Turn your farm into a cash cow! Ron Macher offers a host of simple strategies for increasing your farm earnings, from purchasing durable equipment to growing economically viable crops. A seasoned expert in farm efficiency, Macher shows you how to locate a lucrative niche market for your products, optimize sales, and minimize costs. Whether you’re buying a new farm or jump-starting an old one, Macher’s savvy tips will help you turn your enterprise into a profitable business.
Excerpt from Farming for Profit: A Handbook for the American Farmer, a Practical Work, Devoted to Agriculture and Mechanics, Fruit-Growing and Gardening, Live-Stock, Business Principles, Home Life, and Showing How to Make Money, Preserve Health and Secure Happiness on the Farm The farmer should keep himself and his family supplied with reading of the best quality, and plenty of time in which to use it should be taken. Like the men in all other callings the farmer needs books and papers which are devoted to his special pursuit. The attempt to get along without them is ruinous. In these days of close competition the man who is to succeed must be well informed. Ignorance cannot successfully compete with knowledge. The boys, too, need these books and papers in order to give them an intelligent comprehension of the methods which should be pursued, and to lead them. To take an active interest in the farm work. But they should not be restricted to this class of reading. The best papers for the young should be furnished, and the newspapers should also be supplied so that they and their sisters may know what is going on in the world. The wife and mother should not be forgotten, but some good home magazine should be taken for her especial benefit. She needs something of this kind still more than the other members of the family. She is tied more closely to the home, her duties are very exacting, and her health is often poor. The monotonous drudgery of isolated farm life has a terribly destructive effect if it is not counteracted by the rest and recreation which is always needed but seldom taken. When the ceaseless round has been too long followed the health of body or mind, or both, will give way. The asylums for the insane contain a very large proportion of farmers' wives brought theic by the combined effects of overwork and a monotonous life. The magazine and newspaper lead the thoughts into new channels, occupy the mind with subjects outside of its ordinary routine, and thus refresh the body while preserving the health of the mind. The farmer and his family all need periods of rest and recreation. An occasional day spent in visiting friends will be positively beneficial to the health, and will give an increased efficiency to the labor which is performed as well as properly develop the social feelings. The grange has proved an immense aid to farmers and their families in these as well as in other directions. There was a great need of something which should lead them out of themselves, and break up the isolation and routine in which their lives were involved. Lectures and occasional concerts should also be attended, but all low shows, and even the ordinary grade of the circus, should be carefully avoided. A good managerie is an excellent thing for children and grown people to see, but many of the shows which travel around the country are of little value, and in some respects are extremely harmful. It is a good plan to give the last half of each Saturday afternoon to the boys and girls for their own enjoy ment. Instead of trying, as too many do, to crowd about a third more work into Saturday than they perform any other day of the week, the farmers should make its labor lighter, and finish it early. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
Provides step-by-step instructions on how to make crop production more efficient and offers advice on farm operations, managing employees, and office procedures, along with a DVD featuring a workshop and an interview with the author.
Do you want to make your farm more dynamic, profitable, and-- above all-- sustainable? Thistlethwaite introduces readers to some of the country's most innovative farmers, in order to help you build a triple-bottom-line farming business focused on economic viability, social justice, and ecological soundness.
This beautiful book offers an intimate look at life on a hobby farm. From finding a farm to creating a business, to choosing what to plant to canning fruits, Hobby Farm will teach readers how to reap the benefits of rustic life with sound guidance.
Contrary to popular belief, a good living can be made on an organic farm. What’s required is farming smarter, not harder. In The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook, Richard Wiswall shares advice on how to make your vegetable production more efficient, better manage your employees and finances, and turn a profit. From his twenty-seven years of experience at Cate Farm in Vermont, Wiswall knows firsthand the joys of starting and operating an organic farm—as well as the challenges of making a living from one. Farming offers fundamental satisfaction from producing food, working outdoors, being one’s own boss, and working intimately with nature. But, unfortunately, many farmers avoid learning about the business end of farming; because of this, they often work harder than they need to, or quit farming altogether because of frustrating—and often avoidable—losses. In this comprehensive business kit, Wiswall covers: Step-by-step procedures to make your crop production more efficient Advice on managing employees, farm operations, and office systems Novel marketing strategies What to do with your profits: business spending, investing, and planning for retirement A companion toolkit, available for download upon purchase of the book, offers valuable business tools, including easy-to-use spreadsheets for projecting cash flow, a payroll calculator, comprehensive crop budgets for forty different crops, and tax planners.
A totally modern, all-purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming Do you dream of starting your own farm but wonder where to begin? Or do you already have a farm but wish to become more sustainable to compete in today’s market? Start Your Farm, the first comprehensive business guide of its kind, covers these essential questions and more: Why be a farmer in the 21st century? Do you have what it takes? What does sustainable really mean, and how can a small (as little as one acre) to midsize farm survive alongside commodity-scale agriculture? How do you access education, land, and other needs with limited capital? How can you reap an actual profit, including a return on land investment? How do you build connections with employees, colleagues, and customers? At the end of the day, how do you measure success? (Hint: Cash your lifestyle paycheck.) More than a practical guide, Start Your Farm is a hopeful call to action for anyone who aspires to grow wholesome, environmentally sustainable food for a living. Take it from Forrest Pritchard and Ellen Polishuk: Making this dream a reality is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well within reach—and there’s no greater satisfaction under the sun!
A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words "factory" and "farm" in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family's one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman's prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.
