Educational Resources

QuickBooks Pro 2020 is a powerful farm accounting software that helps small and medium-sized businesses manage their inventory, bookkeeping, payroll, and more. The primary goal of this QuickBooks training course is to help farmers and ranchers improve their financial record-keeping and analysis capabilities, which will allow them to make better management decisions.

Each section of the course uses real-world examples to focus on core financial practices such as basic accounting principles, understanding forms and registers, creating accurate financial statements, setting up customers and vendors, and using billing, purchasing, and inventory management options.

While the examples used in this course are tailored for farmers and ranchers, anyone can take this course if they are interested in learning how to use QuickBooks Pro.

This course goes into further detail in the business planning process and includes sections on market and financial analyses. It also includes access to examples and templates to help you create your business plan.

In addition to creating a business plan, you will also have the opportunity to submit your business plan for review and personal feedback from economic experts. Part of the feedback process is a one-hour personal consultation with Dr. Rebekka Dudensing, an Associate Professor and Extension Economist in Community Economic Development with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

As a result of your participation in this course, you will be able to:

Define and quantify your target market
Describe your position in the market
Evaluate financial feasibility
Write a mission and SMART goals
Formulate your production, procurement, and marketing strategy
Design a strong evaluation program
Pitch your plan
Implement and update your plan

Learn how to write a business plan for a farm or food business with real-world business plan examples included. This course will introduce you to business planning basics for farm and food enterprises in order to help you develop your business plan.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

List the purposes of business planning
Recognize when a short, simple planning tool is useful
Describe the market problem/opportunity
Explain your value proposition
Outline business goals
Identify resources and financial needs
For community enterprises, discuss and define partners’ roles and constraints

The BattleGround to Breaking Ground Phase 2 online course will assist participants to complete their agriculture business plan through weekly online modules. The business plan assignments are broken down into a business description, operation plan, marketing plan, and financial plan.

Participants will submit their weekly business plan assignment to be reviewed by an agriculture economist and receive feedback for further improvement.

At the culmination of Phase 2, participants will have a full agriculture business plan that can be used to manage their operation and / or to apply for agriculture business funding.

Course Information
This online course helps participants understand introductory farm and ranch concepts, business planning, and training programs. It includes a session, conducted with military veteran farmers and ranchers, that provides best practices for navigating barriers to becoming successful agricultural producers. Participants will also view a session about additional training programs.

Upon successful completion of the course, participants will be provided with a certificate that can be used to verify training hours in agriculture to enhance their eligibility for agriculture-related funding sources. Successful completion will also increase participant’s chances of submitting a successful application for the tuition waiver for the BattleGround to Breaking Ground Phase 2 and Phase 3 courses.

This award-winning agricultural leasing workshop teaches landowners and people with an agricultural lease about the many legal and economic issues that pertain to ranchlands in Texas. Among other types of leases, this course applies to you if you lease your owned land or have a grazing lease, hunting lease and/or livestock lease.

This workshop will teach you…

The basics of a written agricultural lease agreement
The most common lease arrangements and payment structures
Possible terms included in an agricultural lease relating to termination
Resources for choosing a lease rate
Possible limitations included in a lease
Common lease terms related to mineral estates
Specific considerations for a hunting lease
The importance of liability coverage and insurance for an agricultural lease.