JAMESTOWN (AP) - A business course is being offered here and in Fargo to help women manage farms and ranches.

"Annie's Project" is named for an Illinois woman who married a farmer and helped manage a successful farm business. Annie Fleck died eight years ago.

Using her mother's life as a guide, Ruth Hambleton designed the education program for farm women who want to be better business partners on the family farm.

Hambleton, a University of Illinois Extension farm business management and marketing educator, said eight states are offering the six-week program.

She came up with the idea in 2000. By 2003, the first class graduated from the program, Hambleton said.

The program is now being offered for the first time in North Dakota, with sessions held in Jamestown and Fargo on Thursday nights, said Eunice Sahr, Stutsman County extension service agent.

The goal of the six three-hour classes is to provide an overview of farming from a business angle. Women will work on developing mission statements and business plans, learn financial strategies, retirement planning, insurance and the federal farm program, Sahr said. Each participant will receive some training in farm management software, which they are able to take home with them at the end of the class.

The education program for farm women started in Illinois. Hambleton realized there was a need for a program to help women be more active partners on the farm.

It is not the only place women can learn things such as computer skills or marketing strategies, she said. All the information in the program can be gathered in bits and pieces in many other places.

"But nobody ever pulled it together and put it in context for what a farm woman would need," she said.

By the end of this year, some 12,000 women will have gone through the program, Hambleton said.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "I know what the pent-up demand for this kind of program is."

In Jamestown, the class quickly filled up. The North Dakota State University Extension Service now has 10 women on a waiting list, Sahr said.

"We're excited with the number we have and we're anxious to see how participants feel about what they've learned," she said.

The project might be held in other parts of the state in the future, Sahr said.