Voices for Agriculture: Dick Wittman

Dick Wittman's spent more than 40 years advocating for financial literacy and professional management on farms.

"A lot of people don't realize the opportunity costs of not doing financial management well," he says, adding that good balance sheets and accrual-adjusted income statements can give farms a competitive edge.

Wittman began his career by developing consistent lending standards for the Farm Credit System in the 1970s and started consulting when he returned to his northern Idaho family farm in the 1980s.

He's served on the Farm Financial Standards Council and on the faculty of TEPAP (The Executive Program for Ag Producers). While he's worked directly with farms, his consulting work now focuses primarily on training educators and other consultants on how to help farmers apply professional management techniques to the family farm.

"The anxiety that exists in our industry that's self-inflicted is just unacceptable. Farmers are used to weather and prices and things they can't control," he says. Solid financial management brings certainty to a business, and that's what he finds the most rewarding.

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-- https://wittmanconsulting.com/…

-- https://tepap.tamu.edu/…

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