Tom Olsen, farm management field specialist

Situation

In anticipation of the new Farm Bill sign-up, a large number of information sessions were held to help both landlords and producers select the best option for their farm. Individual one-on-one sessions were also offered in each county. A Farm Program Analyzer spreadsheet was used to consider each farm tract to select the best crop base acreage and yield choice. In two counties, evaluations were sent out to get input on the value of the time spent with Tom Olsen and the impact on their experience at the FSA office.

Response

On a scale of 1-10, with one meaning, “I had no idea what to do,” and 10 meaning “I understand it very well,” the respondents reported a 3.1 level before the meeting and a 7.8 after the meeting. All respondents answered “yes” to the question, “Did the session give you the added confidence to go to the FSA office to sign up for the farm program?”
When asked “to estimate the value of having Tom answer your questions about the farm bill” and given ranges from $0 to greater than $1000, the average response was in the $250 to $500 range with farm sizes ranging from 40 to 850 acres. The one farm of 11,000 acres was in the more than $1000 value.
Comments offered are listed below:

• “I learned more from Tom in 10 minutes than the FSA office in 2 hours.”
• “I had a chuckle on Tom’s comment, ‘You probably spend more on your wife at Christmas than the difference of the program options.’”
• “Tom is a treasure.”
• “It was very helpful and I thank you for providing this service.”
• “He got his message across, and was more positive and sure of his statements than other meetings I attended.”
• “Very informative-easy to talk with.”

Page maintained by Linda Schultz, lschultz@iastate.edu