The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff - and Making a Profit

Contrary to popular belief, a good living can be made on an organic farm. What€s required is farming smarter, not harder.

In The Organic Farmer€s Business Handbook, Richard Wiswall shares advice on how to make your vegetable production more efficient, better manage your employees and finances, and turn a profit. From his twenty-seven years of experience at Cate Farm in Vermont, Wiswall knows firsthand the joys of starting and operating an organic farm€"as well as the challenges of making a living from one. Farming offers fundamental satisfaction from producing food, working outdoors, being one€s own boss, and working intimately with nature. But, unfortunately, many farmers avoid learning about the business end of farming; because of this, they often work harder than they need to, or quit farming altogether because of frustrating€"and often avoidable€"losses.

In this comprehensive business kit, Wiswall covers:

• Step-by-step procedures to make your crop production more efficient
• Advice on managing employees, farm operations, and office systems
• Novel marketing strategies
• What to do with your profits: business spending, investing, and planning for retirement

A companion CD offers valuable business tools, including easy-to-use spreadsheets for projecting cash flow, a payroll calculator, comprehensive crop budgets for forty different crops, and tax planners.