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Annie’s Project teaches farm finance management
By Michelle Koetters
mkoetters@pantagraph.com
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ELLSWORTH -- Tricia Williams grew up on the farm where her grandfather cultivated the land, but her agricul-ture experience only went so deep.

“I had all the perks of riding on the tractor and living in the country but no experience to the business side of farm-ing,” Williams said.

Now married to a farmer and living on a farm in Ellsworth, Williams wants to make a change.

While about 17 percent of McLean County farmers are female, other women want to become more involved in agri-culture. Those women will learn more about the financial side of farming when they attend this fall’s farm manage-ment course, Annie’s Project.

The University of Illinois McLean County Extension and the McLean County Farm Bureau will offer the class for farm women, whether they grew up on the farm, actively farm, own land or married a farmer, said Ruth Hambleton, Annie’s Project founder and farm business management and marketing educator at the Mount Vernon Extension.

“We have a broad range,” Hambleton said. “If you are connected to agriculture in any way, Annie’s Project is de-signed to help you.”

Hambleton started the program, named after her mother, in February 2003 with 10 women in Centralia. Since then, 3,200 women in 12 Midwestern states have participated. This fall marks the first time Annie’s Project has come to Bloomington.

In the six-week class that currently has a waiting list, 25 women will learn about women and money, business plans, mission statement and goals, how property is titled, cash and crop share leases, retirement and estate plan-ning, farm safety and regulations, using spreadsheets, risk management, types of insurance, financial records and using the Internet.

Williams, a technical analyst at State Farm Insurance Cos., knows when farmers plant and why they rotate crops. She has experience detasseling and walking the beans, but that financial piece always has been missing. She hopes what she learns will allow her to have intelligent conversations about farming with her husband and other farmers.

That’s one reason another childhood farm girl, Suzanne Rogers, also jumped at the opportunity.

Rogers grew up on a grain and livestock farm in rural Clinton and was a 4-H and FFA member. Her brother lives and farms at the family’s centennial farm in Maroa in Macon County and also farms in DeWitt County, while she lives in Bloomington and works as a business analyst at State Farm.

She’s not at the farm daily, but she owns farmland with her siblings and knows she’ll inherit part of the family farm someday. She realizes she doesn’t know a lot about trusts, estate planning and lease options.

“I don’t want to just stand off in the background,” Rogers said. “I want to know more, so when you have those dis-cussions, I have a better understanding of those things,” she said.

Williams also thought it would be smart to learn about the behind-the-scenes work just in case something hap-pened to her in-laws and husband.

“If something happens to them, I don’t know what I’m doing,” Williams said. “It’s better to know now.”

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Reader comments on this story - 2 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Hey Soo... wrote on Oct 29, 2007 1:54 PM:

" Contact McLean County Farm Bureau or the local Extension office, I believe that registration is closed but they can tell you more. "

Soo... wrote on Oct 29, 2007 8:19 AM:

" When does the class start.. can I still sign up? What does it cost? Where is it going to be? Who do I call? Where is all the detail info? "
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