Building Farm Financial Management Skills through Effective Distance Education

Building Farm Financial Management Skills brochure

We utilized listservs of organizations, spoke with and called agricultural service providers, emailed brochures, and contacted Northeast SARE State Coordinators to spread the word.

A link embedded in the brochure (see Milestone 1) allowed me to aggregate all the applicant information in Qualtrics.  This then allowed me to select participants based on whether they could commit to the program requirements, and I then grouped applicants based on skill level.  It worked super slick!

Given 46 viable candidates, I decided to seek out additional funds to accommodate more participants.  I raised an additional $9,300 and accepted 36 participants. This was an added bonus, but took a bunch more work. 

We took participants through the web-site today (1/2021)!  We decided to utilize Julia Shanks "The Farmers Edge" website and she made us a specific section where we house class materials, homework, video recordings of the sessions, educational videos, and other resources.

Originally participants asked a bunch of questions on who to select, how much of the farmer's time is required, what farmers can expect etc.   This was an unanticipated time sink! 

During year 2, participants were all on different journeys with this.  Below is information revealed during our cohort meet ups (our peer to peer learning group time)

Our Pennsylvania cohort of 5 participants are currently (Jan, 2022) running their Farm $ense Program where they are planning to meet the farmers that they will work with as part of their program and beyond.  

In our additional 3 cohorts, many participants have shared that they are working with existing farmer clients, while a few have been unable to connect with farmers due to their change in jobs (and so have found easily accessible small business to work with instead of a farmer. eg. Both within their family- a child care center, a baker.). 

Some participants have expressed feeling too nervous to work with Quick Books with farmers prior to feeling like experts with the program, however the learning content of Year 2 has made their work with farmers easier as it is less QB focused, and has content that helps them get farmers on board with the importance of accounting and financial planning!

Though participants connected with a minimum of 2 farmers early on in our program to work with, as stated in this milestone, they may work with the same farmers throughout the project, or choose different farmers and choose when they engage with farmers based on their knowledge of the materials. So the engagement began early in the program and continues now beyond the programs end!

The below info is based on surveying the participants (15 of whom filled out the survey), 

The main skills enhanced by farmers that participants worked with, based on what the participants shared in the March 2023 survey were the ability to keep records including organizing their chart of accounts for greater clarity, and assess their farm's financial health. Both came from better understanding their financial statements as well as better confidence that their record keeping system was generating good data.

Program participants have assisted-

• 163 farmers with their electronic managerial record keeping systems during this program.
• 204 farmers in developing financial statements during this program. 
•  46 farmers to assess their market channel profitability during this program and witnessed improvements.
•  62 farmers with their finances, including costs of production and break-even points during this program, witnessing enhanced skills in these areas.

Many participants worked one on one with farmers through their jobs.  

In addition, at least 300 farmers were taught through a workshop-type setting using material learned during this program  on a variety of these topics: accounting, managerial record keeping, development of any of the financial statements, financial health assessment, cost of production, breakeven analysis or other related topics. 

Some quotes from participants about how this program has helped them in their work with farmers:

"My participation was very helpful in adding to my toolbox in working with both beginning farmers as well as established direct marketing farmers. I have been able to help them dive deeper into their financial records, understand why it's important to keep good records, and offer insights into methodologies to cater to their situations."

"It gave me confidence to transfer my knowledge from the doing stage to the teaching stage. I am a learn-by-doing person and sometimes that is hard to teach. This class gave me the words/tools to go forth and teach."

"It strengthened my skills in being able to assess farms financial health, give feedback, and connect them to the appropriate resources."

"The work in this program helped me gain confidence in my ability to explain and explore financial statements and concepts with farmer clients."

