Keeping up with the latest trends in the farming industry and anticipating potential shifts can be crucial for ensuring the long-term profitability of your agricultural business. One way farmers can keep up with trends is by attending agricultural industry events where upcoming changes in farm operations, the market, and technology are discussed.
The Farm Financial Standards Council (FFSC) Annual Conference, for example, is a great chance for farmers to pick up information about new trends, farm operation tips, and more about the business of agriculture.
The 2023 FFSC Annual Conference takes place from Wednesday, July 26 to Friday, July 28 in Moline, Illinois. Attendees will, no doubt, gain some significant insights into agricultural accounting, but as information filters out and is shared, even non-attendees can benefit. Ranch and farm managers can put the agricultural accounting and operations lessons from events like this into practice on their farm, so let’s take a closer look at the event itself.
What’s Happening at the Farm Financial Standards Council Meeting?
The 2023 FFSC Annual Conference is a three-day event consisting of several committee meetings (which are open to anyone with an interest), meals, a river cruise, and panel discussions on agricultural topics.
Some of the meeting program highlights from the 2023 conference agenda include:
Opportunities and Challenges in Agriculture
This meeting features a discussion with Gary Schnitkey, Ph.D. University of Illinois and Mike Gunderson, from Farm Credit of Illinois.
Professor Schnitkey will be discussing the long-term impacts of global players on the U.S. agriculture market—in addition to factors like production costs, interest rates, and inflation. He will also evaluate potential opportunities in the market and strategies for leveraging them.
Meanwhile, Mike Gunderson (a former Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University) will be discussing topics such as land prices (and their effects on the next generation) as well as challenges for the future of farm operations from the perspective of an agricultural lender. He will also highlight where the financial opportunities are for farmers and how to leverage them.
Agricultural Lending Panel Discussion
For those who want a deeper dive into the world of agricultural lenders and financial management, Deena Brown, CGB Agri Financial Services; Sarah Lukach, Compeer Financial; and Andy Bastert of Fortress Bank will be conducting a panel discussion on agriculture lending.
In this discussion, the panelists will be highlighting how agricultural lenders are using FFSC guidelines and ratios as well as other resources in the lending process that they use. Farm owners and operators may be interested in their recommendations for farm operation analysis tools and insights from the lender’s perspective.
If you’re looking for information and advice about applying for a farm loan or how things work from the lender’s perspective, this is a must-see discussion.
Succession Planning for Farms
This meeting will feature Jared Holt, Co-Founder and CEO, and Craig Borchardt, Consulting Director of Ascent Financial. The pair will discuss farm succession planning topics from over 3,000 transition plans—including key steps, considerations, and insights for planning (and executing) your farm’s plan successfully.
This meeting may prove especially fruitful for farm owners who have been struggling with topics like transferring (or selling) ownership of their farming operation to a vested family member or other chosen successor, liquidating assets, or managing cash flow during the transition period.
How FBS Can Help Your Farm Meet Ag Opportunities and Overcome Challenges
The Annual Conference is a great opportunity for members of the agricultural community to find new solutions and get information on upcoming challenges and trends—which is why FBS Systems makes it a point to be there year after year.
We look forward to seeing you in Moline at the FFSC Annual Conference!
Want to improve your agricultural accounting and operations management right now? FBS Systems can help! Our farm enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution combines agricultural accounting, operations management, and comprehensive financial analysis to give you greater insight into your farm and how you can maximize its profitability.
Some of the tools we provide include:
- e.CLIPSE Management Accounting. e.CLIPSE is the only true integrated Management Information System designed to meet the management accounting guidelines of the FARM FINANCIAL STANDARDS COUNCIL. Employs Activity Based Costing (ABC) to allocate support center costs and performs Work In Process (WIP) adjustments to financial statements. The crop edition tracks costs by operation, farm and crop from field to market and works with any crop. The Feeding edition automatically allocates all costs including facilities and yardage by phase and/or group for pork, beef, poultry or dairy.
- Crop Audit Plus. Improve profitability for your crops with better planning, production, marketing, inventory controls, and record-keeping in our Crop Audit Plus solution. Get the best field histories and simple data entry to make managing your crops easier.
- The Pork Profit Center Dashboard. Optimize feeding with real-time and closeout feed budgets, track and manage livestock mortality, monitor per-head animal health costs, and track shipping load distribution and earnings to maximize profitability for your livestock management operation using tools like our Pork Profit Center Dashboard.
- LifeCycle Budget. Get fast and flexible projections and monitoring for your farming enterprise budgets with the LifeCycle™ Budget solution. The tool builds directly from your FBS ledger accounts, centers, loans, and management definitions to save you time while providing in-depth financial analysis for each of your farm’s enterprises.
We help you improve your existing farm financial management practices by giving you the tools you need to take a deep dive into your operations, accurately assess your cost and profit centers, then put your plan into action on your farm.
Reach out today to get started on preparing your farm for the challenges and opportunities with top-class software built by farmers, for farmers.
