AB100 Agribusiness Library Guide

Agribusiness topics:

The first lessons in this library cover topics related to starting a small business. Another section gives an overview of agribusiness and covers the history of different kinds of agriculture and related businesses in the United States.

This library also includes lessons covering the basics of agribusiness financial planning and finances. The emphasis is on records to be used in making agribusiness decisions. These topics are important in understanding how to manage finances for agribusiness.

This library provides lessons about decisions related to major agribusiness capital investments, as well as lessons on land and building improvements and leasing vs. ownership. Another group covers farm organizations and cooperatives.

Lessons that span a wide range of agricultural credit topics are also found in this library. Some lessons also cover the nature of risk, the use of insurance and laws that determine liability. The Agribusiness Library also contains lessons covering the basics of U.S. farm policy and includes lessons on current government programs and tax laws that impact farmers.

Provide a "real world" business experience

The availability of up-to-date prices and production information found on the internet provides many opportunities for the classroom. This information is very useful when incorporated into AgEdNet.com lessons, making them dynamic and more relevant to students.

Agribusiness Library lessons provide students with a number of opportunities to plug in current price data when doing exercises. Current data could be used, for example, in lessons on the calculation of interest costs, preparing a cash flow statement, or determining net income. Current supply demand data can be used to judge the impact of government programs on this year's markets.

Developing a business plan is extremely important to farm business success. Access to current information allows students and teachers to develop plans based on real information and follow it through to analyze its success. A business plan is a formal statement describing the goals and objectives of a business, including financial information and budget estimates.

Ideas for activities:

Here are some other activities making use of AgEdNet.com and the internet as a teaching tool.

• Have students determine the "business risk" in grain or livestock markets by reviewing long-range technical charts.
• Give students a set amount of grain and/or livestock and have them decide to sell, hedge or hold (on paper) and accept the business risk of their decision. Determine who made the sound decisions.
• Using AgEd Today and other news items, have students write copy for a farm radio program covering news on government farm issues. Have students do "broadcasts" as class activities.

Suggestions for using AgEdNet.com lessons

1. Lesson format: AgEdNet.com lessons follow a similar lesson format and include student lesson text, exercises, assessment and teacher's guide. LEARN MORE.
2. Lesson extras include matching with National AFNR standards, internet resources, worksheets, PowerPoints, vocabulary crossword puzzles, glossaries and a search engine. LEARN MORE.

Photo credit: Photo shows Pike Street Market in Seattle, Washington. Photo © 2011 Nancy Crombie, used by permission.