This has been very successful for Year 1 & 2.  After Year 1 we polled our participants and asked them a number of things including if they would like more homework for more accountability in their learning.  Of the 13 participants who responded to the poll, 2 said they would appreciate more homework, 2 said no thank you, and 2 said they could go either way and would do it if it was given.   The others did not respond to this specific question. However, compared to Year 1, we did include more homework assignments, and participants in each cohort group has expressed the usefulness of this for their learning.  Some cohorts have come up with the idea of using the cohort meeting time to review homework for their peer to peer learning. We have yet to do this.

For year 3 we decided to do what some call a 'flip classroom' model. Our instructor Julia Shanks created pre-recordings that are between 35 min- 1 hour long with exercises to do within the videos. Participants can watch the video and download the slides.  It takes participants between 1.5-3 hours to go through the video and do the exercises included along the way. These recordings and 'homework' are followed by an on zoom discussion about a week or two later. We are getting 100 percent positive feedback for this Year 3's program structure style!

In regards to year 3's format shift, here's what some folks said during a cohort meet-up on 11/29/22:

"I am loving the way this class is pre-recorded." 

"I love, love, love this class set up with the pre-recordings! I am  getting so much out of it." 

"Loving the way that this class is going! I am caught up on the previous pre-recorded sessions and hope to be ready for the next video discussion by Thursday."

In regards to year 3's format shift, here's what some folks said in the final survey:

"I liked it! I prefer recorded to live sessions as I have zoom ADD. I also liked being able to discuss in more detail and hear from other participants. Great pivot!"

"I really appreciated the third year's format. It was much more condusive to my schedule and learning style."

"It was the best year. It pushed me to actually get into the numbers and make mistakes to increase learning. It was also the most comfortable I felt asking question in live sessions."

We completed Year 1 - 3 with great success! We've had 100% positive feedback on Julia Shanks as an instructor.  Each participant has stated in a cohort meet up, email or poll, that Julia is a fantastic teacher and they have learned so much. One participant responded in our final survey about what they would like : "More!!! Loved working with Julia!"

Year 2:

We decided to add on some bonus learning for the advanced folks in the class for year 2.  We called it "Advanced Topics on Farm Financial Management".

7  participants took a deeper dive into farm financial management topics that built on the subjects covered by Julia Shanks as a discussion, co-learning experience. An additional four sessions were offered February 2022.  This series was taught/facilitated by Mike Sciabarrasi.  Mike is one of the Northeast’s leading agricultural economists.  He worked for UNH Cooperative Extension for 35 years, retiring in 2017.

Year 3:

By Year 3, we were able to plan for dates that worked well for participants and shifted the classes to between Oct-Feb. We also decided to go even deeper into an adult learning approach by using a 'flip classroom' model. With our 'flip classroom' structure for year 3, we had 100 percent positive feedback about the benefits of learning with this structure.  We also added 2 extra sessions for our final year that include review. So seven, 90 minute discussion sessions following 35 min-1hr pre-recorded sessions that take participants between 1.5-3 hrs to complete with the included exercises.

Here is a short review of our discussions post watching the recordings and doing the exercises. Discussions after-

session 1- was a lively discussion about how to read reports that come out of QuickBooks and how they differ from our general understanding of P&Ls and balance sheets.

session 2- how to organize financial statements.

session 3- channel analysis.

session 4- financial ratios and go through the Farm Finance Scorecard and an overview of reading financial statements.

session 5- revenue projections, using breakeven to set sales goals, and how to align it all with the farmers’ reality. Creating sale projections and budgets.

sessions 6 & 7 -  Balance sheet projections and how to use balance sheet projections to project cash. Income statement projection.

Some quotes from participants about the program:

"This program has given me the confidence to reach out to farms and help them think thru their current record-keeping system and brainstorm potential solutions and new/better/easier ways to keep track of financial data to make better business decisions."

"This program provided a connection with a team of folks working with farmers. It highlighted the unique issues faced by farmers when it comes to recording transactions. This program taught me new tricks in QuickBooks even after working with it for a very long time."

