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Home » Farm Business Planning



FARM BUSINESS PLANNING

Farm Business Planning is key to beginning farmer success.

It helps beginning farmers:

 * Plan for the economic sustainability of a new farm enterprise.
 * Obtain funding to purchase land, equipment and other resources from lending
   institutions, investors and/or grant making agencies.
 * Articulate what their farm will look like.

On this page, we compiled free farm business planning resources to help you
understand what a formal business plan is, and how to start planning your farm
business. Sections include:

 1. Developing a Farm Business Plan
 2. Enterprise Budgeting

Enterprise budget resources are included on the farm business planning page
because such tools are usually essential in helping you to develop your business
plan.

Planning your farm business involves more than is outlined on this page alone.
You’ll probably also be interested in funding (loans/grants), farm
incorporation, and risk management. Our starting a farm page is worth visiting
first. Also, you might find the following article helpful, because it touches on
many farm business planning topics: Farm Products, What to Charge: Marketing,
Price, Calculating Costs, Strategy and Much More.



1. Developing a Farm Business Plan

A business plan is a decision making tool that takes the form of a formal
document. It states your business goals, why you think you can achieve them, and
lays out your plan for doing so. Farm business planning is also a process, not
an end product. A business plan is a work in progress, which farm business
owners or operators will want to revisit regularly. 

Planning and Funding Your Farm Business from the Cornell University Small Farms
Project has lots of important and useful farm business planning resources.

Rural Businesses is a web and print publication from the Minnesota institute for
Sustainable Agriculture (MISA).

Building a Business Plan for Your Farm: Important First Steps is a 20 page farm
business planning publication that discusses the initial steps to help you move
toward writing a formal business plan.

The Center for Agroecology has a Small Farm Business Planning publication that
goes over many of the basics in a step by step format.

Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms
and Rural Businesses is a farm business planning publication available from
SARE.

Do I need a Business Plan for my Farm? is a web resource from the New England
Small Farm Institute. It’s a great place to get started.

AgPlan from the University of Minnesota helps rural business owners develop a
business plan for free, while also offering sample business plans for ideas, and
a way to print or download your plan.

Developing a Farm Business Plan includes several helpful resources from the USDA
National Agricultural Library’s Rural Information Center.

Organic Farm Business Planning Page from North Carolina State
University features a number of publications and links related to financial
planing for organic farmers.

Agricultural Business Planning Templates and Resources is an
ATTRA publication most relevant to smaller-scale or alternative agricultural
entrepreneurs.

Beginning Farmer and Rancher Resources offers comprehensive resources on
Bookkeeping and Other Basics; Cash Flow Budgeting and Managing Debt; Small Farm
and Ranch Income Taxes, and more.

Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business has educational
resources to explore, such as the New Ventures in Food and Agriculture in
Indiana, which offers business planning assistance.

Purdue University Cooperative Extension offers strategic farm business planning
tools for commercial farm producers.

Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences has many Business
Planning tools and information. Penn State Cooperative Extension has a
Developing a Business Plan page. Penn State also has a Farm Business Plan
Template that allows you to plug in your information and create a basic business
plan.

The U.S. Small Business Administration works with local partners to counsel,
mentor and train small businesses. It is worth getting to know their programs
and connect with your local office.

The Martindale Center Reference Desk has an extensive compilation of links to
calculators, applets, spreadsheets, courses, manuals, handbooks, simulations,
animations, videos and more. Martindale’s Agriculture Center can be of great use
to farmers making business plans.



2. Enterprise Budgets

Enterprise budgets project costs and returns for a particular farm production
practice. You can use enterprise budgets to make smart business management
decisions, and to help you develop a viable business plan.

Enterprise Budgeting Tools of all sorts from the Agricultural Marketing Resource
Center, including organic crop budgeting tools, many vegetable budgeting tools,
the crop conversion tool for side-by-side crop comparisons, specialty crop and
livestock budgets, hydroponics budgets, wind calculators, composting
calculators, manure calculators, distillers grain budgets, biomass calculators
and specialty foods calculators.

Introduction to Farm Planning Budgets for New and Beginning Farmers (Virginia
Tech)

Importance and Use of Enterprise Budgets in Agriculture (University of Nevada)

Enterprise Budgeting (Kerr Center)

Organic Specific Enterprise Budgets

 * Enterprise Budgets and Production Costs for Organic Production (ATTRA)
 * Organic Crop Production Enterprise Budgets and Information (Iowa State)
 * Organic Enterprise Budget (Kansas Rural Center)

More Enterprise Budget Pages and Information

 * Enterprise Budgets List (Virginia Cooperative Extension)
 * Dairy Sheep Enterprise Budget (Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison)
 * Crop Budgets (University of Maryland)
 * Farm Management Enterprise Budgets (Ohio State)
 * Alabama Enterprise Budget Summaries (Alabama A&M and Auburn) 

 

 * Start developing your business plan with the resources
   at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/farm-business-planning/

 * You can find more great farming resources
   at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/additional-farming-resources/

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Beginning Farmers offers information on how to start a farm, planning a new
farm, funding resources and finding land to start your farm on. We cover all
areas of farming from raising chickens and goats to mushroom production, and
urban farms to business farming. Internships and employment opportunities posted
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