Dear Sanet,
"Market Farm Forms: Spreadsheet Templates for Planning and Organization
Information on Diversified Farms" is a great resource that Marcie
Rosenzweig here on Sanet developed with Full Circle Organic Farm
associate Bill Blake.
Since it came to our attention here at ATTRA, some co-workers in
vegetable production and agricultural economics have really been
impressed at this genuinely useful and farmer-friendly book and
spreadsheet combination.
While a number of farm management spreadsheets exist, "Market Farm
Forms" is the best one I've seen to help organize and calculate
a mix of vegetables and related crops raised by market gardeners,
truck farmers, and CSA's. On top of that, it supports the
needs of certified organic growers with special features.
"Market Farm Forms" is a 95-page book and diskette containing
Excell spreadsheet templates that sells for $45, plus $5 shipping and
handling. The diskette is available in PC or Macintosh formats.
Seeds and purchased plants needed, farm-grown transplants, soil
amendments and fertilizers, cropping and succession timelines,
weekly task lists...
Crop yield and income projections, actual harvest and income data,
produce availability sheets, invoices and pick sheets, Community
Supported Agriculture share and yield sheets, budget worksheets...
Row calculations and input sheets, CSA share bed calculations and
input sheets, certified organic producer certificate sheets, fax
sheets, labels, order forms, point of sales labels, recipes and
flyers.... it is all there.
Steve Diver
=================================================
Market Farm Forms: Spreadsheet Templates for Planning and
Organization Information on Diversified Farms
Finally, a cost-effective computer solution for tracking information
on market farms. Work with your spreadsheet software, enter
your own farm data, the embedded formulas do the calculations
for you.
Cost: $45 plus $5 shipping and handling
HOW TO ORDER:
Full Circle Farm
3377 Early Times Lane
Auburn, CA 95603
530-885-9201
Marcie Rosenzweig <fullcircle@jps.net>
HOW THE FORMS CAME TO BE
We own and operate Full Circle Organic Farm, a small acreage, French
intensive market farm growing vegetables, herbs, strawberries, melons
and flowers organically for direct market. Our marketing outlets are
the local farmers' markets, selected restaurants and health food
stores, and our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. The
intensive nature of our agriculture plus our small acreage means one
of our larger inputs is management time.
Good record-keeping is critical to the success of any business and
farming is no exception. For us, organic farming is even more
record-intense because of the legal requirements in California. Our
first careers were in positions where computers were used to track
information so we had computers at home when we started the farm in
1988.
We went in search of programs that would help us plan crops, track
yields and project cash flow. What we found was discouraging. Very
few programs on the market were geared toward agriculture at all.
Those that were available for crop planning were geared toward large
farms with hundreds of acres of land, conventionally farmed with only
one crop per year. All used a DOS standard. Many programs only
tracked pesticide applications. Even the newer, user-friendly
business accounting programs neglect to include agriculture in the
pre-set business formats. Frankly, not much has changed.
Out of necessity, Marcie began developing forms in the Excel
spreadsheet program to track various parts of our farming operation.
The first form was Crop Yields and Income Projections. The second
was the Budget. After a time, virtually the whole farming operation
was on the computer. We even produced sales brochures, price signs
for the market and point-of-sale materials for our wholesale
customers. As we worked with other farmers on cultural practices and
variety selection, we would show how we used the forms to collect and
analyze data. Eventually we were asked to give workshops on how
computers could help farmers on small acreage. Even farmers who
didn't have computers asked for blank copies of the forms to use.
This booklet and disk are the outgrowth of those requests.
Authors' Background
Marcie has a degree in Agriculture from UC Davis and a background in
Human Resources Management at the corporate level. Lee has a degree
in Industrial Technology and a background in Information Systems
Management at the corporate level. While we have used most types of
operating systems, we are currently the owners of four Macintosh
computers of various vintages.
Special thanks goes to Bill Blake, our working partner in the 1996
season. He has helped us standardize the formats of the forms, added
the form on soil amendments, and coddled and cajoled us into getting
these forms into print. Bill has a Masters degree from UC Davis and a
background in community development through farming and gardening.
=================================================
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