The Center for Agricultural Profitability at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has launched two online courses to assist farmers and ranchers with understanding financial record-keeping and planning to meet requirements for participants in financial programs with the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
The USDA FSA Borrower Training course is the only online asynchronous borrowing training certification available to agricultural producers in Nebraska. Participants can complete the course at their own pace over the course of one year to meet FSA loan agreement requirements.
The other course is approved by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture for participants in the NextGen program to meet tax credit training requirements. The NextGen program, administered by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, helps beginning farmers and agricultural asset owners take advantage of Nebraska’s Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Act, which offers state income tax credit to asset owners who enter a three-year rental with a beginning farmer.
Both courses are five-part, 15-hour programs designed to strengthen participants’ financial and operational management skills. They cover topics like goal setting, risk management and financial planning. By the end of each course, participants will be equipped to set specific farming or ranching goals, understand key financial documents and use them to make sound business decisions. Participants have one year to complete their course and receive a certificate of completion.
Each course is available through NU Advance, the University of Nebraska’s course delivery platform for online non-credit and professional development offerings.
Both courses contain five modules that include interactive content and case studies to guide participants through critical aspects of agricultural business management:
- Module 1 – Goal Setting & Record Keeping: Participants learn effective goal-setting techniques and explore key accounting concepts, such as cash vs. accrual accounting and record reconciliation.
- Module 2 – Balance Sheet Construction and Analysis: This module focuses on building and analyzing balance sheets, with an emphasis on financial ratios like working capital and debt-to-asset ratios.
- Module 3 – Cash Flow & Income Statements: Participants gain insight into cash flow management, budgeting and income statement development, including accrual adjustments.
- Module 4 – Taxes: This session introduces farm taxation basics.
- Module 5 – Case Study: The program concludes with a comprehensive case study, allowing participants to apply their learning by conducting a financial assessment of their own operation or a simulated case study farm.
Course Registration
More information and registration for each course is available at the following links:
- USDA FSA Borrower Training: https://cap.unl.edu/borrowers
- Nebraska Department of Agriculture Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Training: https://cap.unl.edu/nda
Program Details
For information on Farm Service Agency loans available to farmers and ranchers, visit your county’s USDA Service Center or find information at https://farmers.gov/loans.
More information about the Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s NextGen program and the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Act are available at https://nextgen.nebraska.gov.
