Growing Ag CEO’s Program scheduled in Kadoka and Belle Fourche

BROOKINGS – Like the Chief Executive Officer of any corporation, an Ag CEO is a manager and visionary for their agricultural enterprise. Growing Ag CEO’s will be held in Kadoka beginning May 8, 2013 and Belle Fourche beginning May 28, 2013. If participants attend an additional session the course will qualify for the FSA Borrower Training.

SDSU Extension’s Growing Ag CEO’s program will be held in Kadoka at Club 27; and at Rancher Grille in Belle Fourche. The program will be held on four consecutive Wednesday’s for Kadoka and Tuesday’s for Belle Fourche.

They run from 5:30-8:30 p.m. allowing those with an additional job to participate during the evening. A meal will be provided at each session.

Ag CEO focuses on teaching beginning farmers and ranchers to use a systems approach to farm business planning. As changes to production systems continue to move forward across the state, nation and world farming and ranching business needs to adapt to these changes.

Strategic planning, breakeven numbers, developing budgets and creating benchmarks to compare the yearly production and financial performance are the main focuses of Ag CEO. These are keys to success for a sustainable operation, says Adele Harty, SDSU Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist.

“Ag CEO is a program geared toward beginning farmers and ranchers, but is of value to any producer,” Harty said. “Producers are being charged with feeding 9 billion people by the year 2050. With the changes to agriculture during the past 20-40 years, their skill set needs to expand in order to accomplish that goal and remain a viable and sustainable operation.”

To address these changes the general topics for the sessions include: ranch vision, resource inventory and management (family, land, crops and livestock), and financial record creation, budget development and analysis and production topics that are personalized to the producers in attendance.

Registration for the meeting can be made at http://www.igrow.org. Registration fee is $250 for all four sessions, for the first two people from the operation. A fifth session will be offered to assist those producers who need FSA Borrower Training for an additional $100.

Questions regarding the program can be sent to Harty at the SDSU Extension Regional Center in Rapid City, adele.harty@sdstate.edu , 605-394-1722.