Research Accomplishment Reports 2007

FSA Borrower Training Workshop Program

R. L. Trimble
Department ofAgricultural Economics

 

Project Description

The 1990 Farm Bill mandated that borrowers obtaining loans from the Farmers Home Administration (currently the Farm Service Agency) would be required to receive training in farm business planning, financial management, and crop and livestock production practices.  Farm management specialists with the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Economics proposed an intensive, 16-contact hour, training program developed specifically for this clientele group in April 1994.  Since the first FSA borrower workshop presented in February 1995, more than 1,600 borrowers representing 1,057 farms have participated in 87 workshops across the Commonwealth.

At the conclusion of each workshop, participants are encouraged to evaluate the program.  Most participants provide a complementary evaluation of their workshop experience.  The most revealing statistic obtained from the workshop evaluations is that over 97% of the farmers would recommend this workshop to another farmer.  This is truly amazing once you realize that the majority of participants are extremely unhappy when they first come to the workshop.  It is a two-day workshop which the federal government requires them to attend as a prerequisite for obtaining financing for their farm business.  Further, they must pay dearly for the workshop and their participation is graded based on their level of understanding and two required homework exercises.

The workshop evaluation form also encouraged comments from participants.  Two of the most revealing comments indicating the educational value of the workshops have been: “I wish they would had made us do this 30 years ago.”  And  “Every farmer should be hogtied and made to take this workshop.”

Impact

In addition to the qualitative evaluations received at the conclusion of each FSA Borrower Workshop, the Instructors were interested in learning the value obtained by participants once they returned to their farm business.  In an attempt to determine the educational value of the Workshop to participants, an in-depth evaluation survey of all past participants was conducted during the summer of 2006.

            For some of the participants it had been 10 years since they had participated in the Workshop.  They were still complementary of the educational value of the materials covered.  Results of the survey indicate that 87% of responding participants would recommend the Workshop to other farmers.  75% of respondents believed their farm management skills had been improved by participation in the workshop.  Fifty-five percent of those responding believed that their farming operation was more profitable as a result of participating in the FSA Workshop.  For those who felt that their farm’s profitability had been improved, the rate of improvement ranged from a low of 2% to a high of 75%.  The average annual increase in farm profits for those participants that believed their farm operation was more profitable was 18.2%.  The increase in profits ranged from $500.00, to over $2,500.00 per year.  These absolute dollar amounts may not seem that large.  However, one must realize that the farm operations represented in these Workshops are typically quite small. Further, these improvements were made by improving the management capabilities of the farm business manager.  No other additional costs, investments, or improvements were required!