This past week I was at the Super Bowl of Agricultural Business Management, the TEPAP School, the executive program for agricultural producers, directed by Danny Klinefelter at Texas A&M University.
The school is in the eleventh year with approximately 115 in attendance, representing a half billion dollars of revenue annually.
Participants indicate the benefit of the school is networking with other peak performer producers to charge the batteries of the mind, and interact with some of the top industry speakers. This year about 20% of the group was female, which has increased every year.
Each year I survey participants concerning various financial and business management measures and perspectives. The following are some of the results.
97 utilize the Internet
11.5 hours of average use per week
Nearly one half use the Internet over 20 hours/week
Top four sites used:
Weather/E-mail
Prices/making investments
Agribusiness sites
Bank, Farm Credit, USDA websites
30% have ROA (return on assets) above 15%
63% have ROA between 5% and 15%
Note they used cost basis balance sheets to measure returns
More on the results next week.
NFL Playoffs
I sure like Donovan McNabb. Here is a person who graduated, played four years of college football at Syracuse, and is a national leader.
Great to see the game played in the snow in New England. Reminds me of the old NFL Games. I dislike indoor stadiums.
What about Bobby Knight at Texas Tech?
Duke and University of Connecticut look strong in men’s and ladies’ B-Ball.
Travel Tip
Don’t be first or second in line to board the plane – you will be randomly checked!
My e-mail address is:sullylab@vt.edu
Editors' note: Dave Kohl, Soybean Digest Trends Editor, is an ag economist at Virginia Tech. He recently completed a sabbatical working with the Royal Bank of Canada. He is now back at Virginia Tech with his academic appointment, which is teaching, extension, and applied research.
To see Dave Kohl's previous road warrior adventures type Dave Kohl in the Search blank at the top of the page.
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