Profit by Planning: Helping Fresh Market Vegetable Growers Meet Financial Goals and Improve their Quality of Life

Profit by Planning: Helping Fresh Market Vegetable Growers Meet Financial Goals and Improve their Quality of Life

Summary

Economic data and indicators of quality of life were gathered on 21 participating fresh-market produce farms during the 2002 growing season. These farms represented three scale-ranges (1-4 acres, 5-15 acres, and 16 or more acres) and various combinations of marketing strategies (CSA, farmers markets, farm stands, and wholesale). The data will be submitted for analysis and comparison in January 2003 and a meeting for project participants will be held to discuss results in February. At this meeting, growers will discuss changes they can make to improve their profitability and quality of life. The group will also evaluate record-keeping systems and suggest improvements.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Growers and farm support personnel will increase their knowledge and understanding of the economics of fresh produce farming and direct marketing.
2. Growers will adopt and maintain successful record-keeping systems.
3. Growers will adopt new decision-making methods, management approaches, cropping and harvesting systems, technologies, or marketing strategies to make their farms more profitable and improve their quality of life.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. Growers and farm support personnel will increase their knowledge and understanding of the economic and quality of life dimensions of fresh produce farming and direct marketing.

Economic data and indicators of quality of life were gathered on 21 participating fresh-market produce farms during the 2002 growing season. This information will be gathered and analyzed in January and February, 2003. Following an additional year of data collection and analysis, publications and presentations at various workshops and conferences will help growers and farm support personnel improve their understanding of the economic and quality of life dimensions of fresh produce farming and direct marketing. Already, the project coordinator has learned a great deal by beginning to visit participating farms to gather case study information and document farm management practices. Growers report that the record-keeping exercise will be invaluable in helping them better understand labor inputs in their farm and get a better understanding of their costs of production.

2. Growers will adopt and maintain successful record-keeping systems.

Participants in the project gathered at an initial informational and training session in March 2002. At this meeting, the group developed a consensus on what information would be recorded, and discussed various record-keeping systems (spread sheets, notebooks or diaries, calendar-based systems, etc.) that would fit for each farm. Sample record-keeping forms were distributed via mail following these meetings as well as a detailed list of data to be collected. Regular communication with the participating growers through the growing season suggests that records are being kept successfully, although some farms reported challenges with tracking labor hours. The real test will come in January when participating farms will submit their records to the project coordinator for compilation and analysis prior to a project meeting in February.

3. Growers will adopt new decision-making methods, management approaches, cropping and harvesting systems, technologies, or marketing strategies to make their farms more profitable and improve their quality of life.

This last outcome will be the focus of year 2 of the project (2003 growing season). One of the main objectives of the two-day project meeting in February 2003 will be to have the growers discuss ways that they can improve their farms’ financial outlook and their quality of life by using the data from year 1 to suggest improvements in year 2. One key for this to work will be developing a community of respect, trust, and sharing in the group of participating farmers. The initial training meeting provided an excellent start with a strong sense of cooperation and as well as a shared set of challenges and goals.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The impacts and outcomes of this project will only become clear following the meeting in February, 2003 and, even more so, after another year of data collection and analysis. At this time, the only real measures of impact have been the comments received from the participating growers, which indicate a thankfulness for the project and its goals. Profitability and quality of life are major concerns for fresh market produce growers. These growers are troubled by low net earnings and high workloads that leave them exhausted and discouraged by year’s end. Unfortunately, many do not gather the data necessary to make well-informed decisions to improve their farming systems and quality of life. This project will be filling a void recognized by existing and beginning produce growers: while there are many resources dealing with production issues, far too little information exists on the economics of growing and marketing fresh produce. The growers in the project have also expressed their gratitude for a project that specifically addresses smaller-scale, fresh-produce farms, an often neglected group of agricultural producers in terms of Land Grant university research and outreach. This project will serve as a relationship-building and capacity-building effort as it will help develop a stronger connection between the University of Wisconsin and researcher and UW-Extension.