"While I have a decent understanding of QuickBooks and financial statements from my previous work history and managing my own business, teaching these things is a different skill set. Watching Julia teach us has helped me wrap my brain around teaching others."

"Helped me understand the structure and broad stokes principles of QuickBooks , and why its important for a farmer. I can more intelligently refer a farmer to the QuickBooks resources they need. However, I'm not at the point yet where I can offer any TA myself, really."

"I've become comfortable with discussing the initial set up of QuickBooks - especially working with CoAs, inputting sales receipts, and making set-up user-friendly for managerial decision-making"

"We do an FSA course and I am much more confident."

"There are many ways to use QuickBooks and this course provided a great approach for beginners with lots of opportunities for getting questions answered. Loved the available online material as well."

"This course has helped me immensely with my colleagues and clients. While I have not mastered QB, I have gained a better understanding of farm financials and am able to be helpful in that capacity."

Participants are very aware of this special part of this program, to work with a coach.  They are encouraged to do so frequently!  In year 1 & 2 we had some participants who met with their coach 1 or 2 times.  We have not had it become a highly utilized part of their learning for every participant. However some are actively engaged with a coach. (participants have up to 6 hrs of coach time in year 2 with flexibility if they needed more).  Participants are also aware of the benefits of learning through teaching farmers with the content they learn right away. However this takes a certain comfort level that some participants have and some are still gaining.

In the reporting in our cohort groups, I heard 3 participants rave about how helpful the Office hours with Julia have been, and that they consider this their coaching time.  Others have mentioned that the cohort peer to peer learning time has helped them work through some of the sticky points with farmers and that has been sufficient for now.  Many folks have said that they are so happy the coaches are available and hope to use them when they are working with a farmer and feel in over their heads.

Participants were overall more comfortable with working with their farmers with the content of Year 2 , rather than leading in the electronic managerial record keeping systems. However, a portion of participants have expressed that really learning Quick Books for their own businesses has made them comfortable in guiding farmers through the process.  Some participants are working with existing clients and are adding on the knowledge they gain from this course to the financial management and guiding that they already do with farmers.  Most participants have expressed during cohort meet ups, that they feel very empowered by the Year 2 content and are finding their work with farmers to be highly benefited by what they've learned.

In Year 3  coaches are more frequently being invited onto our cohort calls. This has been a great way of utilizing their skills to help participants feel more confident in their skills to work with farmers. During our cohort calls we begin with a go around and share how it's going with our farmers.

Over all according to our final survey:

• 11 participants utilized their coaches in a one on one zoom call at least once. 
• 20 participants utilized coaching with in our cohort groups and in Julia's office hours outside of classes multiple times.
• 5 participants utilized coaches with their farmers in a 3 person zoom call at least once.
• 25 Participants taught 86 farmers directly (and at least 360 additional farmers through workshop type trainings where effectiveness was not measurable) to:
  • develop electronic managerial record keeping systems,
  • develop and utilize financial statements, 
  • assess financial health,
  • market channel profitability
  • calculate key metrics,  including costs of production and breakeven. 

Quotes from participant in regards to working with farmers:

"I am doing a lot of Quick Books support in VT at Intervale, so I am getting a lot out of this class because of doing this work with the farmers I work with." 

"This program has given me the confidence to reach out to farms and help them think thru their current record-keeping system and brainstorm potential solutions and new/better/easier ways to keep track of financial data to make better business decisions."

Quotes from participant in regards to working with coaches:

"I definitely improved the way I delivered a few key points in teaching farmers in my training workshops. I learned some finer points about balance sheets, particularly equity accounts like retained earnings and net income, that were foggy to me before. As a result I'm a clearer teacher on those items and I can also spot balance sheet issues more clearly."

