12 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN September 2025 PEOPLE N W A In the Beginning JANE GREEN | CO-FOUNDER OF THE NEBRASKA WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE PROGRAM The Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference celebrated its 40th year on Feb. 20-21, 2025. Nearly 370 women enjoyed the opportunity to learn from 27 different workshop choices and five keynote speakers, and maybe just as important, from each other. Production agriculture has always been a cyclical business. The 1970s were good years for U.S. agriculture. Worldwide grain supplies were down, resulting in increased commodity prices, which increased demand for farmland and drove up land prices. Interest rates were low. Credit was readily available to finance land purchases. According to Business in Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Bureau of Business Research, April 1986, the 1970s was a period of rapid increase in farmland prices and rapid inflation. Farmland purchases were heavily financed, using the rising land prices as collateral. Commodity prices, however, did not rise nearly as quickly as land prices. When inflation slowed in the early 1980s, farmland was not as attractive a hedge against inflation. Commodity prices had not kept up. Interest rates soared. Farmers defaulted on loans. Farm lenders began calling loans. Asset prices fell so that even if liquidations did occur, they netted less than hoped for. The boom-and-bust cycle of the 1970s was followed by the farm crisis of the 1980s. In response to the farm crisis, Larry Bitney, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Extension Service, sought federal and state grant funding to create a program to help farmers and ranchers best position their operations during these uncertain times. With the help of Doug Jose, Ph.D., other existing agricultural economics faculty and a team of new hires who had variety of life experience and expertise, he developed the Managing for Tomorrow (MFT) program. I was fortunate to be one of those new hires. I was in the process of completing my master’s degree in agricultural economics at UNL when Larry asked me to consider working for him. I was a freshly minted masters graduate with no real useful life experience, but I jumped at the opportunity to learn from him. He gave us all the opportunity to provide input as we developed the program, but I had the special privilege of being his teaching partner. MFT was designed to help producers better articulate their personal and operation goals and analyze their long-range profitability under a variety of scenarios. MFT consisted of four weeks of group classroom learning, followed by one-onone meetings to review, interpret and make recommendations on the accumulated data. Workshops were conducted in all corners of the state. My parents completed this program. They were not under financial duress but had never jointly set goals for their farm and were always looking for ways to increase prof its. These workshops were designed for all who were a part of the management team in an operation. Women were integral parts of that management team, but some were hesitant to ask questions in group settings. Some were not raised on farms and ranches. Most did not have agricultural degrees. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 1980 a little more than one-third of all degrees earned in agricultural science were awarded to women. Nearly 40 years later, women make up more than half of the graduates. But women wanted to learn. One of the team members in the Managing for Tomorrow program was Deb Rood. Deb was a wife, mom, former dairywoman and served as the communications specialist for the team. She was also a spark plug. She had lots of life and work experience and always had ideas for new offerings that would help producers. Deb’s work responsibilities and family life required her to be in the office and close to home, but periodically she would venture out with us to teach a workshop and keep her creative juices flowing. The Dawson County Extension team was very supportive Glennis McClure, one of the original speakers at the Women in Agriculture Conference and long-time UNL employee, shows some farm fashion in 1985.
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