FARM Assistance
In the face of rising agricultural uncertainty, farmers and ranches are finding that the information needed to make sound financial decisions is either unavailable or beyond their field of expertise. Financial and Risk Management (FARM) Assistance is part of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s Risk Management Education Program, and provides individuals with a sound, statistically-based strategic financial analysis. This program offers a comprehensive overview of an operation’s liquidity, solvency, profitability, repayment capacity and financial efficiency. It is prepared by gathering data from individual producers through a series of one-on-one meetings. Many reports involve consultation with extension specialists in other disciplines to provide additional details for alternative strategic plans. Report delivery includes interpretation by the risk management economist of specified financial measures and their associated risk. Each report is a unique analysis of the producer’s operation consisting of 90 to 150 pages. Analyses are confidential and therefore not published.
Additional Program Information
QuickBooks Financial Software
Increased price volatility and narrow profit margins in production agriculture
underscore the importance of sound record-keeping practices. With the ever-
changing environment of financial software technology, there is a growing need
to educate Texas farmers and ranchers on computerized bookkeeping
applications. To equip producers with better record-keeping skills, Texas
AgriLife Extension Service personnel developed a two-day short course to teach
basic and intermediate level QuickBooks® financial software. The main goal of
these workshops is to enable farmers and ranchers to improve their financial
record-keeping and analysis capabilities, allowing them to make better
management decisions. These workshops are taught annually, usually during
the summer months. Contact DeDe Jones for additional information.
