Category Archives: Farm Finances

Farm Business and Budget Clinics in October

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UVM Extension farm business educators (Mark Cannella, Tony Kitsos and Betsy Miller) are available to work one-on-one with farmers on their finances and business planning.Fall 2016 Business and Budget Clinics are scheduled for October 11- October 28 at our statewide offices. Reserve an appointment now at www.regonline.com/fallclinics2016

Bring your financial statements, business plans, recent records and questions for this 1 ½ hour scheduled private meeting. This might include internal accounting statements, the IRS Schedule F and files on a portable farm computer. Use the time to prepare the statements that will help manage the business.The session can also be used to review a written business plan or feasibility plan.

In this session you can expect to develop an accurate balance sheet or a budget for the farm. Alternatively, the time can be used to assess or revise business planning goals including: capital access, marketing,strategic planning, and business plan preparation.

New Maple Benchmark Report Highlights Top Profit Strategies

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UVM Extension has published the 2014 Maple Benchmark report. This report displays detailed financial measures for maple producers from 2,500 taps to over 50,000 taps. Go to our Maple Benchmark page to download reports and learn more about the program.

Analysis of the 2014 season shows that top profit producers have a variety of ways to reach financial success with a maple business. Key findings reveal:

  • Average Cost of Production for Operating Expenses average $2.09 per pound or $9.15 per tap across 18 participating businesses
  • Full Economic Cost of Production (with depreciation and a valuation of owner management) averages $3.75 per pound or $15.71 per tap.
  • Top profit producers achieved high production income in relation to their investments. This comes from a combination of high yields and/or higher-paying market prices. In many cases the top profit producers are NOT low cost producers but they are able to generate optimum income based on their expenses.

Download the 2014 Maple Benchmark for all the details.

Building Brands in a Small Farm Food System

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Fifteen years ago the buzz word was “direct sales”, seven years ago it was “scaling-up” and in 2016 the call is to build brands. Many small farms and their owners can’t manage the “scale-up”. Can food systems entrepreneurs harness the cumulative capacity of small farms to supply market demands both near and far?

Check out this recent article originally published  in Local Banquet (Spring 2016)     
and featured through the Vermont Farm to Plate website: Building Brands in a Small Farm Food System

Eggs out of stock 10-11-11                                    A store with empty shelf space in 2011 for locally produced eggs

Online Farm Planning Resources

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Farm managers have dug into winter business planning projects and by now everyone has identified key questions that require analysis, research and technical information. UVM Farm Viability has filtered the internet universe and posted  the best resources to assist managers with legal decisions, market research and financial records. Visit our Resource Library and open up the Legal Toolbox, Market Toolbox and archive of online recordings.

10 Reasons Money Does Not Matter in Farming

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What is the best reason you have heard about why money does or does not matter on a farm? Send in a comment.

When I entered the field of farm business education and consulting I entered with the naïve perception that farm managers would seek out strategies that improved the financial performance of the farm and themselves. Time and time again my presumption has proved wrong. Here is a list of reasons that money does not matter in farming. They all come from very reasonable farmers, for better or worse.

• If we were profitable, we’d have to pay taxes to the government.
• How could we continue to market products at these high prices if people knew we were actually making money?
• It’s not about money…. It’s about the land and the animals.
• The economy/marketplace does not yet recognize the true value of what we do as farmers, someday it will.
• If we made more money, my spouse would expect to go on a vacation. I don’t much want to leave the farm and the prospect of sitting on a beach with nothing to do does not appeal much either.
• Our daughter will get better financial aid packages for college if we show a loss.
• To make more money we’d have to make some tough decisions and probably makes some changes too.
• We won’t have any retirement savings when we get old, but our kids will take care of us just like we did for our parents.
• Farming is risky business and if you can’t handle that you should get out. I heard Extension has some jobs open.
• When you work this hard and don’t make hardly anything you can’t think about money. It’s too depressing.

5 Reasons Money Does Matter in Farming
• When we decided to get a loan for a reverse osmosis unit for our maple operation it cut my labor in half and saved our marriage.
• I’d like to put profits into a retirement account so that I don’t have to parcel out the farm to support me when I am no longer able to work.
• My kids have seen us struggle to make a living on this farm for 30 years… they have no interest in farming or this place.
• I want to pay people well here and provide them year round work with good benefits.
• Making these money decisions is hard work, I figure that the only way I can justify paying myself well is by doing hard work. When I catch myself doing the things in the greenhouse I remember I can pay someone $10 per hour to do them. I need to focus on other things in order to earn my $30 per hour.

 

 

 

Business Basics for Loggers: Workshops Dec 7th and 8th

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UVM Extension, with financial support from VT Housing Conservation Board, is offering this one day “Business Basics for Loggers” workshop for Vermont loggers on two separate dates and locations:

December 7, 2015 – Chester, VT

December 8, 2015 – St. Johnsbury, VT

Workshop attendees will receive 8 Logger Education to Advance Professionalism (LEAP) credits. Click here for the full program flyer: Business Basics for Loggers

Spaces Limited for Winter Farm Business Planning

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UVM Extension Farm Viability provides individualized business planning support to commercial farm owners in Vermont. We have a small number of spaces left in our program for farms seeking to develop business plans or complete business analysis by Spring 2016. Sign up now or contact the program for more information. Once the winter roster is full we will begin to enroll participating farms on a short term waiting list for next years program cycle. Eligible farms are required to have been in  business for at least 3 years and show gross sales of at least $15,000 in the most recent year.

UVM Extension Farm Viability works with farms to develop business plans, complete enterprise analysis, prepare cash flow budgets/financial analysis and develop farm succession plans. Coming up this winter, our staff will also be providing additional business education programs. Watch our website for the schedule of winter 2016 programs.

