farmer finances

September 7, 2010 in Books

Here’s a blog reader’s recommendation for a good read – especially if you’re starting up a farm.

This book made me excited about filing my tax return!  ‘The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff-and Making a Profit’.  I highly recommend this guide for beginning and experienced farmers alike. – Mary von Krusenstiern

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 CD 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.