Category: Business - Purple Pitchfork

Farm Finances: Evaluating Investments and Operational Changes

11/28/2014

Title
Evaluating Investments and Operational Changes

Overview
Want to purchase new equipment? Thinking of expanding your operation? This workshop shows you the tools you need to evaluate your options. You’ll get a down-to-earth approach to help you better understand the economic and other impacts of investments and operational changes, including a look at practical tools like partial budget analysis and investment analysis, as well as considerations for quality of life and business development.

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Finances, Risk Management, Scaling Up

Audience
All Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Scaling Up: Is It Right For You?

11/27/2014

Title
Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Is Scaling Up Right For Your Farm?

Overview
With all of the talk about "scaling up", it's easy to lose sight of the fundamental question: is growing on more acres right for you and your farm? This session explores the impacts of getting bigger, from risks and investment to business development and lifestyle consequences, and looks at other ways to increase farm income and sustainability.

Outline
I. Scale
2. Markets
3. Anticipating Impacts
4. Assessing Resources
5. Investment and Growth

Series
In The Market

Topics
Business, Risk Management, Scaling Up

Audience
Beginning Farmers (<10yrs)

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Market Farming: Making Your Farm Work For You

11/26/2014

Title
Making Your Market Farm Work For You

Overview
Your market farm should work for you, in addition to you working for your farm – and that requires you to take care of your vegetables and your business, as well as your life. Learn how you can put it all together, from the market farming fundamentals of weed control, irrigation, post-harvest handling, and marketing, to the management of your farming systems, employees, and finances. From big ideas down to practical examples, consultant, educator, and veteran farmer Chris Blanchard draws on 25 years of farming experience around the country at a wide variety scales to provide this engaging session that will help you understand and control the factors that lead to a profitable market farm that won’t drive you and your family crazy.

Outline
1. Context
2. Market Farming Fundamentals
3. Management
4. Managing Yourself
5. Managing the Farm
6. Managing the Money
7. Managing the Employees
8. Wrapping Up

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Finances, Management, Marketing, Production, Scaling Up

Audience
Beginning Farmers

Length
4 - 6 hours

Marketing: Selling Crops to Food Stores

11/24/2014

Title
Buy My Rutabagas: Marketing Horticultural Crops to Food Stores

Overview
To market your produce to food stores, you need to understand the world of retail produce. Chris Blanchard will share his approach to marketing to produce buyers, including communication, branding, how to determine your price, and how stores determine their prices.

Outline
1. The Number One Rule
2. Understanding the World of Produce
3. Quality
4. Marketing
5. Pricing Principles
6. Pricing Rules of Thumb
7. Margins in Different Markets
8. Rock Spring Farm’s Four Priceless Practices for Sales Success

The longer versions of this workshop include:
9. Determining Cost of Production and Marketing
10. Production Expenses
11. Ownership Costs
12. Valuing Labor
13. QuickBooks Classes for Tracking Production and Marketing Expenses

Series
In The Market

Topics
Business, Marketing, Pricing, Scaling Up

Audience
All Farmers

Length
60 - 180 minutes

Farm Records: Practical GAPs Compliance Techniques

11/21/2014

Title
Practical GAPs Compliance for Organic Farmers

Overview
From restaurants to college dining halls, wholesale buyers have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Chris Blanchard will present a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and records management requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements.

Outline
1. Easy Steps to Safer Produce
2. Understanding the GAPs Audit Verification System
3. Writing Your Food Safety Plan
4. Record Keeping
5. Trace back
6. More Paperwork (or not)
7. Where Does the Info Go?
8. Wrapping Up

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Food Safety, Records Management, Risk Management

Audience
All Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Farm Finances: Setting Up and Managing Your Financials

11/20/2014

Title
Fearless Farm Finances

Overview
Chris Blanchard provides insights into developing a robust business model for your farming operation. Chris will review the financial and management systems you need to grow a profitable farm, with information about making and monitoring a budget, creating and understanding financial statements, improving profitability, and avoiding financial train wrecks.

Outline
1. Goals
2. Think (about getting) Big
3. Capacity
4. Invest in Systems
5. Invest in People
6. Budgeting
7. Monitoring
8. Financial Statements
9. Balance Sheet
10. Income Statement
11. Statement of Cash Flows
12. Ratios and Analysis
13. Solvency
14. Am I Making Money?
15. Improving Profitability

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Finances, Records Management, Risk Management, Systems

Audience
All Farmers

Length
180 minutes

Pricing: How to Price Produce for Profit

11/19/2014

Title
What It’s Worth: Pricing Produce for Profit

Overview
Being a sustainable farmer is more than the farming methods you use, it also means ensuring you can stay in business regardless of your marketing outlet. Chris Blanchard will help you navigate pricing strategies to meet your customer needs and your farm's bottom line.

