The Farm Business Management Analysis Program (FBMA) is a part of the public school agriculture offerings for adults. The Vocational and Adult Division of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provided funds for the development of the program. The staff in Agricultural Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia developed the program and worked with supervisors in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in implementing the program. Local school districts and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provide instructor support.

The purpose of FBMA is to help farm families achieve their farm business and family goals through improved management, organization, and efficiency of their farms. To accomplish the purpose, programs follow these guidelines: (a) Farmers enroll in a specific FBMA course; (b) There are three courses for three years and enrollees are expected to follow the sequence; (c) There is continuity between the courses; each one leads to the next; (d) Part of the instruction is provided on the farm with the farm family; (e) Enrollees keep their records in the Missouri Farm Business Record Book and have a computerized year-end analysis completed to provide a comparative data base for use in making management decisions.

Terry Heiman, Director Agricultural Education Section Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Bob Birkenholz, Professor and Chair Agricultural Education University of Missouri-Columbia

The Management Information Records (MIR) program is a computerized farm accounting and business analysis program funded jointly by the farmers who use it, the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and University Extension. It is maintained by the Department of Agricultural Economics on the Columbia campus, and is administered, serviced, and supported by Extension Farm Management Specialists across the state.

The primary purpose of MIR is to provide farm managers with record keeping information useful in managing their farm businesses. MIR provides financial accounting features found in many other accounting systems, but it implements the accounting that supports them quite differently. MIR's focus is on the farm "business unit".

MIR provides the capability to generate reports that include journal listings, ledger listings, cash flow statements, vendor reports, current account balances, "actual versus budget" cash flow statements, check and deposit registers, bought on account listings, crop summaries, crop and livestock quantity balances, and others. Data entry is eased with context-sensitive Help screens available at the press of a function key. Not only does the Help system provide information about your current location in the program, but for many data entry fields it actually helps you build the entry (such as a vendor code or account code) from scrolling pick-list menus.