According to Professional Dairy Producers® (PDPW), the line-up for week twenty of The Dairy Signal™ will feature two new speakers – José Carmona, Research Coordinator at Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center and Senator Howard L. Marklein, Senate District 17, Spring Green.
Returning to the Dairy Signal is Randy Romanski, Secretary Designee of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and Dan Basse, Economist and President of AgResource Company.
Developed by fellow dairy farmers from the PDPW Board of Directors, The Dairy Signal is a weekly series of free educational episodes offering insights and resources for fellow dairy farmers and other food system professionals throughout the value chain. The episodes air live from 12:00-1:00 PM CT each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; recorded sessions are available later in the day.
Just minutes before the airing of Tuesday’s Dairy Signal, Sandy Chalmers, State Executive Director for the USDA Wisconsin Farm Service Agency (FSA), said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the remaining 20 percent of payments from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) will be hitting producer’s bank accounts in the next few weeks. Producers who applied will automatically get the additional 20 percent income once the payments are signed.
The deadline for the CFAP aid has also been extended to September 11. “I encourage dairy producers to make it a point to apply for this program as we are seeing meaningful and significant assistance going out to our dairy producers – all you need to do is apply, sign and return the application to your FSA office,” explained Chalmers.
Nationally, FSA has paid out $17 billion in payments to 522,000 producers through CFAP. The top five states that have received assistance are Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Texas and Wisconsin. Specifically, Wisconsin has received almost $400 million in assistance paid out to 16,000 applicants; dairy payments account for $262 million provided to 5,700 producers.
Dr. John Goeser, Director of Nutritional Research & Innovation at Rock River Lab, Inc., and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Dairy Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talked about the upcoming corn silage season during Wednesday’s episode.
Goeser advised listeners to be proactive and begin scouting – take a look visually at the health of your plants. He encouraged farmers to start taking samples to understand the moisture and nutritional quality of your crop. Soil conditions and fertility change dramatically even within a quarter of an acre, so it’s important to spread out your sub samples and go beyond the headlands and take samples at least 50 to 100 feet within the field. In addition, take stalk samples from three to five locations for adequate field representation.
During Thursday’s episode, two financial experts, Gary Sipiorski, Business and Financial Consultant and Dr. Kevin Bernhardt, Professor of Agribusiness at UW-Platteville School of Agriculture and Farm Management Specialist with UW-Extension, zeroed in on why financial records are the key to your success.
Dr Bernhardt asked, “Why should you spend time in doing financial analysis work? Financials are a requirement of business, they will help improve profitability and decision-making, and they will show you your return on assets (ROA).” He added, “If you want your financials to work for you, they have to be accurate.”
Dr. Bernhardt also shared how financials help answer important questions – What’s the current status of your operation? How do you get there? Which direction are you going? How will you get to be where you want to be? Where and what are the balls and chains holding back profitability? Where should I spend my valuable time tomorrow after breakfast?
Financial management is a process – it starts with good financial records to produce management reports such as a balance sheet, income statement, ratio analysis, and cash flow budget, which all lead to better decision making. The two instructors offered tips on working with your balance sheet, particularly liquidity – your working capital, and solvency – your capital structure.
Sipiorski concluded, “The future will belong to the people who understand their financials. The balance sheet is a starting point. You also need to understand the cash flow and know how to do projections and then make those projections come to life.”
Each live session will offer attendees the opportunity to engage in open Q&A and interact with the speakers through www.slido.com and entering the code #myPDPW.
Our dairy industry and lives are changing daily and our need for accurate business information is vital. Content on The Dairy Signal will be updated as new information becomes available.
Here is a look at next week’s presenters and topics:
Tuesday, August 11
Topic: The Wisconsin Farm Support Program is open for the second round of applications and grants will be going out soon under the Food Security Initiative – tune in to learn the details. In addition, the Dairy Innovation Hub provides money in state funding in the 2019-2021 biennial budget for broadly-defined dairy research. Learn how we as an industry and producers can help ensure this money stays with the Hub. Episode presenters include:
· Randy Romanski, Secretary Designee of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
· Senator Howard L. Marklein, Senate District 17, Spring Green
Wednesday, August 12
Topic: Heat illness is a serious medical condition that can result in heat exhaustion and heat stroke due to the body’s inability to cope with excessive heat. Learn how heat can affect pre-existing health conditions and how wearing different types of fabric and clothing can keep you cooler. Also, discover how humidity and drinking soda versus water can affect your body’s temperature. Episode presenter includes:
· José Carmona, Research Coordinator at Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center
Thursday, August 13
Topic: Find out what’s happening with agricultural markets and what to expect the rest of the year and into 2021, including an analysis of the global agricultural markets. Episode presenter includes:
· Dan Basse, Economist and President of AgResource Company
All Dairy Signal episodes are free and open to the public, accessible from www.pdpw.org. For more information, contact PDPW at 800-947-7379 or by emailing [email protected]. Follow along digitally in advance of and during the sessions by following @dairyPDPW and using #TheDairySignal on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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