Articles

Farm Business

Our farm business projects include research and training for people who want to get started in dairy and produce farming. We also provide economic analysis for sustainable agriculture enterprises.

Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Growers

This training program offers a unique opportunity to learn what it takes to set up and manage a successful fresh produce operation.  The course is taught by experienced growers and UW faculty. The program treats market garden operations as integrated systems where production, management, and marketing are blended into a comprehensive farm business.  Topics covered during this three-day course include marketing, soils, crop production, plant health and pest management, equipment needs, labor considerations, harvest and post harvest handling, business planning, getting started, and making transitions as the operation grows and changes.

Coming in 2005 is a new class for commercial cut flower growers!

For more information, contact John Hendrickson.

Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers

The Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers provides classroom and field experience, mentoring, and farm internships to young people interested in a career as management-intensive graziers.

Dairy Farm Entry

This project involves several efforts including the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers and a statewide working group on beginning dairy farmers. During the fall of 2003 and winter of 2004, research will be conducted on models of sharemilking being explored in the Midwest to help entering dairy farmers build management skills and equity. Other research in this area includes:

  • A study of dairy farmer career paths drew on a research trip to New Zealand to study that nation's method of attracting young people to dairy farming.
  • We have examined how sharemilking can ease dairy farm transtions in Wisconsin.
  • We've completed a study of beginning dairy farmers in Wisconsin, with recommendations on how best to help them get started.

Profit by Planning

This USDA-SARE funded project is gathering and disseminating information about the economics of fresh market vegetable production and direct marketing. The project will also examine quality of life issues on these farms. The basis of this project is a set of ratios such as gross income per acre, net income per acre, and net income to gross income. Ratios from working vegetable farms will allow other growers to gauge their farm’s economic performance and beginning farmers to get a sense of the economics of fresh market vegetable production. Data is still being collected and analyzed. Publications based on this work should be available in Summer 2005. For more information, contact John Hendrickson.

Value-Added Enterprise Budgets

CIAS develops user-friendly software packages for farmers to evaluate the economics of their value-added enterprises. A poultry enterprise budget and a dairy goat enterprise budget are available on this website. For more information, contact Don Schuster.

Related web sites:

Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas
Technical assistance and publications on sustainable farming. Call them for a free, specialized search.

Wisconsin Ag Innovation Center
Support and resources for those exploring innovative agriculture related ventures in Wisconsin.

Crop production budgets
Rutgers Extension's budgets for field crops, fruit, vegetables, and livestock grown under conventional, integrated, and organic management.

Monitoring Sustainable Agriculture with Conventional Financial Data
Financial indicators for sustainable agriculture, including an online calculator.