Identifying Needs and Audiences in Farm Management Outreach Education

The objective of this research is to better understand farmers' perceptions of the importance of various farm management educational topics. A technique for identifying interested clientele for educational programs is also presented. Topics rated most highly by farmers include income tax management, agricultural input prices, year-end financial analysis, and U.S.—world agricultural outlook. A multivariate logit analysis was used to examine the relationships between the farmers' evaluations of three education topic categories and various farm business and information source characteristics. Operator age, tenancy, size of farm business, and farm enterprise type were important predictors of topic preference.