For many farmers, producing great food is less difficult than managing the business.

Starting A Farm Business

For many farmers, producing great food is not the hardest part of maintaining a viable farm, it’s managing the business and marketing products in order to make money. Our staff can help your farm to:

Plan for profit using a business and marketing plan

Navigate state and federal regulations (including processing, organic)

Apply for on-farm research and marketing grants

Resources

Where to Begin

Considerations in Starting A Farm Business provides a series of questions to be answered before one starts the farming operation. These questions help to frame the business.

Business Planning

Business planning is a tool to help map and test the feasibility of a farm business startup. It is a dynamic tool that changes through time as the business changes due to internal and external pressure. It allows one to test “what if” scenarios.

NY FarmNet created Business Planning for the Agriculture Sector, A Guide to Business Plan Development for Start-Up to Mid-Size Operations is an easy to understand tool for business planning.

Building a Sustainable Business – A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses is an extensive resource for business planning.

Evaluating Soils

In our Cooperative Extension office we can do simple PH testing and offer guidelines and recommendations. We also provide soil collecting boxes to be sent off for further analysis by Agri-one soils lab. More information about this can be found on our Soil Testing Services webpage

Farm Lending

When purchasing a farm through a realtor, many real estate brokers require pre-approval for a mortgage before showing a property. The following financial institutions and agencies deal with agricultural lending; some also offer other services that go along with the purchase of a farm including: appraisals, tax preparation and financial planning.

Farm Credit East

Address: 1450 NY-14 Phelps, NY 14532

Phone: 800-929-7102

https://www.farmcrediteast.com

Community Bank

Address: 5 Seneca Street

Phone: 315-789-7700

https://cbna.com/business/agricultural

Ontario County Farm Service Agency

Address: 3037 County Rd 10 Canandaigua, NY 14424

Phone: 585-394-0525

Email: joann.rogers@usda.gov