"Just knowing the coaches are there as an ongoing resource is super helpful -- I would not likely have made the connection with KTC on my own, and now I have a link to book hours with them whenever I need help resolving tricky problems for clients. I also got to resolve some longstanding questions regarding quickbooks cleanup. As a result of the coaching session I was able to clean up 7 years worth of open invoices for a client and teach them how to move forward in a cleaner way."

"This is the best part of the whole thing. All parts are important, but this is what sets this apart from any other training I've had. Getting in the mud with a coach helping is PRICELESS!"

In year 1 the participants were not working with their coaches to the fullest.  Some were expressing full satisfaction in learning from the classes, with Julia's office hours, and the cohort peer to peer learning meet ups.  1-2 meetings per year is what I have heard most participants share that they have had with coaches. 

By year 2 participants were more comfortable with reaching out to farmers and to their coaches.They have expressed gratitude for the availability of the coaches for assistance with educational concepts, farmer engagement strategies, questions from farm visits, and other feedback, however most are not using the 6 hours per year of coaching.

In year 3, the number of participants utilizing coaches is lower than Year 2. I believe this is due to the change in the class model benefiting participants confidence in the material because of their practice with the exercises and then a follow up discussion and Q & A. However the ones who are working with coaches seem to be doing so with a lot of interest and motivation. One very active participant asks "by when are we unable to use coaches any longer? Because when the program ends I will pay for a coach!"

We continue to have coaches join our cohort calls which is primarily helping to understand educational concepts, discuss questions from farm visits, and demonstrate how do do certain things in Quick Books or for farm finances from earlier years in the program or that were not covered in the classes. As and example, this month, 1/23, we will have a coach come onto our cohort meet up to demonstrate clean up of invoicing and accounts receivable.

For stats on coach use, please see Milestone 8.

Quotes from some of our coaches from Kitchen Table Consultants:

"It's been a pleasure working with you! I hope we get to do more of this in the future."

" I just had to hop in here and say it's been such a pleasure to work with you and your cohort. You've got a group of bright, passionate, collaborative, and supportive individuals there.This has been one of my favorite engagements in my time with KTC so far. I hope we can continue to work together in the future!"

The learning communities, referred to as cohorts in our program and in this report, have been key in program directors receiving feedback as well as peer to peer learning.  Through conversation and listening, Sarah Williford, coordinating and leading the cohort groups is able to get a read on how everyone is going for participants. Participants have an energized space in which to share information and ask each other questions. The learning communities have been a great success in our participants sharing best practices and challenges in their work and with the program. Here we really could help one another with issues through conversation, screen sharing and skill sharing. 

The cohort groups are guided to come up with what will be most beneficial for them as a group including

• frequency of meeting
• communication tools
• ideas for how to spend their meeting time
• topics of what we'd like to discuss, share or have a coach come on so we can learn about it.

Cohorts consisting of 5-9 members each have chosen to meet monthly for year 2 into year 3. This is more than year 1 and what our original milestone proposed. This change is based on feedback from participants about the usefulness of the cohort meet ups. Also, the budget allowed for this increase in frequency of meetings.

Examples of cohort reports below: 

Lavender Cohort

On Dec. 1st, 2022 4 of us met on zoom and had a lovely check in.

• We talked about farms we are working with or not working with yet. 

• We recapped on coaches' usefulness. 

• We talked about using zoom and email and google drive if needed instead of MS teams. Everyone on the call preferred this.

• We came up with ideas for our group stemming from curiosity and interest in further learning.  Those ideas are:

1. meet possibly monthly beginning in January.

2. Bring a CPA on to answer questions for our January meeting.

3. Bring in a loan officer to share with us what they look for in reviewing documents for loans.

Calendula Cohort

On Nov 30th 2022, 3 of us met for 1 hr and had a lovely check in.

It was only Alex, Stevie and myself who know one another from a previous program.  They are both so smart and had a lot of good ideas. We spent time discussing challenges they have with farmers they're working with and identifying root causes of the problems. Some ideas that came up for using the cohort meetups for are:

1. post class accountability with homework review.

