Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] California workshops

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Marcie A. Rosenzweig" <fullcircle AT jps.net>
  • To: SANet <SANET-MG AT LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>, IFFS <iffs AT communityfood.com>, CSA-List <CSA-L AT prairienet.org>, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: David Visher <visher AT yolo.com>, "Vanessa S. Arellano" <V_Arellano AT hotmail.com>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] California workshops
  • Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 07:21:40 -0800

Hi Folks,

I'm wearing my FACTS partnership hat. For those of you in California, we
are partnered with the USDA Risk Management Agency, UC Agriculture Issues
Center and California State University to put on a half-day risk management
workshop for small and beginning farmers entitled Tailoring Risk Management
to Fit YOUR Farm.

We are using the USDA definitions for the small ($250,000/yr) and beginning
(>10 years in mananagment) farmer and are targeting those who grows
specialty crops and/or livestock. But let me say this ALL are welcome.

I'm the primary instructor but there will be several other speakers and I
can promise you it won't be as dull as it sounds! Conventional wisdom is
that you can't get farmers and ranchers to a workshop that has "risk
management" in the title. I'd like all your help in proving this wrong.

The premise of the workshop is that if you know your family's tolerance for
risk, you can make better decisions about the strategies that will work best
for you in managing what ever risk you encounter. That doesn't make the
other strategies unavailable, they are all on the form. What it does do is
give farmers and ranchers a way to get their arms around risk management
decision making.

We have devised a simple one-page form farmers can use to walk through a
risk assessment and brainstorm the tools available to carry out various
strategies.

Where there are multiple strategies/tools available, there is a column to
compare the relative costs.

The form turns into an action plan with the addition of contact information.

The participant's workbook includes interactive self-assessment vehicles for
most of the modules so farmers and ranchers can "meet themselves where they
are" on any given topic.

Please help us get folks to these workshops. They will make good contacts
with agency folk and other who can really give them good information and
assistance.

Please forgive the cross-postings.

Here is the press release from the UC ANR website:
http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=555

Workshops that tailor risk management to individual farmer¹s needs to be
offered at 11 California locations

All people have their own personal tolerance for taking risks. California
farmers will learn their own risk tolerance styles and apply them to simple,
practical risk-management solutions that fit their farms and circumstances
at 11 half-day Central and Northern California workshops April 20-May 14.

Following are the target counties and workshop times, locations and
registration contact phone numbers:

Santa Cruz and Monterey counties ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 20 ­ UC
Cooperative Extension, 1432 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville. Contact: (831)
763-8040

San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties ­ 8:30 ­ 12:30 p.m. April 21 ­
UC Cooperative Extension conference room, 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo.
Contact: (805) 934-6240

Ventura County ­ 8 to 12 a.m. April 22 ­ Ventura Room, Schools Building,
570 Airport Way Camarillo Contact: (805) 645-1451

San Diego and Riverside counties ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 23 ­ Farm
Bureau office, 1670 E. Valley Parkway, Escondido. Contact: (858) 694-3666

Tulare and Kings counties ­ 3 to 8 p.m. April 26 - UC Cooperative Extension
Ag Building , 4437 S. Laspina St., Tulare. Contact: (559) 685-3309

Fresno County ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 27 ­ Center For Agricultural
Business, California State University, Fresno, 2910 E. Barstow Ave.,
Fresno. Contact: (559) 456-7560

San Joaquin County ­ April 28 ­ Time and location to be announced. Contact:
(209) 468-2085.

Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties ­ 1 to 5 p.m. May 11 ­ Location to be
announced. Contact: (707) 565-2621

Lake and Mendocino counties ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 12 ­ Ukiah Valley
Conference Center, 200 South School Street, Ukiah.

Humboldt County ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 13 ­ Agricultural Center at UC
Cooperative Extension office, 5630 S. Broadway, Eureka. Contact: (707)
445-7351

Butte and Tehama counties ­ 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 14 ­ Small Business
Development Center, 19 Williamsburg Lane, Chico. Contact: (530) 895-9017

Participants will develop appropriate-scale solutions to the five major
agriculture risks: family/personal, financial, production, marketing and
legal/regulatory.

Topics covered at the workshops will be:
A model for approaching farm risk ­ Farmers will get an overview of risk in
agricultural businesses and be introduced to a practical one-sheet method to
look at risks ­ such as family, financial, production, market, legal and
regulatory risks ­ and develop management strategies for each of them.

Family and personal risk ­ Participants will come to understand their own
risk tolerance and their family¹s risk tolerance profile in order to focus
on the risk management strategies that will work best for them.

Financial risk ­ A presentation on how to effectively use an accountant for
more than just taxes.

Production risk ­ Farmers learn about crop insurance and other strategies to
manage production risk.

Market risk ­ Participants learn how to spot trends in the market and
develop market strategies allowing them to be price makers, rather than
price takers.

Legal and regulatory risk ­ A presentation on managing risk associated with
workers¹ compensation, air and water quality and other regulations.

The workshop is intended for all farmers, ranchers or nursery operators,
however, it will have information particularly useful for those with gross
receipts of less than $250,000 per year and who have been operating for
fewer than 10 years.

³The participants will learn scale-appropriate solutions to their risk
problems. We will share new and emerging risk management programs to help
in all farming operations,² said David Visher of FACT, an agricultural
training firm that is coordinating the workshop.

Registration, including a binder of materials for each participant, is $20.
Presentation of the program is made possible by a grant from the USDA Risk
Management Agency to the University of California Agricultural Issues
Center. Partners are the Center for Agricultural Business at California
State University, Fresno, FACTS and UC Cooperative Extension.
For more information, contact Visher at (530) 758-2429 or e-mail
visher AT yolo.com.

--
MARCIE A. ROSENZWEIG, General Partner
FACTS
Farm & Agriculture Collaborative Training Systems
Curriculum Development and Training Delivery to Sustain Family Farms

(530) 885-9201
3377 Early Times Ln
Auburn, CA 95603





  • [Market-farming] California workshops, Marcie A. Rosenzweig, 04/03/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page