Farm Futures has announced that it will be hosting the 2015 Farm Futures Business Summit at the Hilton Ballpark Hotel in St. Louis, on Jan. 7 and 8. The event is designed for farmers who want to become better managers, as well as navigate the changing agricultural landscape.
"We’ve attended several Farm Futures Summits and we meet people from around the country,” said Karen Kohls, an attendee from Klitchfield, Minn. “We’ve kept in touch through the years, too. The event is a valuable source for new ideas."
At the 2015 event, J.B. Penn from Deere & Co. will be speaking on Jan. 7 during a panel discussion on global agriculture’s challenges and opportunities. Prior to joining Deere, Penn had served for more than five years as the undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Those who sign up for the event will be eligible to attend sessions on estate planning, farm expansion, income diversification and other factors that are heavily integrated into the farming industry.
On Jan. 7, Mike Boehlje will be giving the keynote speech on managing risk and positioning yourself for opportunity. Boehlje is a Purdue agricultural economist who holds extension programs in finance and strategic management in the farming realm.
“The farming sector is facing a new business climate -- a downturn for the crop sector, but an upswing for livestock producers,” said Boehlje. “These volatile times require the farm business to have the resiliency to handle tougher times and the agility to capture the opportunities that always appear in volatile times. Producers must continue to focus on being ‘best in class’ so as to not be vulnerable in the downtimes, but to also have the flexibility to capture the upside when it occurs.”
Panel discussions that are slated for the event include “Ag’s Future from the Fed’s Point of View,” “2015 Outlook: After the Fall,” and “How to Obtain and Maintain a First Class Farm Workforce.”
The sponsors of this year’s event include John Deere, Farmlink, SureStart II, Conservis, Rabo AgriFinance and Kennedy and Coe, LLC.