Category Archives: Farm Finances

The Winery: Keys to Financial Success

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uvm hort whites 1

In June I attended the National Farm and Ranch Business Management Educators annual conference in Rochester NY. Steve Richards, manager at Casa Larga Vineyards and Winery (Fairport, NY), shared his expertise on managing a winery. Steve also worked for many years at Farm Credit East and the Winery Benchmarks Program: https://www.farmcrediteast.com/winerybenchmarks

New York State Wine Overview

• Influence of international trade: when Australia grape/juice prices go down, wineries will increase usage of this supply up to the allowable thresholds under current regulations
• 60% of wine volume produced is non-varietal sweeter wines
• Riesling is the top NYS varietal, about 10-15% of overall wine volume produced
• A good way to forecast wholesale wine sales is to research the general restaurant sales forecast for the upcoming periods.

Keys to Financial Success:

• Inventory Turnover: a typical winery will to have 1.5- 3 years max of annual sales in inventory. Larger inventory is less favorable and wineries must work to increase the number of inventory turns per year to over 1. Successful wineries move inventory faster and bottle final product as close to sales date as possible (accounting for any bottling/conditioning factors influencing final quality). Aging inventories over 3 years old is less desirable.
• Labor Efficiency: Wineries track cases per worker and this is a key focus of scaling the business. The biggest cost factor as a winery grows is the overhead costs of marketing and regulatory compliance. There are labor efficiency sweet spots at different scales

  • 500-2,500 cases is a good place to be. Labor efficiency ranges from 6k-10k  cases per full time worker.
  • At ~5,000 cases the retail only establishment has maxxed out on sales. The winery begins to wholesale product. This creates an increased administrative burden to serve these new markets.
  • 5,000 – 10,000 cases tends to be poor scale for labor efficiency, possibly down to 4k cases per worker
  • At around 15,000 cases the labor efficiency curve begins to get better.
    Labor efficiency peaks at the scale of ~35,000 cases per year, with the labor benchmark approaching 10,000 cases per full time worker.

Conservation Stewardship Grants at NRCS

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Farmers can apply for funding to advance  their conservation investments. Click this link to see the full press release: CSPSignUP_Jan2015 

“CSP is a way of incentivizing farmers, ranchers, and private forest managers who maintain a high level of conservation on their land and agree to adopt higher levels of stewardship,” said Vicky Drew, Vermont State Conservationist for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. “By focusing on multiple resource concerns, landowners are able to achieve a sustainable landscape and maintain or increase the productivity of their operations.”

Through CSP, participants take additional conservation steps to improve the resource conditions on their land, including soil, air and habitat quality, water quality and quantity, and energy conservation.

Click here to view the full press release: CSPSignUP_Jan2015

February Class: Intro to Ag Finances

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Intro to Ag Financial Management

Dates: Feb. 4, 11 & 18, 2015 (Snow date, Feb. 25)
Locations: Berlin or Rutland, VT
Times: 1-4 pm.

Make this the year you bravely step into the world of farm finances!  With two top-notch ag financial management specialist to lead the way, Intro to Ag Financial Management  will help you approach farm finances with confidence. This course provides farmers with the knowledge they need to understand and complete a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Participants will learn the basics of budgeting and skills to anticipate the financial needs of their farm operations. Participants can choose to participate in a clinic with one‐to‐one assistance at no additional charge. Classes will be offered simultaneously in Rutland and Berlin, Vermont, with an on-site instructor at each location.

Course fee: $150. Registration discounts are available for people who have completed Growing Places and for two or more people attending from the same farm/business. Scholarships are also available.  For more information and to register visit http://www.uvm.edu/newfarmer and click on “Classes.”  You can also email or call Heidi Krantz at newfarmer@uvm.edu, 802-223-2389 x 203.

Milk Prices Dropping: New MPP Deadline Dec 19th

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The USDA has extended the application deadline for the Dairy Margin Protection Program to December 19th. Milk price forecasts are showing significant decline in prices over the next several months.

Bob Parsons, University of Vermont Ag Economist, has shared these figures below that show the probability of margins dropping below various coverage levels….

“From the table below, the % numbers are the probability of return over feed cost dropping below the amount on the left hand column.  For example while the expected return over feed costs for March-April is $8.52, the probability of it dropping below $7 is 18% and 10% chance of dropping below $6.50. Remember that in the past that when milk prices drop, they tended to drop further than the markets predicted.”

Margin Level Nov-Dec 2014 Jan-Feb 2015 Mar-Apr 2015 May-Jun 2015 Jul-Aug 2015 Sep-Oct 2015 Nov-Dec 2015 Jan-Feb 2016
Expected $12.91 $9.20 $8.52 $8.64 $9.18 $10.13 $10.12 $9.79
< $8.00 – 13% 39% 39% 30% 15% 21% 29%
< $7.50 – 6% 28% 29% 21% 10% 15% 23%
< $7.00 – 2% 18% 20% 15% 6% 10% 17%
< $6.50 – – 10% 12% 10% 3% 6% 12%
< $6.00 – – 5% 7% 6% 1% 4% 8%
< $5.50 – – 2% 4% 3% 1% 2% 5%
< $5.00 – – 1% 2% 2% – 1% 3%
< $4.50 – – – 1% 1% – – 1%
< $4.00 – – – – – – – 1%

December 5th Deadline, Dairy Margin Protection Program

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The deadline for enrollment in the Margin Protection Program for Dairy has been extended to Friday December 5th. MPP is a  revenue risk management tool for dairy producers when the difference between the price of milk and price of feed falls below coverage levels that farmers themselves choose. Dairy producers should contact their local USDA Farm Service Agency office to get information on enrollment this week. This weeks deadline marks the last chance dairy farms will have access to this program until 2016.

