COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

Agriculture and Natural Resources Specialist

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David Trechter

Regional Development Institute
UW-River Falls
410 So. 3rd Street
River Falls, WI  54022
715-425-3129
david.d.trechter@uwrf.edu

David is an Extension Economist working on issues related to cooperatives and community development. He also directs the Survey Research Center (SRC) at UW-River Falls and in this role he oversees various survey projects to assist communities with determining needs assessments, gathering residents' opinions on various issues, quantifying the impact of tourism, etc. You can check out some of the most recent surveys the SRC has conducted on the News link on the Survey Research Center website.
 

Recent Highlights

• David is currently working with Kim Zeuli (UW-Madison) to investigate innovations in agricultural cooperatives in Wisconsin. They will be quantifying the level and variation of innovative activities as well as looking into the sources of innovation to determine why some are more innovative than others, assessing the impact of new cooperative structures, and measuring the implications of innovative activity in terms of cooperative performance and member welfare. This study is being funded by the Universtiy of Wisconsin Consortium for Extension and Research in Agriculture and Natural Resources (CERANR).
• Greg Lawless (UW-Madison) is collaborating with David on a second project funded by CERANR. Producers are increasingly looking to limit their risk in this volatile economy and are exploring and investing in the "value-added" arena. This project is studying Wisconsin's producers' investment attitudes, opinions and activities related to off-farm, ag-related ventures. The goal is to better udnestand the extent to which Wisconsin's agricultural producers already invest or are looking to invest in off-farm, ag-related ventures, and their reasons for investing or not.
• David along with colleagues, Nate Splett (University of Wisconsin-River Falls) and Douglas Jackson-Smith (Utah State University) recently published an article, The Contributions of Financial Management Training and Knowledge to Dairy Farm Financial Performance in the Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 26 (1), Spring 2004.

Education

Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Agricultural Economics
M.S. from Stanford University in Food Research
B.A. from the University of California-Davis in Economics and History

Survey Research Center

UW-River Falls Agricultural Economics Department

University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives

Arthur Capper Co-op Center

NCR-194:a regional research project focusing on cooperatives

Centre for Co-operative Studies in University College Cork (Ireland)

The Wisconsin Idea - a working paper drafted by David discussing the condition of the Wisconsin Idea today and the challenges that must be addressed if it is to remain a defining characteristic of the state's culture.

Comments: laura.walsh@uwrf.edu
Last modified: Friday, Apr 29 2005
URL:  http://www.uwrf.edu/extension/DavidT.htm