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Keeping Your Equine Business a Vibrant Part of Rural America. Kathy Anderson, PhD, University of Nebraska Chris Skelly, PhD, Michigan State University. NC Equine Business Overview. North Central Region Horse Industry Over 1 million horses 162,000 horse farms
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Keeping Your Equine Business a Vibrant Part of Rural America Kathy Anderson, PhD, University of Nebraska Chris Skelly, PhD, Michigan State University
NC Equine Business Overview • North Central Region Horse Industry • Over 1 million horses • 162,000 horse farms • Over 70% of horse owners live in rural communities of 50,000 or less • Breeding, training, boarding, etc • Spectator events – Urban settings • Race, show, etc
The EBN Conference • Partnership of 4 Universities • Targeted to NCR, nationwide application • Simultaneous conferences, 4 locations • Interactive webinar • Various business related topics • Equine Business Network Facebook page • Equine Business Blog • Equine Business web page (eXtension)
Purpose • Enhance rural equine businesses • Profitability • Sustainability • Develop organized business management resources • Equine Business owners & employees
Purpose • Increase equine business knowledge • Exploring employment opportunities • Horse industry business development • Enhance efficiency • Increased revenue • Expand industry
What we did Hosted concurrently One live speaker each location + 3 webcast Liability/Legal issues Marketing Insurance Accounting/Business structure Pre-Conference webcast Promotional 6 weeks prior to conference • Michigan State University • University of Nebraska • Iowa State University • University of Minnesota
Equine Business Conference November 2012 56 views Equine Business Network December, 2012 Over 600 fans • Conducted February, 2012 • Total attendance – 130 • MI – 50 • MN – 40 • IA – 20 • NE – 20
What we did Equine Business Network Facebook page Launched November, 2011 Horsebiz Blog Launched September, 2012 eXtension Resource Area HorseQuest Launched November, 2012 Road blocks Coordination Technology challenges Clientele challenges • Affordable program • Archived webcasts available • My Horse University • Round table discussions • Program Evaluation • Post- program • 6 month post-program impact survey
Benefitting the Management of Horse Operations • 95% -68% of the conference participants agreed or strongly agreed the information obtained from each topic would benefit the management of their horse operation, with Equine law being the most beneficial an=117
Making Changes in their business • All participants indicated they would make at least one change in their horse operations following the conference • Nearly all (95%) would make changes related to legal issues an=117
What Changes are the making? an=117
Increasing their knowledge • The pre-conference knowledge of conference attendees was lowest on Equine Law and Insurance with each of those having the greatest gain in knowledge (150% and 138% respectively) following the conference • However, conference participants indicated their greatest post-conference knowledge was in the areas of promotions, marketing and advertising and equine law (4.0 and 3.9). an=117 b1 (very little knowledge) to 5 (very much knowledge)
One-Three Year Benefits of the Equine Business Conference • 60% indicated they would have increased profitability, in part due to their enhanced understanding of how to reduce their risk of liability and improved insurance. N=21
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