20th Anniversary Showcases – Annie's Project

Growing Our Future: Perspectives on the Annie’s Project in the Next 20 Years.

A panel discussion showcasing the perspectives of an amazing group of women about the eagerly anticipated future of Annie’s Project in the next 20 years and beyond. Including insights into how Annie’s will be growing the work that strengthens women’s roles in modern agricultural enterprises and how that will aid in delivering on Annie’s Project’s mission which is to empower women in agriculture to be successful through education, networks, and resources.

Panel members include:

Dr. Karisha Devlin, Annie’s Project Co-CEO

Ruth Hambleton, Annie’s Project Founder and Annie’s Project Board of Directors Treasurer

Cassie Johnson, Annie’s Project Facilitator & Alumna, Central Kentucky Ag Credit

Amber Roberts, Annie’s Project Advisory Committee Chair and Market Research Analyst, Ag West Farm Credit

Madeline Schultz, Annie’s Project Board of Directors President and Women in Ag Program Manager, Iowa State University

Panel moderated by Marji Alaniz, Annie’s Project Board of Directors and Chief Operating Officer, AgriSompo North America, President, AgriSompo International, and FarmHer Founder

The Gateway to Farm Viability and Sustainability through Education, Resources and Networking

Featuring West Virginia’s Annie’s Project – November 8 at 12:00 noon Central Time.

Presenters:
Doolarie Singh-Knights, WV Annie’s Project Coordinator, Professor and Extension Specialist, Agribusiness Economics and
Management West Virginia University and Emily Morrow, Extension Agent – Agriculture & Natural Resources, West Virginia
University, and other WV Annie’s Project Facilitators
Over the last decade, West Virginia (WV) has seen a growth in the number of female farm owners, operators and/or farm partners.

This trend has changed the status quo of extension programming in WV, pointing to the need for increasingly diverse and multi-
functional extension risk management programs that create a more proactive educational model to help traditional producers and the growing cadre of female agripreneurs.

In 2012, we started the WV Annie’s Project, a multi-prong approach to helping our growing clientele of farm women develop the
requisite skills and attitudes to become better business owners, operators and/or farm-partners, and to help them build profitable,
viable and sustainable women-led agribusinesses. Our program focused on educational and networking opportunities to enhance
farm viability through improved business planning and risk management. Our efforts in this program have led to more than 500
graduates; 100 percent of graduates have reported making some tangible improvements to their operations, and 40 percent have
reported profitable and strengthened agribusinesses. The WV Annie’s Program has also ‘inspired’ two additional programs in WV,
namely ‘The WV Agritourism Initiative’ and ‘The WV Women in Agriculture Conference’.
In this showcase, we will feature ‘Voices from the Field’, as we hear from several Annie’s Project graduates on how these programs
has benefited their operation and their quality of life and how Annie’s Project has served as a ‘gateway’ to them participating in
our ‘Annie’s Inspired’ other Extension programs.

Ag Law Education Initiative and Right-to-Farm Overview

Navigating and understanding regulations is a major part of agriculture and business management. The Agricultural Law Education Initiative is a partnership between University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore and was founded in 2013. ALEI provides legal outreach and education to Maryland’s agricultural producers. ALEI helps producers identify legal risk and take action to protect the viability of their businesses. When Maryland’s producers are able to understand and navigate laws that impact them, it benefits their operations, the agricultural food network, and the entire state. This session will provide an overview a brief overview of ALEI and an example of Maryland and Delaware’s right-to-farm laws that would be provided in a traditional Annie’s class.

Code Red – Contingency Planning for Your Family and Farm Operation

Learn how you can prevent a code red situation for your family, business or farm operation by having a completed Code Red plan. This tool developed by the Purdue Women in Agriculture Team is a must-have tool for every family, business, and farm operation. The tool includes important information such as passwords, bank account information, rental agreements, insurance papers and power of attorney documents, and much more in one easy location. After completing the Code Red plan, it should become the “go to” tool if something happens to a key member of the management team. We hope this tool will help farm families turn a code red situation into a code green and the business can continue to operate on a daily basis. Code Red also can be a tool that helps families get motivated to get started on estate and/or succession planning. Presenters: Jenna Nees, Purdue Extension Educator – Putnam County & Purdue Women in Agriculture Team Chair and Kelly Heckaman, Purdue Extension Area Director.

Cybersecurity & Managing Your Financial Risk

Featuring Iowa State University

This showcase focuses on staying financially secure in the world of cyber. With increased reliance on sharing personal data through a variety of online platforms, farm and agricultural business managers are asking how their data is being protected by other businesses and how they can secure their own data. In this webinar, we’ll take you through some practical steps and best practices you can apply to prepare for cybersecurity threats. You’ll increase your cybersecurity literacy and gain skills to proactively manage your cyber ecosystem to reduce the risk of economic losses. We’ll show you how you can reduce the risk of production disruptions, lost or mismanaged decision-making data, identity theft, malware attacks, and physical system failures.

Managing for a Margin Squeeze

Featuring Colorado Annie’s Project

Colorado is pleased to offer this webinar on Managing for a Margin Squeeze as part of Annie’s Project 20th Anniversary. Showcase. Farm and ranch families are accustomed to dealing with challenging times and 2023 is shaping up to be very demanding. Inflation will not only affect household budgets it will also result in rising farm and ranch input prices. Higher input costs, coupled with softening commodity prices will result in razor thin profit margins being squeezed further. The uncertainty surrounding input and commodity prices and yields combined with inflation rates not seen in more than 40 years could result in unusual levels of stress for farm/ranch families in 2023. Brent Young and Jenny Beiermann, Ag and Business Management Specialists with Colorado State University Extension, will provide education on how to manage for a margin squeeze using enterprise budgeting and cash flow monitoring to estimate costs, returns, and breakeven prices for their agricultural operation.

The Hard but Necessary Conversation on Farm Succession

Featuring Missouri Annie’s Project

Only one-third of all family businesses have developed a plan to transition their businesses to another owner. Many farm families stall the process of planning for the future for fear of the internal conflicts that will arise. Join “The Hard but Necessary Conversations on Farm Succession” to learn about family business dynamics, strategies for separating family and business roles, and how intentional communication can help protect the business and family harmony.