Say you have a small dairy in Indiana, and you want to update your milking machines. Or you’re a farmer, processor or value-added agricultural manufacturer wanting to modernize your equipment or expand your operation.
You’re very good at what you do, but you don’t have a business background, and you need a business plan. You’re unsure where and how to get a loan or grant. You may need crop yield projections or information about exporting commodities.
An advisor from the Indiana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Agribusiness Initiative can help. The service is one on one, confidential and free. And beginning this year, your advisor might also be a Purdue Extension educator.
As a new partner in the Agribusiness Initiative, Purdue Extension strengthens a well-established program. “We’ve done one-on-one advising in the SBDC for all kinds of small businesses, from widget factories to restaurants, for years,” says its director, Monty Henderson. “But the SBDCs recognized that most of our clients are non-ag.”
In cooperation with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), the SBDCs invited Purdue Extension to help extend its distinctive advising model to agricultural businesses, largely using existing resources, Henderson says.
Since leaders announced the initiative in March 2022, Henderson — also an employee of the Purdue Center for Regional Development — has trained nine Extension staff as new advisors. They join about 80 advisors already working across the state.
Farms are powerful economic generators. With the state Department of Agriculture and Purdue Extension, we have agriculture covered here in Indiana with two powerful partners who know it well.”
The educators bring diverse agricultural specialties to the advising team. In addition to their training and professionalism, their commitment to public service makes them a good fit.
They meet with clients in their area of expertise, bringing Purdue-sourced tools and resources to help people make good decisions. One important role is to reinforce business plans and strategies and loan requests with real facts and data, he adds.
The partnership recognizes agriculture’s value to rural communities. “Farms are powerful economic generators,” says Henderson, a lifelong farmer. “With the state Department of Agriculture and Purdue Extension, we have agriculture covered here in Indiana with two powerful partners who know it well."
THIS STORY IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE 2022 PURDUE EXTENSION IMPACT REPORT. READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.