News

Know to Grow program helps young and beginning farmers

Farm Credit Mid-America’s Know to Grow program helps young and beginning farmers assess financial strengths and weaknesses and improve farm profitability.

Jonathan Carter is the AVP of growing forward and lending partnerships with Farm Credit Mid-America.

“The Know to Grow workshop is to get young, beginning farmers to think about making decisions for their farm operation from a business standpoint,” he says. “It’s kind of a mind shift from they’re not just a farmer but they’re a small business owner and how are they going to make decisions.”

He says they make sure growers understand their balance sheet and income statement and also go over liquidity, solvency, and debt coverage ratio.   

“How does that affect your ability to expand your ability to expand your operation and how does that affect your ability for taking on new debt,” he says. “So that’s really important to not only know what it is but how does that impact your operation and how can you use that information to make business decisions.”

Brownfield interviewed Carter during a recent Know to Grow workshop in Indianapolis.

About 20 Know to Grow events have take place since the program’s inception in 2014. Farm Credit Mid-America serves customers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Audio: Jonathan Carter, Farm Credit Mid-America