Project Title:  Implementation of the Ag Innovation Counselor Program  Round 2 (2004)  

Project Leader (s):  Greg Wise, Greg Lawless

Project Collaborators:  26 AIC Counselors, and Will Hughes (DATCP)

Project Category:  Business Development  

Situation:  A need exists to provide agricultural entrepreneurs with business training and support to help them develop new value-added agricultural enterprises.  As a part of a current USDA grant (2004), as part of a program initiated by Michigan State University, Wisconsin is training 24 “Agricultural Innovation Counselors”.  These counselors are undergoing extensive training to work with agricultural entrepreneurs to help them develop business plans.  A need exists to support the work of these AIC as they work with clients and as they build their counseling skills.

Response:  The Ag Innovation Counselor Program will be developed and implemented in Wisconsin that will involve the 24 counselors currently receiving advanced training.  This implementation will include marketing the availability of this new resource for the state’s producers.  It will also involve at least four business planning training sessions for producers who are planning to expand into a value-added arena.  It will also involve one-on-one counseling with producer clients throughout the state. Current counselors will receive additional training to supplement what they already received, and new counselors will receive training to bring them up to speed so they can cover more parts of the state.

Results:  Starting in December 2004 and continuing to-date, extensive marketing of the Ag Innovation Center has occurred.   We have a website: http://aic.uwex.edu.  We have printed and distributed 1,000+ AIC brochures.  We printed and distributed at least 2,000 fliers advertising the NxLevel business planning courses.  We have developed and printed AIC letterhead.  We have sent out numerous press releases.  We have staffed booths at several conferences, and networked widely through many more events and organizations, including the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network. 

Regarding business training programs for producers, we tried to offer the 10-week NxLevel course in five locations in early 2005, but we had to cancel all but one.  In Rice Lake, we had just four producers take the course.  However, we offered the course again in six locations in the winter of 2005-06, as well as five 2-hour FirstStep introductory courses.  As of December 8, 2005, we have one course going forward in Kewaunee County with 8 farms, and one going forward in Waushara County with 7 farms.  Programs in Grant County and Rusk County were cancelled, though they now have 6 people interested and the class may be revived as a distance education experiment.  Additional courses in Monroe and Sauk Counties are still pending.

Regarding training for current counselors, we sent about 18 of the current 24 counselors to Michigan in August for follow-up training with MSU.  We have had a number of WisLine Web-based trainings, on topics of investment analysis and market research.  Some counselors have taken offers to attend various conferences, such as the National Value Added Ag Conference in Indiana in June 2005, paid for with this funding. 

A decision about whether to go forward with training for new counselors in 2006 has still not been made.  We have many gaps in “counselor coverage” around the state.  Less than 1/3 of our counties have an Ag Innovation Counselor, and that becomes a problem when current counselors are limited in their ability to work outside their county.

Evidence:  Our evaluation plan was to collect evaluation forms from NxLevel participants at the end of each course, and to follow-up with them 6 months after the course to see how they have implemented their business plans.  Two of the four who took the class in Rice Lake last winter provided their reactions:

Materials: Very helpful and appropriate for developing a business plan in the agricultural area. Tilling the Soil of Opportunity broke down the process of developing a business plan into manageable pieces and then brought back how those specific pieces come together as part of the whole plan. The supplemental information provided by the presenters enhanced the course materials.  Presenters: The core group (Aliesha, Tim, and Bob) did a fantastic job of presenting, motivating, and covering for outside presenters. You all were great resources for answering questions and for bouncing ideas off of.  The course was most beneficial to me, not from the standpoint of learning what I would need to present to obtain financial assistance, but more importantly to get me really thinking about and planning for how the business should be developed and run.  THANKS a million for pioneering this course!!!! When things didn’t go as originally scheduled, you jumped in and did a great job of filling the voids!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the classes, they made me think a lot and I picked up a lot of information that I probably wouldn’t have learned anywhere else.