Table of Contents

1. True sustainability
2. Farm for profit, not production
3. Discovering profit centers
4. Profit time: crop enterprise budgets
5. Marketing strategies
6. Effective management
7. Office paper flows and leaky finances
8. How to retire on your farm: retirement 101 and business spending tactics
9. Production efficiencies
10. Write your own business plan
11. Planning for the inevitable: the ultimate conclusion

About the Author

Richard Wiswall started Cate Farm in East Montpelier, Vermont, where he has farmed since 1981. Known for his work on farm profitability and appropriate business tools, Wiswall consults with other farmers, and writes and speaks frequently on organic-farm business issues. He is the author of book The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook and Business Advice for Organic Farmers, a practical workshop available on DVD. To learn more about Wiswall and Cate Farm, visit www.catefarm.com.

Reviews

"Generous, unique, and comprehensive - this book will help every farmer to better set goals, reach those goals, and improve their bottom line!"--Ela Chapin, Program Director, Vermont Farm Viability Enhancement Program




"What a breath of fresh air! Richard Wiswall challenges the conventional notion that there's no real money in farming. He argues that farmers should be well-compensated, and then he shows how to make that happen. Every farmer--organic or not, beginner or experienced--should read this book."--Lynn Byczynski, editor and publisher of Growing for Market, a journal of news and ideas for local food producers




"Many people become organic farmers because they love growing crops and working the land, but truth be told that's often the easy part. Richard Wiswall's book provides practical, real-world guidance for dealing with the hard part: the business of farming."--Vern Grubinger, Vegetable and Berry Specialist, University of Vermont Extension




"Here is a call to 'wake up and smell the pencil shavings!'--that a sharp pencil (and the ability to use it) is an essential tool for every farmer's toolbox. Farmers old and new will find great practical benefit from Wiswall's book."--Andrew Brait, Full Belly Farm, Guinda, CA

"How could anyone hope to produce a business guidebook useful to one of the most diverse, independent, even contrary groups of people on earth? This essential book is overdue! While the principles have been around for some time, this is the first they have been assimilated and tested so successfully."--Ed Martsolf, Petit Jean Farm, Morrilton, Arkansas




"Richard Wiswall has given us a finely tuned handbook to run a profitable organic farm. Most farmers love the growing part but dread the business end, and suffer financially for it. This is a book that I will recommend to ANY farmer regardless of how long he or she has been in business. There are a lot of hard-learned lessons contained within that will help avoid reinventing the wheel, as so many of us have."--Mark Wheeler, Pacific Botanicals LLC, Grants Pass, OR