For women only: More informed farm management and marketing
By James D. Ritchie

Called "Annie's Project," this program helps farm women sharpen skills.

“I wish I could have taken a course like this 15 years ago,” said Melissa Luttrull, farm wife and business partner in Lewis County, Mo. “The amount of record-keeping involved in farming is tremendous, marketing is very complex, and if I’d had the kind of background all along that this course has given me, it would have been very helpful.”

Luttrull was talking about “Annie’s Project,” a course of study covering farm business management and records, marketing, estate planning and other skills. She completed the six-session course (designed primarily for farm women) last winter and now is enrolled in a “graduate” level course in advanced marketing.

Annie’s Project began in Illinois, as the brainchild of University of Illinois educator and farm wife, Ruth Hambleton.

Hambleton named the short but intensive course after her late mother, Annette Fleck, who was a co-manager of the family farm until her death in 1997. In the past 3 years, Annie’s Projects have been adopted in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin. In 2004, University of Missouri extension specialists designed an Annie’s Project for Missouri. During fall and winter 2005-2006, classes were held in a dozen Missouri locations.

“We thought we’d have 10 or 12 sign up when we announced a program for Hickory County,” said Wesley Tucker, extension agriculture and rural development specialist who organized an Annie’s Project last winter at Preston, Mo. “We had dozens of women interested. We had to hold the number attending to 30—which was still a sizeable group—and had to schedule a second project. I’m amazed at the level of interest…and the quality of questions women ask.”

“Farm women have been an underserved group in the past,” said Karisha Devlin, extension agribusiness specialist at Shelbyville, Mo., and herself a farm wife. “There is no other program in the state doing what Annie’s Project does—focused solely on women.”

Small wonder that women are interested. According to the 2002 census, women are managers and principal operators of nearly 11,000 farms in Missouri, with a total of 1.8 million acres. Among Annie’s Project students are farm wives, widows, divorced farmers and single women planning to marry farmers.

Karisha Devlin put together the Annie’s Project at Hannibal, attended by Melissa Luttrull, and designed a follow-up course on advanced marketing, which Luttrull and several other graduates are attending.

“The advanced project on marketing goes well beyond the basic Annie’s Project,” Luttrull said. “When we complete it, I want to have a full-scale marketing plan in place for our farm. Marketing is a complex undertaking and often makes the difference between showing a profit for the year or suffering a loss.”

Luttrull grew up on a farm in Pike County, Mo. She completed college and began a teaching career and told herself that she would not marry a farmer. But that was before she fell in love with Rick Luttrull. Today, Melissa and Rick manage some 3,600 acres of tillable land; part of it land that has been in the Luttrull family for years.

“I continued to teach for a few years after we were married and also kept the farm records and tried to do financial planning,” she said. “But that got to be too much to handle, so I stopped teaching. Now, I work pretty much full time in the farm office, and I also make most of the off-farm contacts, such as with the Farm Service Agency. To the extent that what I do takes a lot of the load off of Rick, it helps the overall effort.

“Annie’s Project gave us down-to-earth financial and management information—in a format suited to women,” she continued. “I’m sure that same information is available in other venues, but women often feel freer to discuss things and ask questions in a group of other women, where they might not be so open in a group of both men and women. You know there will be at least another woman or two who has the same questions and concerns that you have; you’re less worried about asking dumb questions.”

Women bring varying levels of farm management experience to the Annie’s Project. Mary Wheeler, Bolivar, Mo., has been a full partner with her husband, Monty, in their beef cattle operation.

“I enrolled primarily to get a better background in financial management, estate planning and taxes,” she said. “Annie’s Project has been a valuable source for me in those areas.”

Kathleen Rueter, Marion County, Mo., had been a hands-on manager for years of her family farm in Warren County, Ill., when she signed up for the course. Kathleen’s husband, Stephen, operates a farm near Palmyra, Mo. Both Rueters own beef cow herds in Illinois and Missouri.

“We work together on both farms,” said Kathleen. “But I do the marketing from my farm in Illinois; Stephen markets what we grow in Missouri. That’s mainly why I enrolled in the Annie’s Project advanced marketing course, and it has helped me a lot.

“My Illinois land has deeper, more fertile soil than the farm in Missouri,” she added. “But the Missouri farm is much closer to the Mississippi River and the marketing basis is better. This past winter, the basis on my corn in Illinois widened to 35 cents per bushel over the basis in Missouri. That makes marketing more complicated and practically forces me to use some kind of forward selling. I most often sell on hedge-to-arrive contracts, which lets me set the basis at any time I wish. This way, I can lock in a more favorable basis.

“But Annie’s Project has given me more information on other marketing tools,” she continued. “Although I had a strong background in agriculture from an early age, the course has been very useful in helping me hone my marketing skills.”

“Networking with other farm women in the Annie’s Project is important, too,” said Melissa Luttrull. “We bring different perspectives to the course, and the interaction among ourselves was a valuable part of the learning experience. I’d recommend Annie’s Project for any woman who is associated with farming in any way.” Kathleen Rueter agrees.

“A lot of women are getting involved more deeply in agriculture, whether through widowhood, inheritance or whatever. Farming is no longer solely a man’s profession. Farming and marketing have gotten so complex a manager—whether male or female—needs all the skills he or she can master.”