Newsletter for Western Agricultural Educators & Stakeholders
Published by the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center
Winter 2017
Welcome to this issue of our Winter Newsletter. With a new format and design, our goal is to provide our readership with timely risk management resources, improve communication with our stakeholder partners and create a venue for addressing emerging risks and developing targeted risk management education in response. Shannon Neibergs – the Western Center Director and agricultural economist, makes a compelling case in the Introduction for why risk management education will play a significant role for America’s farm and ranch families moving forward. Our feature article will explore how to strengthen the validity and credibility of the risk management outcomes achieved by the farmers and ranchers that the Extension Risk Management Education (ERME) program serves and how to use program evaluation as a way to collect outcomes, impacts and stories. A companion article highlights a successful ERME project where individual families used Ripple Effects Mapping as an evaluation technique to tell their story and document changes made to their ranching operation. This issue also provides the results of an Agricultural Industry Survey (pdf) conducted by members of the Western Extension Committee – which measured the degree of financial stress for producers in the West.
Introduction
Program Evaluation
Managing Financial Risks South Central Utah
Newsletter for Western Agricultural Educators & Stakeholders
Published by the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center
Spokane, WA 99202
Winter 2017
Volume 7 Issue 1
Editor/Designer
Heather Schriver
Director
J. Shannon Neibergs
Associate Director
Jo Ann Warner
National Program Leader
Toija Riggins, USDA-NIFA
Images
iStock
The Western Extension Risk Management Education Center (Western Center) compiles this newsletter with submissions from our staff and may include submissions from the other 3 regional Extension Risk Management Education (ERME) Centers; as well as university faculty, agencies, educator organizations and researchers from throughout the Western region and nation. We make every attempt to provide valuable and informative items of interest to our stakeholders. The views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the Western or other regional ERME Centers. The Western Center is not responsible for the content of these submitted materials or their respective websites; and their inclusion in this newsletter does not imply ERME’s endorsement of that agency/organization/program.
This material is based upon work supported by funding through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Western Extension Risk Management Education Center is hosted by Washington State University with support from WSU Extension and the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences Extension School of Economic Sciences.
