Workshop offers important farm management lessons to help women succeed

Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) is celebrating10 years of Annie’s Project New Jersey with a free, online workshop headlined by Bridget Behe, professor and extension specialist in marketing at Michigan State University.

The training workshop, titled “Annie’s Project New Jersey 10 Years of Empowering New Jersey Farmers,” will be held via Zoom on November 4, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Registration is currently open. The workshop is free, but participants must register in order to receive the link to attend.

“As in the previous Annie’s Project programs, this workshop is designed to educate and train new and aspiring farm women and provide tools for successful business management with particular focus on successful strategies to deal with the ongoing pandemic and post-pandemic,” says Robin Brumfield, extension specialist in farm management with RCE.

“In addition, this program focuses on topics within these areas of risk that present unique challenges to urban farmers,” she explains. A 2019 article on Annie’s Project New Jersey is currently the featured success story by the Northeast Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Participants will have access to invaluable tools to help sustain their farm business, including the expertise of keynote speaker Bridget Behe, who will answer the number one question farmers have been asking us, “How can farmers turn the new customers they got during the pandemic into permanent customers?”

Behe, a sought-after speaker at state, regional and national businesses and associations, provides helpful marketing and management practices designed to improve profitability and sustainability. Her website, “Marketing Munchies,” features short podcasts that use research-based information on horticulture marketing. Her podcasts can be accessed on Connect-2-Consumer or on a favorite podcast provider. Her recent peer-reviewed publications are also available on this website.

Also addressing participants will be Brian Schilling, director of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, whose presentation will focus on recent direct marketing and agritourism issues. There will be breakout sessions on the topics, Succession Planning, Marketing, and Production. The workshop will feature a panel of women farmers who will discuss what has worked and what they would change in their own operations, with a wrap-up presentation on building resilience by Brumfield.

Read more about Annie’s Project New Jersey at Rutgers. Find a detailed agenda of the workshop here.