Farm women from Lincoln, Marathon, Langlade and Taylor counties and the surrounding area are invited to participate in the Heart of the Farm – Women in Agriculture conference to be held Friday, March 11. This program provides farm women with the opportunity to network with other farm women and learn about balancing farm, work and family; planning for the unexpected loss of a farming partner or spouse; financial recordkeeping options; and managing and communicating with your partners about debt.
The conference begins at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. and will be held at the Lincoln County UW Extension Office, 801 N. Sales St., Merrill.
Topics and presenters include:
• Dealing with the 5Ds-Death, Disability, Divorce, Disaster, Disagreement. Joy Kirkpatrick, Outreach Specialist, Center for Dairy Profitability. After a quick review of the tools and strategies used to address the 5Ds, we’ll introduce the Bella Acres family. We’ll find them facing some of the 5Ds (they seem to come in twos!) and you’ll counsel them as to what they should do. You will also work on your own farm’s 5Ds and consider an action plan to address the highest priority Ds.
• Employee Management and Retention. Trisha Wagner, Ag Agent, UWEX-Jackson County. Learn how to improve employee satisfaction and retention and how your farm can benefit from positive labor practices. Learn different strategies to implement these practices at varying costs: low, medium and high.
• What’s Your Style in Dealing with Conflict? Tom Cadwallader, Agricultural Development Educator for UWEX Lincoln and Marathon Counties.Every day we are faced with conflicts and difficult conversations. How we approach those situations plays a huge role in their potential outcomes. In this session you’ll learn what your preferred conflict style is and how you can use it or other possible styles to positively deal with conflict.
• Win As Much As You Can-A Team Approach to Managing Conflict. Tom Cadwallader, Agricultural Development Educator for UWEX Lincoln and Marathon Counties, with help from Joy Kirkpatrick and Trisha Wagner. Understanding your natural tendencies in approaching conflict and negotiations is only one tool to improve your management of them. The next step is to see how those tendencies might play out in real situations. In this game, participants get a chance to learn about the merits of competition and collaboration in group situations.
Heart of the Farm- Women in Agriculture conference series is a UW-Extension program that is committed to addressing the needs of farm women by providing education on farm business topics, connecting them with agricultural resources and creating support networks.
Pre-registration is $20 per person, with registrations due by March 4. To register for the conference, send payment to: ATTN: Heart of the Farm, Lincoln County UW-Extension, 801 N. Sales St., Suite 101, Merrill, WI 54452. Make checks payable to UW-Extension. Visit the Heart of the Farm website www.uwex.edu/ces/heartofthefarm to download a brochure.
Heart of the Farm – Women in Agriculture is sponsored by the UW Center for Dairy Profitability and Lincoln, Marathon, Langlade and Taylor County UW-Extension Offices. Partial funding for the program is provided by USDA Risk Management Agency and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.
For more information or to register call the Lincoln County UW-Extension office at 715-539-1072 or the UW-Center for Dairy Profitability at 608-263-3485.