds on several farms to Iowa State University Extension specialists. Alejandro Plastina and Steve Johnson work with the credit team to analyze financial solutions for these farms. Three case studies are then compiled annually for winter training and have been the highlight of the 90-minute "Solutions for Success" message.
FCSA then hosts a GrowingOn seminar series each December and January. Annually more than 6,000 farmers attend more than 30 different meeting sites in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas.
An end-of-meeting survey results were compiled to reflect the impact of these case studies and related topics regarding farm finances, crop risk management and marketing.

Outcomes
A written and online post event evaluations were completed by 72% of the attendees. Results included:

• 95% rated GrowingOn as “Extremely Valuable” or “Valuable” to their operation
• 93% “Strongly Agreed” or “Agreed” that as a result of attending GrowingOn, they are better prepared to reduce risk and manage revenue challenges.

Details

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