SDSU Extension programs address economic questions

Heather Gessner, SDSU Extension Livestock Business Management Specialist, engages with SDSU students during her Returning to the Farm course. (Candy DenOuden/SDSU Extension)

Heather Gessner stands in front of about 30 students in the Edgar S. McFadden Biostress Lab in mid-November on South Dakota State University’s Campus and opens class with an ice breaker.  

“Who has something good to share?”  

After a few happy updates, Gessner dives into particulars. Exams and final projects are coming up. And today’s class features an attorney from Watertown who specializes in estate planning.  

The new course, Returning to the Farm, was born from of the success of the South Dakota State University Extension Sustaining the Legacy conference series. Gessner, the SDSU Extension Livestock Business Management Specialist who teaches the course and organizes the conference series, said it’s a different way to approach the same subject matter. 

“We’re still working with their estate plan but getting the information to 20-year-olds instead of 70-year-olds,” she said.  

It’s a typical day for Gessner, who started her day talking to the SDSU Extension BeefSD cohort about working with landowners on developing a rental agreement, then spoke to another class on agriculture policy before finishing her day with her own class.  

“In SDSU Extension, we provide the information and education, and tie in resources for assistance,” said Gessner. “The individualization is what it takes to make each of those programs work.” 

Gessner said she leverages her 22 years of experience and education to provide specific instruction with a common mission: to help producers maintain profitability and sustainability. Two of the programs she leads, Sustaining the Legacy and Ag Economics Dialogues, both work toward that mission in unique ways.   

More than 1,000 people have attended Sustaining the Legacy since it started in 2006. The estate planning conference series helps farmers and ranchers successfully transfer their operations to the next generation. The conferences are held several times a year across South Dakota, typically for one day per week for three weeks.  

Each session brings in industry experts like accountants, insurance agents and attorneys who specialize in agricultural estate planning, taxes, etc. Gessner carefully vets speakers to ensure they provide unbiased information about estate planning products and options. 

“I don’t have an agenda for selling them any products,” Gessner said. “Every presenter who comes into the sessions is there to teach them about the products – the good and bad, when to use it, when not to use it.” 

The conferences accomplish the dual purpose of educating people while connecting them to the experts in their region, Gessner said. In addition, Gessner said Sustaining the Legacy is designed for families to attend together and start having conversations that aren’t always easy to have.  

Sometimes people can create plans during the conference series, other times it puts people in touch with the right expert – and sometimes it just helps families identify and communicate their goals.  

“They don’t have to know all the tools to use, but they have to be able to tell the professional what they want to have happen,” Gessner said.  

Ag Economic Dialogues 

Gessner and the rest of the SDSU Extension economics team started hosting another popular program, the Ag Economic Dialogues series, at the end of 2018 to address current economic issues that farmers and ranchers face. 

The free monthly series is virtual and speakers usually cover two topics during each hour-long session. Topics focus on current events, from market outlooks to macroeconomic issues to production input costs.  

In summer 2022, for example, fertilizer costs were a hot-button issue, so Ag Economics Dialogues hosted a session in July 2022 discussing ways to optimize fertilizer use. She credits the energy and ideas from the SDSU Extension economics team to keeping topics relevant and educational.  

“We try not to schedule topics too far in advance, because what if something changes?” Gessner said.  

What was originally geared toward farmers and ranchers now also draws agricultural lenders, seed dealers, insurance agents, government agencies, farm service providers – “anybody that is touched by agriculture,” Gessner said.  

“Does that make it tricky to put a presentation together?” Gessner said with a chuckle. “Yes.”

Sometimes the expanded audience means taking a birds-eye view of topics, but Gessner said participants still let her know it gives them a chance to dig into what’s happening in the industry.  

The numbers bear that out. Registration has grown from about 20 participants the first year to nearly 100. Gessner said usually about 40 to 50 people watch the session live, with another 50 watching the video once it is posted on the SDSU Extension YouTube channel.  

“It’s a great outreach vehicle for us,” Gessner said.