Today’s woman doesn’t just bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. Chances are, she’s managing that feeder-to-finish operation. And if she’s like Jenny Dewey Rohrich, she turned that pork into bacon.

Farm women are changing the ag landscape. As farming becomes more technologically advanced, farm women are becoming increasing involved in data analysis, site-specific farming, regulatory compliance, commodity marketing, public relations and social marketing. Today’s farm woman works every aspect of the farm, keeps everyone on task, and even advocates for the industry she loves.

That’s why Monsanto Company recognizes farm moms for the important roles they play within their families, their farming operations and their communities. Anyone can nominate his or her favorite farm mom – whether it’s their own mom, sister, aunt, daughter, friend or community member – for a chance to win up to $10,000!

Nominations for the Farm Mom of the Year contest are open through March 31, 2014. To nominate a favorite farm mom, visit AmericasFarmers.com and submit a brief essay online or by mail that explains how the nominated farm mom contributes to her family, farm, community and agriculture. Each nomination will be judged based on published criteria by a panel of judges from American Agri-Women.

Monsanto will select five regional winners based on the judges’ decisions. Each regional winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize. Profiles of the regional winners will then be posted to AmericasFarmers.com, where the public can vote for one national farm mom winner. Announced just prior to Mother’s Day, the national winner will receive an additional $5,000 cash prize above and beyond her regional prize.

Farm Moms are truly inspiring women like Iowa farmer April Hemmes, who lives in our home county, and Kansas rancher Debbie Lyons-Blythe, whose family was featured in a Super Bowl ad. April traveled to Uganda to help women farmers get their grain to market and also helped raise money for much needed equipment and infrastructure including bicycles and wells. Debbie is a great advocate for agriculture and works tirelessly to help bridge the gap between producers and consumers. Check out her blog, Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch, where she writes about the Flint Hills and shares delicious ranch recipes. (I’ve certainly downloaded my fair share of her recipes!)

Chances are, you know of some equally amazing farm woman. Be sure to submit a nomination on her behalf for Farm Mom of the Year by March 31!

Learning is a life-long process. Last week, I certainly learned a lesson the hard way last Thursday while presenting – or at least trying to present – during a webinar hosted by Iowa State University Extension on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

#EpicFail is probably how my grandkids would’ve describe this event. Why? Because I didn’t understand the folks were involved in this webinar! I have always said farmers need to listen to understand. Learn where an audience stands, and then talk in a way that leads to greater understanding. Sounds simple, right?

What I learned through this experience is that there’s more to listening than it sounds! I should have investigated how the webinar would be run. I should’ve asked to see, in advance, the outline that would be followed. If I had done due diligence, I would have been much better prepared.

Don’t misunderstand me… I went into last week’s webinar armed with facts and prepared with science, including a few emotion-laced nuggets about the fear of food. I had an hour’s worth of information, which I trimmed down from what I thought would probably have taken a month to present. I also knew from a blog entitled “OMG GMO”, which was posted on the ISUE website, that there would probably be a participant or two that was anti-GMO.

What I hadn’t expected, however, was the vast amount of information that I should’ve studied in advance like the rules of engagement. Slide 1 of the ISUE deck outlined these rules, and I started getting a little nervous! It’s been years since I’ve sat in a classroom, but I still felt like the student who showed up without his homework done. The next slide (more like lecture) was on being nice! More rules were given about talking and listening. All in all, it took about 15 minutes of the webinar just to set the ground rules.

Knowing there was little more than an hour left for the webinar, I expected there would be little time left at the end for questions. I started going through my scientific-themed information. Now I know, emotion trumps science every time but facts are needed to set the stage. About 10 minutes into my presentation, the moderator told me to wrap up. I was only on my fifth slide, expelling what GMOs are and my time was nearly up! Trying to think quickly, I jumped ahead to explain how GE plants use fewer inputs. I then finished with this very short quote from George Washington Carver, “Learn to do common things uncommonly well. We must always keep in mind anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable.”

With that said, I was done. From here, we went into a structured question and answer session. Every question asked by participants was based on emotion, and the questions “asked” were really more stated opinions than true questions. Honestly, I didn’t know at this point what my role was so I waited for others in the group to chime in. Finally, I started giving a few answers but the discussion stayed very anti-GMO.

After the webinar, ISU Extension sent me information that was provided the participants. I have been very surprised at the good information they were provided. One site was “protecting and promoting your health” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It explains what GMOs are and the process a new trait must go through before being approved. It also explains that USDA is not the only government agency that examines a new trait; it must also go through the EPA and APHIS.

Because the information on this site is so factual, I’m guessing few participants read it before the webinar. It didn’t support their fears or help confirm their beliefs. Somehow we must learn how to use science-based information with emotion!

“Before you take root, you must plant a seed,” said Nathan Katzer, business development manager for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, as he addressed a crowd of family farmers including my husband and me. What an appropriate send-off to wrap up the series of three Take Root seminars, designed to help families start the conversation to transition their farms to the next generation!

History shows us that only 10% of family farm businesses successfully transition to the third generation.  In addition to transferring financial wealth, farm families strive to pass on their emotional wealth: values, life lessons, talents and experiences.  Nearly every young person, who grew up on a farm, knows the values of hard work, helping neighbors and striving to care for the land we farm.  So why do farms still fail to transition to the next generation for so many families

Lack of communication and not knowing where to begin are the two most common reasons a farm transition fails to transition.  No wonder session one of Take Root was titled, “Strengthen Your Family Farm Legacy.” This presentation challenged each of us to really define what it was we were passing on.  It provided strategies to help work through emotional obstacles together as a family and ideas on how to answer the tough questions like how to value sweat equity, determine fair versus equal among heirs and transition management early to allow for proper training.

In session two, the focus was the importance of taking time to work “on” the business instead of just “in” the business.  We dove deeper into how to transfer responsibilities and build a farm business plan that includes business successors.  We discussed ways to build, grow, diversify and specialize our operations all while preparing the operation for the next step.

The final session of the Take Root series featured a panel of experts prepared to answer the tough questions.  This panel was made up of professionals in business planning, ag lenders, lawyers and estate planners.  We had the opportunity to get some of our own questions answered while discussing financial planning and analysis and employee compensation.

While no succession plan will be identical to another, after going through this workshop series, the process as a whole can be summarized in 10 main steps:

1. Set goals, identify common succession objectives with all active family members.
2. Prioritize these goals and agree on a timeline for completing your succession plan.
3. Collect qualitative and quantitative information including: family relationships, business structure, financial information and estate planning documents.
4. Complete a cash flow and financial analysis for each family member.
5. Compile all information into a preliminary plan.
6. Seek outside advisors to evaluate the collected information and provide recommendations on ownership transition, leadership development, estate planning and financial security.
7. Seek input from all active family members concerning the preliminary plan and outside recommendations.
8. Revise the preliminary plan to include agreed upon recommendations and supporting explanations for each section.
9. Implement your plan by creating the necessary legal support documents, adopting the financial tools and accounting processes needed to accomplish your goals, and beginning the necessary leadership development for the succeeding generation.
10. Review this plan with all active family members on a yearly basis.

Involvement in the Take Root series was a great first step to helping my family progress through the legacy planning process.  One common theme I did take away from the workshop is that families can never start planning soon enough, but they can start too late.

Communication is key.  Have you started the conversation with your farm family?  Your future farm legacy depends on it!