Home or Small Acreage Agriculture as an Employment Opportunity

1. Home or Small Acreage Agriculture as an Employment Opportunity North Central Pathways to Employment: Preparing Wisconsin’s Job Seekers October 5, 2012 Wausau, Wisconsin Richard Toebe, UW Extension Rusk County (richard.toebe@ces.uwex.edu)

2. Today’s Talk will Cover… • A Look at some Farm Numbers • What is the Purpose of Home or Small Acreage Production? • What can Home or Small Acreage Look Like? • Steps on Deciding what Ag idea works for you • Sample Enterprise Budgets • Wisconsin’s Pickle Bill • Regulations • Resources • Caveats

3. Small Agriculture Enterprises A look at some numbers

4. Small Agriculture Enterprises A look at some numbers • Average Size Farm in Wisconsin is 194 acres • Farms <10 acres = 4861 Farms • There are 6184 Farms with <50 chickens • (50 chickens = 1200 dozen eggs/year) • There are 3319 Farms with < 1 acre of vegetables

5. Small Agriculture Enterprises A look at some numbers

6. Small Agriculture Enterprises A look at some numbers • Thoughts on the Previous Two Slides • This is only the data collected in the census • There are certainly many farmers market vendors not captured by the census • Certainly does not capture home gardeners • Your Thoughts???

7. What is the Purpose of Home or Small Acreage Production? How Does it Relate to Employment? • Purpose? • Supplemental Income • Subsistence Lifestyle • Reduce Food Expenses for your family • How Does it Relate to Employment? • In 2007: 353,991 jobs in Wisconsin (132,000 on farm) • Transferable skills can be learned

8. What it looks like: Vegetables & Fruits

9. What it Looks Like: Animals

10. What it Looks Like: More Ideas

11. Steps on determining what Ag idea works for you • Tools and a Process to wade through the ideas to find the one that will work for you • Self Evaluation • Resource Inventory • Brainstorming of Ideas • Testing of Ideas

12. Step One: Self Evaluation - Values • Make a list of your values and what is important to you • Do this separately – and then share • Don’t judge or correct – This works best if it is a true representation of our values/dreams/self perceptions

13. Step One: Self Evaluation - Skills • What Are Your Skills • Business Skills • Production Skills • Marketing Skills • Introvert/Extrovert

14. Step One: Self Evaluation - SWOT • Do a personal SWOT • What are your strengths and weaknesses? • What are opportunities for you? What do you fear or want to avoid (Threats)?

15. Step One: Self Evaluation - Relationships • Remember to think about the people in your life • Immediate Family • Parents • Neighbors • Friends • Employees • Employers • Your Local Community • How would this idea affect them?

16. Step Two: Resource Inventory • Land/Soils/Local climate • http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm • Labor/physical abilities • Equipment • Money/savings/wealthy aunt • Animals • Buildings • Marketing options • Bank loan/Beginning Farmer loan • Time available • Off farm income/time loss • Health insurance

17. Step Three: Brainstorming of Ideas • Create a list of Ideas • Don’t judge the ideas yet • Just let the ideas flow • Everyone should create their own individual list – then compare

18. Step Three: Brainstorming - Resources • Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES): www.mosesorganic.org • National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA): https://attra.ncat.org/ • North Central Sustainable Agriculture, Research, and Education Service (SARE): http://www.northcentralsare.org/ • Conferences: • Midwest Value Added • Local Food Summit • Midwest CSA Conference • Moses Organic Farming Conference

19. Step Three: Brainstorming - Resources • Land Stewardship Project: http://landstewardshipproject.org/ • Michael Fields Agriculture Institute: http://www.michaelfieldsaginst.org/ • FairShare CSA Coalition: http://www.csacoalition.org/ • UW Extension Learning Store: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Small-Farms-C316.aspx • Your Local Extension Agent

20. Step Four: Testing of Ideas • This is where it gets even more fun (and more work) • Test ideas against your self evaluation, goals, and resource inventory • Identify limiting factors – ideas that pass those can be looked at more in depth • Hopefully a few of your brainstorm ideas float to the top

21. Step Four: Testing of Ideas • Involves Lots of data collection • Visit Others doing something similar • Real Life Examples • On-line Examples • Plan to spend hours exploring

22. Enterprise Budgets • Enterprise Budgets • Per Bed • Per Acre • Per Livestock Class • Provides a Prediction of profit or loss • Consider doing for labor as well

23. Wisconsin’s Pickle Bill

24. Regulations

25. Regulations

26. Regulations

28. Regulations

29. Regulations

30. Regulations

31. Regulations

32. Resources • Business Feasibility: A First Cut Analysis Web Base Course: http://fyi.uwex.edu/aic/startup/web-based-course/ • Center for Integrated Ag Systems (CIAS) Financial Benchmarks: http://cdp.wisc.edu/agfa.htm • CIAS Enterprise Budgets: http://www.cias.wisc.edu/category/economics/enterprise-budgets/ • US Food Market Estimator: http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/marketsize/ • Wisconsin Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network: http://www.wisconsinsbdc.org/sbdc.htm • Holistic Management

33. Resources • Great Book: Building a Sustainable Business • http://www.misa.umn.edu/Publications/BuildingaSustainableBusiness/

34. Resources • Great Book: Wisconsin Local Food Marketing Guide • http://datcp.wi.gov/uploads/Business/pdf/MK-DM-17_LFMG_Second_Edition_Final_Book_for_website.pdf

35. Caveats • There may be some people that approach you with a concept that they are passionate about or there may be a benefit to them with you getting into that business (Your being involved will benefit them – but not necessarily be a good idea for you) • Every individual is different and has your own ‘unfair advantage’ • Many small businesses do not actually make money – This is not a good idea for everyone • Insurance – Homeowners, Product Liability, etc.

36. Questions?