Women involved in agriculture in Carver and Scott counties can improve their farm management skills by participating in Annie’s Project.

Ruth Hambleton of the University of Illinois Extension developed Annie’s Project based on the experiences of her mother, Annie Fleck, a city girl and school teacher who married a dairy farmer.

Fleck kept books for the farm but lacked the farm management skills to feel confident helping her husband with management decisions. However, she kept the business running, sending her husband to work off the farm while she milked cows and kept an egg route in Chicago. Eventually, her records guided them to discontinue their operation as other farmers with larger equipment and more resources could better run the farm.

Annie’s Project runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays beginning Jan. 20 at the Scott County Extension Office in Jordan.

University of Minnesota Extension and local agri-business professionals will provide information and management training in financial and production record keeping, grain and milk marketing, financial risk management, human resource and time management, retirement and labor management.

“Farm women enjoy meeting and learning as a group. They mentor each other and become close friends through the process,” said Bob Wells, an Iowa State University Extension educator. “While the curriculum is provided to cover important risk management topics, the sessions allow participants to discuss farm-related topics that are most important to them.”

A $100 registration fee includes farm management computer software, class materials and lunch for the six-session program.

To register for Annie’s Project, contact Laura Kieser at (952) 466-5306 or (952) 492-5386 or via e-mail at torb0022@umn.edu. Class size is limited to 20 participants.