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  • From: JOHN A HENDRICKSON <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
  • To: avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business - Gross profits
  • Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:43:38 -0600

Brigette,

Sorry to not reply to your message sooner. Only 2 growers responded to
my query on farmers' market sales with actual figures. Frustrating. A
few others, like you, replied that they were interested in the topic and
in seeing the results.

I am in the midst of gathering data from the 2004 season from about 20
market farms for my 3-year profitability study. The project is ending
and I have begun analyzing the data and writing publications. I am
enthusiastic about what I am learning and will eventually be able to
share. Real financial figures on small-scale market farms are so hard
to come by! That said, gathering and sharing the numbers is only just
so useful. Reading about what is possible in terms of gross or net
income can be helpful but, regardless, it takes grit and savvy to make a
small farm work! As I have mentioned, I will announce the availability
of the publications I am currently working on via the MarketFarming
list. They will be available via our web site: www.cias.wisc.edu

I am inviting other farms to submit the same data to me as the farms in
my research project. The basic gist is acreage, gross and net income,
and labor hours. All information is kept confidential. If the numbers
were to be used, they would be done so anonymously (listed without
revealing your name, your farm name, location, or any other easy
identifier) or they would be used in computing averages. If you're
interested, I can send you the data form that I used to collect data in
my study.

Thanks for your interest.

-John

----- Original Message -----
From: Brigette Leach <avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net>
Date: Thursday, February 3, 2005 7:39 pm
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business - Gross profits

> John,
> I am very interested in what you are studying with the market
> farms, hoping
> that I can learn from the work you are doing. We are located in
> southwestern MI, between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, zone 5. We
> added a
> hydroponic greenhouse and market garden enterprize to our 4th
> generationconventional farm operation nearly 5 years ago, adding
> our "hyrbid" CSA,
> three years ago. Production and marketing have been much easier
> than I
> expected. Profitability is the biggest challenge that we have!
> Well, that
> is besides not having enough hours in the day to get everything
> done.
>
> Being relative newcomers to market gardening I am skeptical that we
> will be
> able to contribute anything substanitive, but I'm willing to share
> what I
> do know and expect that I can learn a great deal. Surely there are
> otherson the list who are just starting their business, or
> contempalting doing
> so, and would benefit from the information that would be shared.
>
> Brigette Leach
> Avalon Farms Premium Homegrown
> Have you checked out our "Share of the Farm"? Contact us for more
> information. 269-746-4648
>
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > From: JOHN A HENDRICKSON <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
> > To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Date: 2/3/2005 8:18:23 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business - Gross profits
> >
> > I wholeheartedly agree on the complexity of discussing
> financials! It's
> > a messy topic to begin with and then you have to add that many
> people> feel (justifiably) uncomfortable sharing certain numbers.
> As Adriana
> > pointed out, one big part of the complexity is the issue of
> definitions.>
> > This is another reason I was trying to keep it simple by only asking
> > for gross income. In fact, I was even keeping it simplier than
> that. I
> > did not inquire about total gross farm income...only for people
> to share
> > what an average and peak daily take is at their farmers' market.
> Such> information would be more useful if people included:
> >
> > 1. Acres in production (not including fallow land in cover crops)
> > 2. Product mix (flowers, herbs, bedding plants, mixed vegetables,
> > berries, eggs, etc.)
> > 3. The relative size of the farmers' market
> >
> > Anyway, I disagree that the complexity and definitional issues
> render> the discussion meaningless. None of us share the same
> frost free days,
> > average temperatures, rainfall, pest pressures, etc. but we share
> > production information and learn what we can from it. The same
> can be
> > true for financial
> > information. We glean what we can.
> >
> > It may be very difficult to agree to a set of basic definitions
> but I,
> > for one, would be game to try if there was a subset of the list that
> > wanted to tackle this. I am in the 3rd year of a financial study
> of 20
> > market farms (most in Wisconsin) and could share how we have
> decided to
> > define things and collect and share data.
> >
> > -John
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
> >
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>
>
>
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