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  • From: "Firefly Mountain Produce" <FireflyMtn AT msn.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Richard Wiswall's book
  • Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:49:26 -0700

Dear Friends,
I have a copy of Richard Wiswall's "The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook." I preordered it through Amazon and got it in October. I read it through in about 2 days, and now that things have slowed down outside, I am going back through the book and completing the exercises, taking more extensive notes, and taking bits and pieces of the business system he sets up and incorporating it into my own system in preparation for next season.

I was unable to view the videos of the author speaking about his book that someone posted earlier, so I apologize if this post repeats any of that information. You can also go to this link to see some other info on book and sample pages:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17432948/The-Organic-Farmers-Business-Handbook-by-Richard-Wiswall-Book-Preview

Overall, I have found the book useful. It is clearly written in a friendly manner, and he gives an introduction and a useful summary for each chapter. In the book, the author shows you how to set up an efficient and simple system for the business side of farming, from discovering profit centers to managing paperwork, to balancing the farm checkbook, to marketing, to preparing for retirement. I particularly like the instructions he gives on creating crop budgets and planning for future income growth (but admittedly, I am not very "business-minded," so this simple system may be already well-known to those who like spreadsheets and math calculations). As someone else mentioned earlier, there is no real "how-to" on how to grow vegetables and raise animals, of course, but there is one whole chapter called "Production Efficiencies" that is mainly about how to use a tractor to farm. The information is a bit topical, as it must be in a book that covers many areas, but is specific enough to head you down the right path if you want to do further research yourself on any one aspect.

I particularly liked the fact that the author mentions in the first chapter how we can shift our paradigms about farming; in this day and age, a farmer, a smart and hardworking person, can earn a decent and even a decadent living, helping the community and the earth along the way. I like that he mentions Holistic Management, but I was hoping he'd incorporate more info on how to plan for Holistic Management (because I admit that the "Holistic Management" handbook is long and seemingly complicated and I was wishing for someone to go through it and summarize and capsulize the info for me! laziness...).

Here is a list of chapters:
1. True Sustainability
2. Farm for Profit, Not for 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
9. Production Efficiencies
10. Write Your Own Business Plan
11. Planning for the Inevitable: The Ultimate Conclusion
Appendix: Vegetable Farm Crop Enterprise Budgets

The CD-ROM has downloadable spreadsheets; I've yet to explore them much because I've been working the numbers on paper first.
Hope this helps!
Christina

Firefly Mountain Produce
Steamboat Springs, CO






  • [Market-farming] Richard Wiswall's book, Firefly Mountain Produce, 12/15/2009

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