Market Farming

[Deb Taft <deb AT mobiusfields.com>]

Hi Everybody.

Hope you're looking forward to the relief of winter as much as I am...looks like it might finally come to NY in the next few days.  This nice weather has kept me working harder than I intended!

There are several newer small (5 acres or less) farmers in my area (lower Hudson Valley, Westchester County to be more specific) who don't have the capital for equipment.  We all do things more or less "by hand" and are considering going in together on some basic equipment appropriate for the size of our operations. For example, we could all benefit hugely from occasional use of a BCS but none of us can afford one on our own.

We know we'll need to work out some sort of buy-in, storage, maintenance, insurance, scheduling, buy-out perhaps.  

What else should we be thinking about?

Do we need to set up a separate entity for this?

What kind of legal arrangement do we need to put in place so no one screws or gets screwed?

We like each other now and want to keep it that way! 

Any experience you can share or suggestions you can make are most welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Deb

Mobius Fields

Sleepy Hollow / Waccabuc NY