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Annie’s Project reaches out to farm women
By
Katie
Pratt
 FLEMINGSBURG, Ky. (Dec. 12, 2007) – Women from six northeast
Kentucky counties are learning basic farm management practices
through Annie’s Project, a six week program through the
University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Annie’s Project is a program that provides basic agribusiness
and farm management skills to women so they can become more
knowledgeable business partners in their families’ agricultural
operations.
“Typically, a farmer goes to town and takes care of all business
transactions,” said Jeff Smith, Fleming County agriculture and
natural resources agent. “And the partner, the farm woman, is
working at home, and she never really realizes who to see for
the key programs. This program gives them firsthand access to
that information.”
Smith added, farm women can feel intimidated when attending
agricultural meetings mostly comprised of men.
“I think some of the women are reluctant to speak up at a farm
meeting, but they definitely give input here at these meetings,”
he said.
Annie’s Project was started by Ruth Fleck Hambleton, a farm
business management and marketing educator with the University
of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service. The project was named
after her mother, Annette Fleck, who was a wealthy woman when
she died because of the management skills she learned from 50
years of experience as a farm wife.
 Kentucky is one of 11 states currently offering Annie’s Project
classes. Western Kentucky was the first area of the state to
offer the program last year.
This is the first time the program has been presented in
northeast Kentucky. This winter, it will be presented at eight
different locations throughout the state.
Smith said family and consumer sciences and agriculture and
natural resource agents in Bracken, Fleming, Lewis, Mason and
Robertson counties worked together to present the program to
area women. The agents customized the program to fit the types
of agriculture production in their part of the state, such as
raising cattle and growing tobacco. He said he has received
positive feedback from many of the program’s 26 participants.
“The more you can learn about anything, the better off you are,”
said Rose Ann Masters, a participant from Fleming County.
Masters and her husband, Charlie, own Masters Charolais in
Mayslick. This is the couple’s first full year in the farming
business, having recently purchased the cattle operation from
his parents. Since her husband works out of town, she is in
charge of the day-to-day operations on the farm. In addition to
cattle, the couple also raised seven acres of alfalfa and two
acres of tobacco this year.
 Before she married, farming was a foreign topic to Masters, a
retired teacher who grew up in Flemingsburg.
“My husband and I jointly do this farm, but he’s not home,”
Masters said. “So for me to understand a little bit more about
what’s going on, I’ve been doing extension programs. I did the
Master Cattleman’s program last year. Then Jeff (extension agent
Jeff Smith) told me about Annie’s Project, and that sounded like
exactly what I needed to keep better farm records.”
Masters said that after the program she and her husband are
going to create a farm plan based on the information she
received through her participation in Annie’s Project.
Like Masters, another participant, Shirley Porter, said she and
her daughter, Tiffany, share the responsibility of their
family’s 700-acre farm in Lewis County, because her husband
works out of town. They have timber and hay and raise cattle and
horses.
“This program has kind of rounded things out,” Porter said,
adding that she has always kept the books for the farm.
Tiffany Porter said while her mother manages the farm records,
Annie’s Project has taught her how she can manage her own
finances using Microsoft Excel.
Smith said he plans to use questionnaires and surveys after the
program is completed to evaluate the program. Some of the women
have already approached him about offering a more in-depth
session in the future.
To get involved or for more information on Annie’s Project,
contact your county’s Cooperative Extension Service.
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Contact: Jeff Smith, 606-845-4641
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of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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