Free online workshop helps farmers understand financial world

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management has created a new online workshop series titled “Interpreting Financial Statements and Measures or IFSaM, to help agricultural producers understand and use common financial statements and measures.

As agriculture becomes more and more complex, farm and ranch managers need to understand and communicate in the financial world.

“One of the unique things about agriculture is that most ag producers are also their own chief financial officer,” said Dale Nordquist, an Extension economist and workshop co-creator with Bob Craven, also an Extension economist. “IFSaM will teach producers the basics of interpreting the four major financial statements and the 21 financial measures recommended by the Farm Financial Standards Council.”

IFSaM is a series of online videos that producers can work through at their own pace. Each session provides benchmarks, based on actual farms, that producers can use to evaluate their financial position and their financial performance. Case farm examples are used to bring the data to life. There are also optional "test your knowledge" quizzes at the end of each session. In total, there are more than 2 1/2 hours of information.

Best of all, IFSaM is free. This series was created with funding from the North Central Risk Management Education Center.

IFSaM can be found at http://www.extension.umn.edu/AgBusinessManagement on the University of Minnesota Extension website.

Source: Dale Nordquist, economist with University of Minnesota Extension