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After
receiving a degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Idaho (U
of I) and an MBA from the University of Utah, Wittman worked for the Farm
Credit System from 1972-1980. His banking career concluded with the Farm
Credit Administration in Washington, D. C., where he supervised Farm Credit
operations in several Eastern, mid‑West, and Southern U.S. districts.
In
1980 he joined the family farm in Idaho and established a part-time private
consulting practice. Wittman has worked with numerous farm clients and
professional practitioners, conducted seminars, facilitated strategic
planning, taught college classes and developed videotape training modules on
a variety of topics throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia. He
specializes in financial management and developing management systems and
solutions for business relationship/transition problems. In January of
2004, he released a guidebook entitled Building
Effective Farm Management Systems. This guidebook provides a
toolkit for commercial-size family farm businesses to define their ultimate
vision and put in place a professional management and transition process
that will lead them to that goal.
Wittman has served on several industry, community and financial institution
boards including the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council (5-yrs as president), U
of I Ag Consulting Council (chairman 1997-98), Inland Empire Pea Growers
Cooperative, Twin River National Bank (1982-89), and Advisory Council
(chairman) for the U of I Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
Department. He is a founding director and past president of the Pacific
Northwest Direct Seed Association, a regional organization working to
further the adoption of no-till practices in the Northwest, and is currently
active on several advisory boards developing national policies on Carbon
Trading.
He
recently completed a term as president of the Farm Financial Standards
Council, a core group of farm management and financial experts who have been
working for over 25 years to professionalize farm accounting and financial
analysis processes. The Council recently released national guidelines to
help producers implement Managerial Accounting systems.
Wittman is a contributing editor for Farm Futures magazine, serves
on the faculty for the TEPAP Ag Executive Program in Austin, Texas, and
appears regularly on the Canadian AgVision television program as part of the
Top Manager Team.
Stewardship has been a Wittman Family Farm tradition. The farm was selected
as the national Millennium Farm Family in 2000 by the Ag Earth Partnership.
Wittman also received the 2002 Governor’s Award for Excellence in
Agriculture in Environmental Stewardship. The Wittman Family sponsors an
Outdoor Education Camp located on their farm in cooperation with the local
Boys and Girls Club. Begun in 1988, this camp gives hundreds of students,
teachers and natural resource professionals annually an exposure to key
natural resource concepts, and it enables the farm to share its vision on
how a farm can be managed, shared, and kept sustainable for future
generations.
Wittman and his wife, Dawn, have raised five children and have four
grandchildren.
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