Knowing what jobs tractors are and are not intended for can help you decide if one is necessary for your operation. UW-Madison Extension provides a list of considerations when thinking about purchasing a tractor.
When you’re in the market to buy a used tractor or other piece of equipment, you’ll likely notice the differences in features between older and newer models as you look through sale listings. The good news is that despite all of these changes and the evolution of mechanized technology used in agriculture, tractors and other types of farm equipment are generally built to last. Older farm equipment that is well-maintained can be fully functional though it may lack more modern and important safety, comfort, or technology features.
There comes a time in the process of starting a farm business when you’ll likely benefit from some expert advice. UW-Madison Extension provides tips for where to find advisors who can serve as a sounding board for your ideas.
Writing out a complete business plan is a time-consuming feat. Before you spend your time and energy writing a multi-page narrative, explore your ideas with a simple tool – the Lean Canvas. Adapted for use by startups, this simple one-page matrix can be a valuable tool to help farm entrepreneurs test a business idea in the context of nine key areas.
Do you count yourself among those who dream of being a farmer? Do you have some property and want to do something productive with it, maybe even make money off it? Are you seeking land and working on developing a viable plan for a future farm business? UW-Madison Extension provides tips fir generating viable ideas for a farm-based business
A common misconception in farm estate and succession planning is that federal estate taxes are among the biggest threats to getting the farm assets to the rightful heirs. However, we propose that the biggest threat to a farm estate getting to the rightful heirs is the owner generation’s lack of succession planning and not federal estate taxes.
The CSA Innovation Network and UW-Madison Division of Extension share a report detailing farmer ratings of the most popular eCommerce platforms used by farmers for selling their products.
During the farm succession process it is common for the owner generation and the successor generation to discuss a transfer of assets. However, a conversation about the transfer of management – which is important to the success of the farm succession – is often overlooked.
Core values are the guiding principles that dictate a person’s behavior. Understanding a person’s core values will help you to understand why people do the things they do. When going through a farm succession it is important for the parties to have open conversations about the process. Knowing the other parties core values can help make these conversations more productive and enjoyable.
The monthly and annual spending plan worksheets located in the Cultivating your Farm’s Future workbook can be used to attribute expenses to the household and farm. In a farm succession, these worksheets can be used by both the owner and successor generation.
The monthly and annual spending plan worksheets located in the Cultivating your Farm’s Future workbook can be used to attribute expenses to the household and farm. In a farm succession, these worksheets can be used by both the owner and successor generation.
Business succession planning just doesn’t happen. Producers must intentionally focus on the planning and work with a team of professionals. Here are ten steps and questions that farmers can do as they prepare for succession planning.
While a majority of farm products are marketed through a system involving several middlemen, direct marketing maintains the farmer’s connection to the customer, allowing them to develop a unique relationship, tailor their product offerings, and keep money closer to the farm and local community.
A lender’s primary interest is in whether you’re likely to fulfill the requirements of a credit agreement. When a creditor lends you money, he or she does it with the expectation of earning a profit, which is unlikely to happen if there’s a good possibility that you’ll default on the loan. The lender will be […]
A statement often made with professional athletes is that they stayed in the game beyond the years of their peak performance. Of course, the couple million they made for their time, helped ease the transition! However, we may ask the same question of a farm business, when is it time to gracefully exit, when are we trying to stay in the business too long beyond peak performance?
The thought of leaving a business or career that one has always known can be uneasy and downright scary, but along with those thoughts, there are many positives that can come along with making a change. As business owners, farmers develop all types of skills. By evaluating their best skills and matching them with their own personal core values can be a usual exercise to plot a course for the future.
Extension offers resources, information and networking opportunities for farmers interested in exploring and assessing new business ideas or revenue streams to their operations. Resources help farmers assess feasibility and critical success factors of new or additional enterprises including value-added production, and marketing and business strategies.
A variety of programs exist in the upper Midwest region that can provide new farmers in Wisconsin with training and education around production, business planning, farm financials, and more. Programs range from on-farm apprenticeships, mentorships, short-term workshops, longer-term curriculum-based programs, and academic institution degrees. Programs often serve beginning farmers with a range of prior knowledge […]
