MSU Extension DEMaND Series wins national award
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EmailThe DEMaND program was named National Winner of Search for Excellence by the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.
One of the core strengths of Michigan State University Extension is the rich variety of staff backgrounds, focus areas, and the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines to address the unique and often complex needs of communities. Running a farm business requires a multifaceted skill set, and the MSU Extension DEMaND team draws upon the resources of educators and specialists across the organization to design education that meets the needs of Michigan’s diverse beginning farmers.
The National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) recently recognized the MSU Extension DEMaND Series at its Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference with the Search for Excellence in Young, Beginning, or Small Farmers/Ranchers Award. The award recognizes outstanding Extension educational programs for Young (<35 years of age), Beginning (< 10 years management experience), Small Farmer/Ranchers (<$250,000 annual agricultural sales). MSU Extension educator, Jon LaPorte, attended the meeting to accept the award and present about the program’s success to Extension professionals from across the country.
Brief history of the DEMaND Series
For many years, MSU Extension hosted the annual Beginning Farmer Webinar Series to provide education on a variety of farm production and management topics. Based on feedback from this series and other needs assessments, it became clear that more in-depth resources and education were needed for beginning farmers on business and financial management topics. To address this gap, the Developing and Educating Managers and New Decision-makers (DEMaND) Series was launched in 2019.
Led by MSU Extension educators and specialists, the series is a collaboration of programming areas that include agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, community food systems, and food business development and entrepreneurship expertise provided by the MSU Product Center. Additional support for DEMaND is provided by the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems and the MSU Organic Farmer Training Program. It also has industry involvement with partner organizations including Michigan Farm Bureau, GreenStone Farm Credit Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, Michigan Soybean Association, and Michigan Agricultural Commodities, Inc.
The early years of the series focused on creating educational bulletins that would complement efforts in the MSU Extension Beginning Farmer Webinar Series. Since that time, 19 bulletins have been written with eight translated into Spanish. These publications are distributed through various news digests, articles, and a series newsletter with 112 subscribers. In 2021, the MSU Beginning Farmer Webinar Series ended when its lead organizer retired, leading to the DEMaND series starting its own standalone program in 2022. That same year, educational videos to complement bulletin and webinar topics were launched, starting with farm financial statements and expanding to include grain marketing topics in 2023.
In 2023, the series partnered with the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems for a joint webinar program. In 2024, the webinar program joined the MI Ag Ideas to Grow With Conference to offer programming as part of MSU’s annual Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Week celebration.
In its sixth year, the DEMaND Series has a standalone website. Resources are now easily accessible by both type and topic with access to the latest articles, events, publications and videos. Publications translated into Spanish are also accessible throughout the website. Whether someone is brand new to farming, transitioning their farm from a hobby to a business, or taking on a new leadership role within an existing farm business, the MSU Extension DEMaND Series provides support and builds skills for confident financial and business decision-making.