2. skill sharing 

3. Meet possibly monthly starting in Jan.

4. This group prefers to use zoom, email and google drive instead of MS teams.

Chamomile Cohort

On Nov 23rd 2022, 6 of us met on zoom for 1 hr  and had a lovely check in.

Things discussed were:

• This group prefers to use a combination of email, zoom and google drive for communication over MS Teams.

• Some folks feel challenged by QB online. We planned to have some practice time as a group the next meetup.

• Other challenges- time itself, getting farmers engaged with accounting at the beginning.

• We came up with ideas for our group from these challenges. Those ideas are:

1. We use cohort meetup time to practice Quick Books online.

2. Faith shares her for beginning farmers, financial management  paperwork via google drive and we have a meet up where she leads us through.

3. We share 'marketing accounting to farmers' ideas via email and google drive, and discussion.

4. Sarah leads the group in a time management exercise if desired.

On Dec 7th, 4 of the Chamomile group met again and Wendy helped answer questions people brought about online quick books. We played around with the practice online QB. I think Wendy deserves a peer leadership teammate award! She's so willing to help the others in the group. And last year helped a different cohort group.

PArsley Cohort

On Nov 30th 2022, all 5 of the PA group met on zoom for 1 hr.

• We discussed a variety of ways in which this group could be a support to one another in the overall learning in this program. And decided that we'd meet up again possibly in January. However this is also when they start your programs and begin actively working with farmers, so Sarah will be in touch.

•   We also decided that email and the PA MS teams would be our choice for communication.

• We talked about deliverables for this program and Sarah shared that she gathers information for reporting through these meet ups and surveys.

• PA has broad ban issues and they are feeling stimied by the pandemic in connecting with farmers. They are looking forward to seeing how their January Farm $ense program goes.

• We talked about the usefulness of coaches.

This has continued to be a great change to our program.

In Year 2 Cohorts decided they wanted to meet every month or every other month and have come up with an initial list of top interests in sharing their peer to peer learning time together.

In Year 3 we continued with this model. Cohorts changed a little each year based on our participant's involvement in either the over all program (some who needed to leave based on their place of work changing or other circumstances) or in the cohorts themselves. Some participants who are active in the course sessions do not prioritize cohort meet ups because it is not their favorite learning style, or they do not have/make time. In order to have more impactful meet-ups, we downsized to 3 cohorts for year 3.  This way we ended up having between 3-8 people attend and made for a good learning experience.

Sarah Williford is coordinating and leading the cohorts.

One of our cohorts (Chamomile Cohort) now has a very active email thread going with questions and idea exchanges for one another. When stumped, a coach or instructor comes in to comment and help. It's great! As of July 2023, this cohort has created a google group, a  google drive folder to share documents, and a spreadsheet for signing up for leading the group with a topic they want to share best practices or challenges about for shared learning.  This cohort is now primarily self directed and using group guidelines and plans to continue after Sarah is no longer the facilitator. They are doing awesome peer to peer learning with one another! 

Some examples of what we do together from year 2 & 3:

• Chamomile Cohort meets to hear a presentation from one participant in this cohort who has developed on-ramp worksheets for accounting and financial planning for farmers.
• Calendula Cohort meets to go over one participants case study with a farmer and help trouble shoot any challenges the participant is facing.
• Lavender Cohort meets (with other participants not in the cohort invited also) to hear from a participant who is a CPA. Folks will be bringing their questions for this 1.5 hour question and answer call.
• Chamomile Cohort (plus other participants interested) learn about cleaning up invoicing and accounts receivable with a coach.
• Combined Cohorts discuss the difference between using Quick Books online vs. desktop.

Quotes from participants about being part of a cohort:

"It's been critical in furthering what the lectures and recordings provided...and will likely be the main part of my work in continued learning and giving support to farmers into the future."

