The Professional Dairy Producers (PDPW) announced Sept. 17 a newly launched educational initiative, PDPW Financial Literacy for Dairy.

This dairy-specific financial program was developed to provide and assure access to best-in-class education for dairy farmers and other food system professionals so they may make sound short- and long-term business decisions in today’s economic environment.

In a continually changing business environment, and with attendees having varying levels of financial understanding, base knowledge and experience, it is critical to the success of the professional to be placed into one of three levels of curriculum: foundational, intermediate or advanced.

“PDPW’s Financial Literacy for Dairy is excellent, because it will meet us where we’re at,” said Marty Hallock, dairy farmer and owner of Mar-Bec Dairy in Mondovi, Wis. “Being placed in a class with like-minded peers will allow us to put our newly learned financial skills straight to work and give us the confidence and knowledge to make tough business decisions.”

To showcase levels 1 and 2 of the PDPW Financial Literacy for Dairy curriculum, the inaugural class is set for Oct. 23-24 and Dec. 19-20, 2017; continues on Jan. 23-24, 2018, and concludes on April 9-10, 2018. The training will run from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on day 1 and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on day 2 of each session, held at the Sheraton Hotel in Madison, Wis.

This inaugural class will be led by Dr. David Kohl, a financial expert and the author of levels 1 and 2 of the PDPW Financial Literacy for Dairy curriculum. The training experience will focus on goal setting, family finance and financial planning, as well as interpreting financial documents and calculating and evaluating the cost of production. Later sessions in January and April will include cash flow budgets, key performance measures and ratios, enterprise profitability and cost center tracking.

The multi-date format of the training will give participants the opportunity to learn new skills in training and then study and apply those skills in their own businesses before returning to the next class.

Space is limited to the first 30 attendees. To register online or learn more about PDPW Financial Literacy for Dairy and the lodging options during the training, visit www.pdpw.org, or contact PDPW at (800) 947-7379.

PDPW is the largest U.S. dairy producer-led organization of its kind, focusing on producer professionalism, stakeholder engagement and unified outreach to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.