Information about the MPP-Dairy is available from USDA Farm Service Agency at this website: USDA FSA , MPP DAIRY

An online decision tool is available for farmers to use at this website: MPP DECISION TOOLThe tool allows a farmer to see the financial impact of how MPP enrollment would impact their business at different selected coverage levels. Instructions on how to use the tool are available on the website.

Farm Business Specialist Dennis Kauppila (UVM Extension) has created a simple worksheet that can be filled out while using the online decision tool. The sheet allows you to see how this program would impact your farm had the program been running in 2009 and 2012. Download the worksheet here: MPP-Dairy 3 year tables-1

Here is a list of Vermont FSA offices: VERMONT FSA COUNTY MAP (click your county on the map to get contact information)

Crop Storage Workshops and Profitability

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UVM Extension Ag Engineer Chris Callahan will be offering crop storage workshops this fall. Click this link for details on events in October: Crop Storage Workshops

Inventory turnover and asset turnover are key factors to consider when you make the investment in crop storage. “Turnover” ratios provide efficiency measures that reveal how much bang you get for your buck. Here are two possible ways to improve these ratios: a) select high “value per volume” products for long term storage and b) move more product through the storage unit over the course of the year (more turns).

Quick example 1: Farmer Mark grows $25,000 of potato and has them all in storage on January 1. He sells them all winter and hits gross sales of $22,000 (there are always losses!). The cooler sits empty until next season. Thats 1 turn on the inventory, not so great. How could he improve? He could  grow a  $15,000 beet crop that fills the storage unit from July – October before the potatoes go into storage. Now he’s moving more product and increasing efficiencies by getting more product sales from the same storage investment.

Quick Example 2: Farmer Beth fills a walk in cooler with a variety of root crops in October, turnips, carrots, beets and even some cabbage. She wants to increase her profits next year. She wants to figure out which crop is worth the most in relation to the volume it requires. To keep it simple, she fills a .5 bushel box with each crop and multiplies weight x sell price. She could drop the lowest value per volume crop and grow more of the higher value per volume crop. She better factor in her marketing plan the selling costs though, high value crops may cost more to market…better keep the calculator out.

Click this link for October Crop Storage Workshops

 

Meetings to Explain Dairy Margin Protection Program

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What is your plan to handle dairy milk price volatility and feed cost shifts over the next 3 years? Informational meetings are planned for October 13-17  throughout Vermont to explain the program to dairy farmers and business specialists.

Click this link for a list of sessions and locations: October Schedule: Dairy Margin Protection Program Meetings

New Guide on How to Set Farm Rental Rates

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UVM Extension’s new How to Determine the Right Farm Rental Rate Guide was developed to support both farmers and landowners through the process of determining a fair cash rental rate for farmland, equipment and infrastructure in Vermont.

“Farmland and farm infrastructure rental rates can be tough to determine because there are many variables to consider,” says Ben Waterman author of the guide and land access coordinator at the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture. “However, the process can be simple. The guide explains common methods so farmers and landowners can forge lease arrangements with confidence.”

Divided into five sections, the 31-page guide describes approaches to:

  • Assess market rental rates;
  • Assess landowner’s costs of owning land;
  • Value equipment and infrastructure in a lease;
  • Factor the farm business’ net returns in the rental rate; and
  • Assess the farmer’s contributions to the lease arrangement

To download the guide now, go to:  http://www.uvm.edu/newfarmer/land/RentalGuide.pdf

$30,000 Prize for Rural Entrepreneurship

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The American Farm Bureau Federation and Georgetown University have launched a challenge program to support entrepreneurship throughout the rural United States. They will award a $30,000 prize to the winner.

Do you have a creative business or business idea? Check out the details for this challenge and imagine what $30,000 would do to get your idea launched.

Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge

Setting a Price for Your Farm Business

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A farm is worth money and a farm business could be worth money too. Can you imagine selling your customer list to an eager young  farmer and putting $20,000 the bank? Most farm owners have put in hours upon hours to oversee the business.  We often call these efforts the “sweat equity” that an owner contributes to the business. Here is the catch…the farm owner must sell something in order to recoup any of that sweat equity. (skip to the Business Valuation for Sale methods guide by Rosalie Wilson)

Many farms are reliant on large amounts of land and equipment and it can take many years of paying down loans to build up equity  in the business. The benefit of all those years of hard work and deferred owner draws (cash draw) is that the farm owner owns land that has appreciated (gone up) in value. Accurate appraisal of your land and other assets is an essential step in setting a price on your farm.

Farm business models have evolved in the past 30 years. Many viable and profitable farm businesses have more to sell than land and equipment. Owners can recoup the sweat equity of product development, establishing a customer base and creating an opportunity for a new owner through the process of  business valuation and sale. This is an essential step for brand based products  or farm businesses with innovative market strategies. Remember, sweat equity doesn’t mean anything unless you make a plan to get paid for it.

Follow this link to download the Business Valuation for Sale methods guide by Rosalie Wilson. It describes 5 key valuation methods: Capitalization rate, comparable analysis valuation, asset based valuation, land use valuation and the honest “real life” valuation.