Outline
1. Pricing Rules of Thumb
2. Margins in Different Markets
3. Establishing Costs of Production
4. Production Expenses
5. Marketing Expenses
6. Ownership Costs
7. Valuing Labor
8. Quickbooks Classes

Series
In The Market

Topics
Business, Marketing, Pricing

Audience
All Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Scaling Up: Smart Growth for Local Foods

11/17/2014

Title
Values and Scale in Local Foods Marketplace

Overview
Balancing the reasons we choose to farm with the economic realities of the modern food system can challenge even the most-experienced grower, and while beginning growers wash up on the rocks of scaling-up, questions about size and values creates conflict within the local foods movement. Chris Blanchard will discuss how we can root our growth in good business, while not losing sight of the fertile values in which that growth occurs.

Outline
1. Defining Goals for a Local Food System
2. A Feel for the Land
3. Thinking (about getting) Big
4. Local Food Lies
5. Food is Worth More than the Sum of its Parts

Series
In The Market

Topics
Business, Scaling Up

Audience
All Farmers, Local Foods Advocates

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Farm Records: Capturing and Organizing Data

11/16/2014

Title
Capturing and Organizing Data for GAPs, Organic Certification, and Other Endeavors

Overview
Paperwork can be the bane of the certified-organic, GAPs-audited, and financially-aware farmer. Learn how to capture information, get on top of your paperwork, and wow your inspector, auditor, and banker. Chris Blanchard will provide an overview of the basic techniques he and his crew used to gather information and keep it organized for easy access with a minimum of effort.

Outline
1. Best Practices
2. What We Track
3. Outflows
4. Inflows
5. Money
6. Accounts
7. Class
8. Items
9. Customers
10. Collect
11. Process
12. Data Entry and Storage
13. Actions and Time
14. Where Does the Info Go?

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Finance, Food Safety, Records Management, Risk Management

Audience
All Farmers

Length
60 - 180 minutes

Market Farming: Ten Things to Consider Before You Start

11/13/2014

Title
Ten Things to Consider About Starting a Market Farm

Overview
Getting started in market farming means more than just growing vegetables. It means taking on the responsibilities of owning a business, managing markets, grappling with philosophies, and managing a labor force. Chris Blanchard will discuss ten things to think about as you prepare the ground for starting your market farm, or as you seek to expand your market farm into a significant income-generator for yourself and your family

Outline
1. Goals
2. Scale
3. Local Food Lies
4. Capacity
5. Invest in Systems
6. Invest in People
7. Regulations and Image
8. Plan for Change
9. Keep Perspective

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Finances

Audience
Beginning Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Market Farming: Growing and Adapting to Change

11/10/2014

Title
Growing and Adapting to a Changing Market: 15 Years of Organic Vegetable Farming

Overview
After fifteen years of organic vegetable farming in Iowa, Chris Blanchard paused to reflect on his experiences growing a market farm and what he had learned. From developing a market and riding the crest of the local foods wave to employee management and the growing pains of a small business, Chris Blanchard shares the joys and the pain of owning and operating a small organic market farm.

Outline
1. More Rutabagas Than You Think
2. Go Big or Go Home
3. Business School of Hard Knocks
4. Scale and Systems
5. CSA Scales
6. What I Learned From the Drought
7. What I Know

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Management

Audience
All Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Management: Time and Productivity Management for Farmers

11/4/2014

Title
Too Many Rutabagas: Time and Productivity Management for Farmers

Overview
There’s always something to do on the farm, and nobody knows it better than the farmer. Chris Blanchard will show you ways to overcome the overload of information, tasks, and projects on your farm while you keep things from falling through the cracks with time and information techniques that will improve your business and your quality of life.

Outline
1. Three Tips to Change Your Life
2. Time and Productivity Matters on the Farm
3. The Challenge and Importance of Time and Priority Management
4. Goals for a Productivity System
5. No Free Rides
6. Workflow Details
7. Tools
8. It’s All Important
9. Where to Start
10. Getting Unstuck
11. Three Things To Remember

Series
On The Farm

Topics
Business, Systems, Management

Audience
All Farmers

Length
45 - 90 minutes

Scaling Up: Challenges and Opportunities

11/3/2014

Title
Scaling Up to Fill the Plate: Sizing Your Vegetable Operation

Overview
With pressure from every direction to scale up market farming operations to meet the growing demand for local food, growers need to consider their goals, roles, capacity, and skills. Chris Blanchard will take you on an exploration of the challenges and opportunities in expanding your market farm.

Outline
1. Goals
2. More Rutabagas Than You Think
3. Segments and Locations
4. Local Food Lies
5. Investments
6. Capacity
7. Invest in Systems
8. Invest in People
9. Produce Buyers
10. Quality
11. Plan for Change
12. Leverage Biology
13. Keep Perspective

Series
In The Market

Topics
Business, Scaling Up

Audience
All Farmers

Length
60 - 120 minutes