Are you renewable ready?

Moe Agostino, Senior Risk Mgmt Consultant – Farms.com and Graham Dyer, CEO, Farms.com
(View Biography)

This workshop is designed for the following audience: Advisors, Bankers, Industry. However, anyone is more than welcome to attend.

As the renewable energy industry grows, so do spin-off opportunities. We will explore some of these opportunities through a market analysis and outlook discussion with a focus on the impacts of renewable energy on the markets and commodity prices.

We will then turn our discussion to producer expectations, needs and wants as they negotiate their way from casual interest to business plan and financing a renewable energy business.  These expectations, needs, and wants may provide an opportunity for your business.

Do you see an anaerobic digester in your future?

Ron MacDonald, Agviro Inc. (View Biography) and William McClounie, Business Development – ACC Farmers’ Financial (View Biography)

This workshop is designed for the following audience: Producers. However, anyone is more than welcome to attend.

Renewable energy is a hot topic these days. In agriculture it is a potential business opportunity but - how do you get started?  What are the steps? How can you get help? We will explore these questions and more in a workshop with information, tips and ideas on energy conservation, efficiency and managing a renewable energy business on your farm.

Energy conservation and efficiency makes dollars and sense as a first step to implementing a renewable energy business plan. We will discuss expertise, programs, and resources that can help. We will also look at strategies, philosophies and actions that build success

Identifying and capturing market opportunities

Bernard Vincent, Associate Consultant, Toma & Bouma Management Consultants

Marketing and agriculture are often used in the same sentence. But what does marketing in agriculture really mean? How does a marketing plan for a commodity product differ from a marketing plan for a branded product? Are different skills required? And what is the difference between marketing and selling?

This workshop will identify different types of marketing and give concrete examples of farmers who are marketing their products in unique ways. Should I market my meat directly to consumers or should I look at branded beef programs is just an example of the types of questions marketing expert Bernie Vincent will be able to address during this workshop.

You will walk away from this workshop with a greater understanding of marketing, more ideas of which marketing opportunities are applicable to your business and how you can go about capturing those opportunities.

Aim for balance, increase your success

Pierrette Desrosiers, M.Ps. -  Pierrette Desrosiers Psycoaching

Can we obtain a balanced life and still be successful in the farm business? Too often, business people forget that they are the most important resource in their business. When things are going good for the business man, everything is going good. This workshop will allow you to develop an approach which will focus on the balance between work-family-individual which allows you to obtain both your professional and personal objectives.

Managing Financial Risk for your Farming Operation

 John Hunt, CA, Partner, BDO Dunwoody and Coralee Foster, CA, Partner, BDO Dunwoody
(View Biographies)

Have you ever thought about Risk management as more than a defensive tool?
In this session you will learn vital risk management tools for your farming operation and how they may be used to improve your overall risk and return.
You will leave this session with an enhanced understanding of risk management and how it enables you to make better financial decisions for your business, yourself and your family. You will also become better equipped to ask the right questions and seek the information you need to make a difference in the course of you financial future and potentially averting problems in the future. The following are the topics that will be discussed:

• Insurance - life, disability, property, production
• Financial - interest rate, debt levels
• Foreign exchange
• Commodity hedging - revenues and expenses
• Government programs

Managing input costs/management strategies for feed, fertilizer and fuel

R. L. “Dick” Wittman, Wittman Consulting Services
(View Biography)

“Using Management Accounting to Link Financial Performance Analysis and Strategic Thinking”

Record increases in commodity prices are being matched with rapidly escalating cost structures.  Few farmers understand their cost structures and the strategic decisions that differentiate successful farms from those struggling financially.  Traditional Enterprise Analysis hasn’t provided answers growers need to determine what decisions are contributing to success or failure.  Ratio analysis is not well understood and seldom connected to goal setting and strategic decision-making.  This workshop will give producers tools and strategies to better manage input costs on the farm.  It highlights techniques producers can tap to implement management accounting systems and illustrates the often overlooked linkage between financial analysis and strategic decision making.  Participants will learn that opportunities for strategic improvement lie NOT in gathering and analyzing data as an end result, but rather in being able to make BETTER DECISIONS based on good information.

Farm succession

S. Lockington, Lockington Lawless Fitzpatrick LLP

The young person dreams of the day when they will be fully in charge of their own farming enterprise. The farmer’s fondest wish is to have a son, daughter or aspiring farmer carry on the proud tradition of successful farming.  Why then, can the farm business succession process be so stressful? It doesn’t have to be; with communication, planning, and compassion the process can be the farms greatest crowning achievement.  This workshop is designed to help you understand the process, the emotion, and plan for success.