Program Overview

New Mexico Farm and Ranch Management (NM-FARM) Program

The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Management (NM-FARM) Program is a financial benchmarking program designed for New Mexico farmers and ranchers. The program is made possible by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which allows New Mexico State University to participate in the FINBIN database housed at the University of Minnesota.

Program Overview

The NM-FARM Program aims to provide financial benchmarking services to New Mexico farmers and ranchers, enabling them to compare their financial data with other similar operations in the state. This will help producers evaluate their business strengths and weaknesses, set realistic financial goals, and identify areas for improvement.

Participating in the Program

Producers can participate in the program in two ways:

• With their accountant: Producers can work directly with their accountant to submit their financial data.
• With the NM-FARM team: Producers without an accountant can submit their data through the NM-FARM team.

Benefits of Participation

Participating in the NM-FARM Program offers several benefits, including:

• Financial benchmarking: Producers can compare their financial data with other similar operations in the state.
• Improved financial management: Producers can evaluate their cost and revenue streams, set realistic financial goals, and identify areas for improvement.
• Increased revenue: Producers can increase revenue from existing farm assets by evaluating their production mix and marketing programs.
• Reduced expenses: Producers can reduce farm expenses by evaluating production costs, purchasing practices, and inventory management.

FINBIN Database

The FINBIN database is a national farm financial database that provides aggregated financial data from agricultural producers. The database is housed at the University of Minnesota and is available online. Producers can access the database to generate benchmarking reports and compare their financial data with other similar operations.

FINPACK Software

FINPACK is a comprehensive farm financial planning and analysis software system used to help analyze farm businesses. The software is developed and supported by the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota.

Privacy and Confidentiality

The NM-FARM Program ensures the privacy and confidentiality of producer data. Producers can decide the extent of financial data they want to include for analysis, and only aggregated data is available in the FINBIN database. A minimum number of farms is required to generate a report, and producers can broaden their search criteria to gather enough data to yield a report.

Program Objectives

The objectives of the NM-FARM Program are:

• To make farm financial benchmarking opportunities publicly available to producers in New Mexico.
• To improve the opportunities for producers to manage risk and volatility through increased attention to financial strengths and weaknesses.
• To develop a first-in-the-country protocol for allowing anonymous participation through farm accountants.
• To advance data gathering and expand the applicability of NMSU research by basing recommendations on more accurate farm financial data.
• To provide specialized training to meet the needs of small and beginning producers.

Funding

The NM-FARM Program is funded by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.