Farmers joined industry and agribusiness experts in Saskatoon last week to learn how to manage their money, expand their business, and even improve their dining etiquette.
The comprehensive agribusiness management development program, which was held Jan. 26-Feb. 1, focused on marketing, finance, accounting, leadership and human resources.
The lunch session on table manners delivered by a hotel catering manager provided a change of pace from the rigours of lectures, simulations and interactive sessions during the six-day course.
“It’s fun. It breaks up the monotony of the week,” said organizer Ann Cooney, while also pointing out its more serious side in increasing the comfort level in formal settings.
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Thirty-three participants attended the $1,250 course, provided for the fifth time by the University of Saskatchewan. It was co-sponsored by the Agriculture Institute of Management in Saskatchewan, which provided $1,000 scholarships to 25 of the participants.
Cooney said participants come from a variety of backgrounds and operations, with some exploring farm transfers and others wanting to launch businesses or add value to their products.
Despite their varied educational and career backgrounds, they shared a desire to “think outside the box and all are passionate about making rural Saskatchewan viable.
“They try to assess if ideas are viable and what is needed to make them successful,” Cooney said.
Matt Speir, a 24-year-old agriculture college graduate, wants to have it all. He wants one day to run the family’s 6,000-acre grain and cow-calf operation at Brock, Sask., and launch a business in the off-season that encourages youth to remain in rural Saskatchewan.
He found networking to be especially useful by connecting him with people and good ideas.
“Coffee time is one of the biggest learning times,” he said.
Further along in her farming career was Sherri Grant of Val Marie, Sask., who attended to sharpen her management skills.
Financial calculations related to buying versus leasing, evaluations of land purchases, the value of money over time and off-farm investment are among areas of special interest to Grant, who attended the session with husband Lynn.
They operate a grain farm as well as cow-calf, feedlot and backgrounding operations.
Grant, also an emergency medical technician, believes in being prepared for what lies ahead and has taken numerous classes.
“You look for flows and ensure all bases are covered,” she said.
“You want to get up high enough to see the big picture and come down low enough to see how to put the pieces together. You have to remember to move back and forth between both levels.”
She said the farm is a business that requires multiple skills and the latest information available.
“You have to update your information database just the same as management from any company,” Grant said.
The course offers something for everyone, she said, noting it will help them with succession planning involving their four children.
“It really depends on what you do with it when you get home.”
Tom Allen, an agricultural economist at the University of Saskatchewan and one of four core instructors, said business plans are critiqued rather than created from scratch, which allows groups to modify and improve the plans, and see the good and bad in each.
“It’s like a medical cadaver,” Allen said.
“They get to play at being a manager without the repercussions of making a mistake.”
He said the course was created out of a need for a higher level of training and more networking opportunities.
“It’s hard to be positive and to find positive people because of a sense of negativity and crisis and yet people are out there and doing well,” he said.
In the future, he forsees linking with other provinces and countries to broaden access to networking and resources.
For more information, contact the Agriculture Institute of Management in Saskatchewan at 306-975-8927.
