This webinar is designed to give you the tools to stay on track during the growing season. New Entry Sustainable Farming Project and The Carrot Project give an overview of a new Financial Calendar tool. We dive into how the tool can help you stay organized with daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks. A successful beginning farmer is also on hand to help you adapt the calendar to your farm's needs and realities and create a personalized financial management calendar for your farm.
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This plain language guide is written for people who want to start a small farm business. This guide will help you think about the benefits and challenges of owning a farm before you begin, and will introduce you to services that will help you put your farm dream into action.
In this guide, you will learn about:
Skills you need to start a small farm
Risks & rewards of owning a farm
Resources for investing in your farm
Making a farm business plan
Marketing your products
This guide was written for small farmers in the Northeast United States, but can certainly be used in other regions - just keep in mind that some of the example figures might be different in your area.
Fact Sheet 17 explains how creating an enterprise budget for each venture on your farm can help you maximize your profits. For more business planning resources, see An Entrepreneur's Guide to Farming in Massachusetts.
To a beginning farmer, the project of establishing a working farm at a new site can feel overwhelming. Depending on what resources already exist at the property, the task of identifying, prioritizing, and paying for needed improvements can be a difficult road to cultivate productive farmland.
This tool is designed to help a farmer who is considering establishing a farm at a new site to examine the scope of improvements the site may require, to prioritize which upgrades should be made, and to identify various organizations and funding sources that might offer advice and/or financing for farm-related improvements. Beginning with a section about selecting a farm enterprise, this resource then addresses Land Access, Utilities and Energy, Structures, and Equipment.
This tool is designed with farmers in Massachusetts specifically in mind, but many of the elements considered are applicable to farmers in other states, as many of the MA-based organizations and resources have parallels in other states as well. Each section below will include 1) Key Considerations and Questions, 2) Resources, and 3) Contacts related to that section, and some sections will also have 4) Financing information as well.
This is not an exhaustive list of key considerations and resources associated with starting or improving a farm on a new site. Hopefully the information provided will prove valuable to farmers as they undertake the important and demanding work of creating the conditions by which a property can generate value for the community and provide a sustainable income for the producer.
New Entry's round up of programs, events and opportunities for beginning and small-scale farmers: Upcoming Events, Farmer Resources, Farmer Training, Service Agencies and Support Programs and Funding Opportunities.
The webinar Strategies to Capitalize the Farm: Lessons from the Field, is part of the Investing in Your Farm: Accessing Grants and Loans for Growing Your Business workshop series, hosted by the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project.
In this webinar, Farmers share knowledge/understanding of state/federal grant and loan programs. Topics covered in the workshop include:
Scaling-up journey
Land access, funding, infraestructure and logistic challenges
Wish list of investments, farm profitability and grants available
Specialty crops and MDAR funding opportunities
Tips for grant writing
Challenges of grants
For additional information please reach us out at: nesfp@tufts.edu
The Locating Funds to Mitigate Risk on the Farm: Crop Insurance, SARE, USDA Beginning Farmer Initiative and Other Federal Programs Fact Sheet, is part of the Investing in Your Farm: Accessing Grants and Loans for Growing Your Business workshop series, hosted by the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project.
In this Fact Sheet (PDF) you can find information about the following topics: NorthEast SARE resources, Micro Farm Pilot Program and NRCS conservation assistance.
For additional information please reach out: nesfp@tufts.edu
