Description:
Aug. 17, 2009 Texas AgriLife Extension offering online courses for small-scale landowners
Writer: Mike Jackson, 972-952-9232, mcjackson@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Blake Bennett, 972-231-5362, BBennett@ag.tamu.edu
Dr. Rebecca Parker, 972-952-9258, r-parker@tamu.edu
Jenny Leone, 972-952-9258, JLeone@ag.tamu.edu

DALLAS – Two upcoming courses designed to improve operations for small-scale landowners are being offered online by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

The courses, part of an ongoing series, cost $50 each. They are offered on the following dates:

-- Creating a Resource Inventory: Sept. 14-Oct. 9.

-- Introduction to Enterprise Budgeting: Sept. 28-Oct. 16.

To register, visit http://grovesite.com/tamu/ri or http://agrilifevents.tamu.edu/ . Landowners may also register by contacting Jenny Leone at 972-952-9258 or JLeone@ag.tamu.edu .

Both courses are designed to be interactive. The ultimate goal is to provide the producer and avenue in which to apply what they are learning in the courses to their own operations. Practice is incorporated into the curriculum along with forum discussion with the “teacher-facilitator” and the other students. These online courses effectively extend theory into practice.

The inventory course will help land owners identify resources, including personnel, equipment, financial capital and potential crop and livestock that could benefit the operation, said Dr. Rebecca Parker, AgriLife Extension’s Dallas-based regional director of programs in agriculture and natural science.

“The resource inventory course is an excellent place to start if you have just purchased your land or if you are wondering if there are better uses for your available resources,” she said.

The budgeting course will teach landowners to create and analyze budgets for crops and livestock, Parker said.

“This will help landowners analyze which crops or livestock are adding the most to profitability and which are not,” she said.

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