GenerationNext Seminars
- Identify areas for personal growth and development
- Build your management and leadership skills
- Develop your financial knowledge
- Acquire tools to help manage an agricultural business
- Network with other emerging industry leaders
In addition to each seminar, you’ll receive a reference manual with handouts and worksheets. Participants will receive a framed certificate of completion.
Additionally, GenerationNext is approved for USDA Farm Service Agency borrower training.
GenerationNext is optimal for producers who will be assuming greater management responsibilities within a farming, fishing or forest product business.
It is not necessary to have an existing relationship with Farm Credit East to attend.
- Leadership and personnel management
- Human resources development
- Financial statements
- Budgeting
- Capital investment
- Marketing
- Risk management
- Generational transfer and estate planning
GenerationNext FAQs
GenerationNext is more about the dollars and cents aspects of ag businesses than it is about plants or cows. You can expect intermediate or college-level instruction, but no prior knowledge of financial terms is necessary.
Good management separates top-performing farms from those that fall behind. This course will give you the tools to manage your business profitably. Past participants speak highly of the program, but investing is a decision that only you can make.
Experienced managers can also benefit from a refresher course, even if you have a college degree or years of management experience. You will pick up valuable insights from our farm business consultants as well as from your GenerationNext colleagues in the class.
Seminars take place over a period of three months, one per month, and are generally held in the fall or early winter. They run from 9:30 a.m. to approximately 3:30 p.m.; when sessions are in-person, lunch and refreshments are included. Check with your local Farm Credit East branch office for specific dates in your area.
"I'd most certainly recommend GenerationNext. The course covered important topics for any business owner and provided the tools to make educated business decisions."
Oz and Rob Thorndike
Thorndike & Sons, Inc.
Strong, Maine
Views from the Field
“GenerationNext provided the tools to make good, educated business decisions.”
Brothers Oz and Rob Thorndike work with their parents in the family’s business, Thorndike & Sons, Inc., a contract logging and timberland management business. Oz is a foreman and equipment operator, and Rob is a licensed forester, overseeing operations and land management, while also working with landowners on different harvest prescriptions.
After a talk with their loan officer, the family decided it would be beneficial for Oz and Rob to go through the GenerationNext program to further develop their business management skills, and, in turn, improve the quality of their business.
The GenerationNext program offered by Farm Credit East is available for young operators, like Oz and Rob, who are either middle-managers or managers of a farm or ag business. Through a series of seminars, group discussions and ample networking opportunities, the program allowed the Thorndike brothers to target areas of personal growth and acquire the tools they needed to be more effective managers.
Oz’s focus in attending was on the people side of the business. He commented, “I learned a lot about why people react the way they do and how to deal with different situations in a professional manner.” After completing the training, Oz used his newfound knowledge to formalize their business’s safety guidelines, an important piece of their operations.
Rob was drawn to the marketing and accounting topics. Since the class, he has been more involved in the cost/benefit analysis of new equipment purchases and is working on enhanced marketing efforts. Rob said, “We’ve always relied on word-of-mouth, but now we’re looking into a website, brochures and attending agricultural trade shows.”