"It's been very good at hashing out technical details of bookkeeping with farmers mostly. best practice versus what's actually possible "in the field"."

"We had a great cohort that stayed in touch throughout this program. Helping each other through situations. How to link payments like PayPal. square...also QB clean up. Sharing ideas of best practices."

"I don't always attend the meetings, but I really appreciate the email exchange where we support each other in troubleshooting/problem solving and share resources."

"I really enjoyed meeting and talking with other trainers. I learned a lot through our conversations -- again, mostly focused on solving particular, farm-specific recordkeeping problems. I feel confident that the connections made through the cohorts will be an ongoing resource I can draw on moving forward."

"The cohort groups were a really good way to crowdsource knowledge and work through specific real world examples."

"It has been great to hear what others are working on."

"Yes! The chamomile cohort has been amazing."

According to our survey question- "Have you used the material learned during this program in a workshop type setting (Topics= accounting, managerial record keeping, development of any of the financial statements, financial health assessment, cost of production, breakeven analysis or other related topics.) If so, how many farmers were there? What did you teach? Please describe the event.":

15 participants responded and have taught at least 265 farmers through a workshop type setting. Some were smaller with tangible effects, while others were online with less feedback from farmers to gauge effectiveness.

Some of the highlighted workshops were:

3 participants worked together to put on a winter online basic financial recordkeeping workshop. One participants writes, "I wanted to give people a lot of flexibility for self learning - since getting people to show up to an event is hard, I made each workshop session like an add-on to Julia's The Farmer's Office where people could learn how Bonnie or Ellen approach the topics that came up in Julia's program."

1 participant taught a cash flow budgeting workshop at the New Farmer School with 15 farmer attendees.

1 participant co-hosted a couple of "How to Set-up Your Farm QuickBooks" sessions and attended several farm financial or marketing sessions hosted by their organization (MOFGA), giving info and insights into P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, enterprise budgeting, etc --somewhere from 30-50 farmer attendees.

1 participant did three webinars for CISA on Quick Book Online, incorporating 4.5 hours of content, with 20 farmers at each one. 60 farmers total.

1 participant covered managerial Record keeping, Development of financial statements & financial health assessment in their Annie's Project and beginning farmer online trainings. There were over 250 farmers who were trained in these workshops. They were discussion based with speakers who went through the materials and then attendees were offered the chance to interpret the information, as well as apply it at home to their own farm operations. 

2 participants co-taught a workshop on setting up your chart of accounts in Quickbooks with 15 farmer attendees at 2 different workshops. So, 30 farmers.

There was also a course taught at FSA and ongoing basic accounting instruction, and record keeping through the advanced business skills program for UMaine Cooperative Extension. 

For our project we have used the verification tools of Surveying participants and one on one calls with participants done by Sarah Williford.  The surveys document increase in knowledge, skills, action outcomes, and impacts resulting from program participation for both themselves and the farmers with whom they work. The information gathered from these verification tools are in the Performance Target Outcomes section of this report.

Our farmer evaluations were different than doing yearly as proposed. Program participants were able to work with multiple farmers throughout the program rather than each participant committing to the same farmers for the whole program. Through one on one connection and through workshops participants taught farmers their learnings from our program and then gathered information post one on one meet ups, post workshops, or gleaned by their steady work with the same farmer over time.

Quotes from participants about which skills farmers enhanced:

"Mostly the ability to keep records. In addition to tips I picked up in the classes around teaching, I have gone on to develop customized SOP's for farmers so they can remember the steps for bookkeeping in their systems. I imagine those farms will then be able to move on to the analysis stage soon. "

"Keeping business records, including organizing their chart of accounts for greater clarity."

"I feel that farmers I worked with most developed their ability to assess their farm's financial health. This came from better understanding their financial statements as well as better confidence that their record keeping system was generating good data."

"Ability to keep business records and prepare accurate financial statements."

"Keeping records and assessing their farm's financial health."