 

USDA Farm Storage Facility Loans Expands to Dairy, Flowers and Meats

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FSA’s Farm Storage Facility Loan (FSFL) program, which provides low-interest financing to producers to build or upgrade storage facilities, will now include dairy, flowers and meats as eligible commodities.

For more information go to this link  to FSA Farm Facility Loans  or contact your local FSA office.

Producers do not need to demonstrate the lack of commercial credit availability to apply.

The new commodities eligible for facility loans include :
• floriculture
• hops
• rye
• milk
• cheese
• butter
• yogurt
• meat and poultry (unprocessed)
• eggs
• and aquaculture (excluding systems that maintain live animals through uptake and discharge of water).
**Commodities already eligible for the loans include corn, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, oats, peanuts, wheat, barley, minor oilseeds harvested as whole grain, pulse crops (lentils, chickpeas and dry peas), hay, honey, renewable biomass, and fruits, nuts and vegetables for cold storage facilities.

 

Using market price reports to crunch numbers

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The VT Agency of Agricuture, Food and Markets posts weekly Farmers Market Pricing Reports at this site:  http://agriculture.vermont.gov/localfooddatatracking

These reports provide a nice way to observe the pricing trends for direct market sales. If you are already selling directly, take a look and see how your prices compare to low, high and average prices.

Covering the cost of marketing: Many small farms default to direct markets on the assumption that the higher prices received are enough to compensate for the expenses of serving these markets. The price reports provide data to crunch the numbers to compare current wholesale prices vs. direct market prices to consider your best options.

Here is a partial budget exercise using September white potato prices:

9/13/15 Report:  Organic White Potatoes: $2.50 average per pound

I can currently wholesale ORG white potatoes for $0.90 per pound or $1,800 per ton equivalent. If I were to bring them to farmers market, I could potentially gross $2.50 per pound or $5,000 per ton equivalent. Let’s crunch…

  • Farmers market = 200 pounds per week
    • market days per ton (2,000 lbs /200) = 10 days
    • market labor = 10 days x 6 hours x $12 per hours = $720
    • packaging = $0.25 per pound (labels, carton/bag) = $500 per ton
    • market fee (day fee): $35 x 10 days = $350 per ton
    • Fuel: 30 mile round trip x 10 days (@$0.13 per mile fuel) = $39 per ton
    • packaging product (retail bags): (100 lbs per hour @ $12 per hour)= $0.12 per pound or $240 per ton
    • Gross Sales $5,000 less market expenses of $1,849 = partial net $3,151 per ton
    • $3,151 = 63% of gross sales retained for production and profit
    • Cost to Market: $0.92 per pound
  • Wholesale sales = 750 pound per delivery
    • delivery days per ton (2,000 / 750) = 2.7
    • delivery labor = 2.7 delivery x 3 hours round trip x $12 per hour = $97 per ton
    • packaging = $.70 per bag per 50 lbs = $28 per ton
    • fuel: 90 mile round trip x 2.7 trips (@ $0.13 per mile fuel) = $32 per ton
    • packaging product (from bins to bags): (500 pounds per hour @ $12 per hour) = $0.02 per pound or $40 per ton
    • Gross Sales $1,800 less marketing expense of $197 = partial net $1,603 per ton.
    • $1,603 = 89% of gross sales retained for production and profit
    • Cost to market: $0.10 per pound

There is no right or wrong decision here. The big trade off is time  vs. money… the direct market farm makes much more money but has also invested ~80 hours to prep and market 1 ton of spuds. The wholesale producer earns a smaller margin but has only spent ~12 hours to prep and market 1 ton.

Business Benchmarks for a Start-Up Small Vegetable Farm

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Last week I had the opportunity to sit with 9 farm managers and business advisers to analyze 3 years of farm financial data for 25 farms. This meeting was closure on a  three year research project coordinated by The Carrot Project and funded by Northeast SARE. The project set out to deliver financial education, measure financial performance and assist in planning for micro loans (under $25,000) with farm managers in New England.

How much money can a small vegetable farm owner expect to make? After looking at three specific sets of finances and combining that with the numerous farm financial statements I read every year for UVM Extension Farm Viability, I have observed a few key trends for small vegetable farms:

  1. Farm start up is driven by initial owner visions, resources at hand and easily accessible markets.
  2. Early market plans of direct sales (CSA, farmers market) mixed with direct wholesale (stores/restaurants) typically gets the business to about $35,000 – $50,000 in gross sales somewhat “easily”. At that point, the market mix is maxed out and it becomes difficult to expand. The business now needs a phase 2 market strategy.
  3. Owner operated produce farms can hit $30-40,000 in annual sales with one full time equivalent/FTE (the owner) working seasonally. During this phase, the owner may be able to pay themselves up to 20%-30% of gross sales from cash flow if costs are managed well… that equals a paycheck of maybe $10,000 not including equity generation as assets are acquired and paid for.
  4. To grow past $40,000 in sales, hired labor is required. This paid labor will require cash that typically leaves an owner unable to pay themselves from the business. I advise managers to find ways to leap-frog or grow through the $40,000-$80,000 scale as fast a possible. It’s a tough scale to operate at.
  5. As the produce business hits the $80,000 – $125,000 scale, many of the blips of start up have passed. The farm is in Phase 2 of marketing, usually including a reduced amount of direct sales and a specialization of few key crops for wholesale. A small but manageable labor force (and formula) is in place.
  6. Here are some benchmarks at this scale: try to keep hired labor at 30-45% of gross sales, capital expenses or debt service will range from 10-20% of gross sales (largely depending on how the real estate is being paid for) and owner draws might be about 25% of gross sales.