Farmers Growing Farmers
A participatory, experience and mentorship based program for new farmers
Launching February 2008
NEW !! MENTORSHIP PROGRAM NEW !!
We are looking for mentors, if interested please click above!
NEW !! Detailed information about CASS funding for new farmers NEW !!
Interested in starting a farm based business? Please click here to fill out a survey
FGF will be running again in the Fall of 2008
Please send us an e-mail to be added to our contact list to receive updates
Farmers Growing Farmers Program Components
Links, course files and background reading
E-mail questions to: growingfarmers@everdale.org
Farmers Growing Farmers (FGF) Program Components:
Farm Business Planning Course
This is the foundation of the FGF program. The course covers all aspects of planning for new, small scale, close-to-market farms. Nine weekly classes with presentations from farmers and local food specialists address the logistics and realities of starting and running a farm business. Class work and homework leads to the development of an energized business plan by the end of the course, which runs from
Feb 1st ~ March 29th.
Mentorship - Click to find out more
You will have access to extensive one-on-one mentorship with farmer mentors that specialize in your interests. Mentoring begins during the course.
Small Capital Grants
Subject to Heifer eligibility, a completed business plan, and full course participation, you can attain up to $4000 in startup capital grants.
Please see the following files for more information: Funding Options Passing On The GIft Contract
Land Access
Participants will have support finding the quality farm land they need.
Advanced Farm Planning
To access additional assistance from professionals in your field, we will support your application to federal business planning programs such as the Canadian Farm Business Advisory Service (CFBAS) and the Planning and Assessment for Value-added Enterprises Program (PAVE).
Long Term New Farmer Support
All participants of the FGF program are encouraged to participate in an alumni network to workshop business plans and access further training in farm management and planning.
After developing and starting your farm the course coordinator will provide ongoing support and yearly site visits.
The FGF program is designed as a social and information network that fosters partnership and equality. Participants, mentors, and facilitators contribute their own knowledge and experience to form a community of learners. The aim is to break from the conventional notion of teachers producing knowledge for the passive consumption of students within a classroom. Instead, the program recognizes and activates the indispensable knowledge of established farmers, those new to farming, and others involved in the food system.
As a partner of Heifer International, who has sponsored this program, FGF embraces their philosophy of “passing on the gift”. FGF asks that participants be open to sharing their experience as new farmers through future FGF activities (class presentations, mentoring, farm tours). As participants move on and establish a farm business, their experience will become invaluable to those who are at an earlier stage of planning.
Farm Business Planning Course Schedule
| Session | Date | Times | Topic | Location |
| 1 | Friday February 1st | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Introduction & New Farmer Panel – Overnight | Everdale |
| 2 | Saturday February 2nd | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm | Holistic Management Part 1: Defining Your Goal | Everdale |
| 3 | Saturday February 9th | 10:00 am – 4:30 pm | Holistic Management Part 2: Realizing Your Dreams | Everdale |
| 4 | Thursday February 14th | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Analyzing your Current Situation | Everdale |
| 5 | Thursday February 21st | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Developing a Marketing Strategy | Everdale |
| 6 | Thursday February 28th | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Developing an Operations and Human Resource Strategy | Everdale |
| 7 | Thursday March 6th | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Developing a Financial Strategy | Everdale |
| 8 | Saturday March 15th | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm | Land, Financing and Answering Legal Questions | Toronto |
| 9 | Thursday March 20th | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Evaluating, Implementing and Monitoring your Plan | Everdale |
| 10 | Saturday March 29th | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm | Reflecting on the Business Planning Process | Everdale |
| 11 | Thursday April 3rd | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Snow Day¹ |
¹ In the event of poor weather, confirm with the course facilitator. If the class is cancelled, we will re-schedule it for session 11 and we recommend
reading the relevant chapters, according to that classes topics, in the M.I.S.A.handbook.
Course Time Commitments
Classes will run from 6:30 – 9:30 pm on Thursdays with Saturday sessions at the beginning and end of the course. Please ensure you have at least three hours between sessions for homework and research. The course will be hosted at Everdale, near Hillsburgh (1 hour drive north west of Toronto). Please let us know if transportation is an issue. We will organize car pooling where possible. See www.everdale.org for directions.
Course and Program Fees
The cost of the Farm Business Planning course is $400 per participant. The tuition is discounted considerably for the February 2008 launch. Participants will be actively involved in providing feedback to further the development of the course. The tuition may be recoverable for those who apply for funding through the Canadian Agricultural Skills Service (CASS) before taking the course.
Program services in addition to the course at this time are for mentoring services. Read the mentorship page for more information on the mentoring program and paying fee for service. CASS funding as well as Heifer funding maybe available to you. Read more on CASS here Read more on Heifer Funding here
*Contact us if you would like more information about pursuing CASS funding.*
Eligibility Criteria for Participants in the Farm Business Panning Course
· Committed to starting your own farm business in the next year or two, and have at minimum a general idea of the structure of that farm (general location, crops, marketing strategy, etc);
· In the spirit of Heifer, course participants are open to sharing their experiences as new farmers through future class presentations, mentoring and/or farm tours;
· Committed to Ecologically sound farming (though organic certification is not a requirement);
· Committed to being an active participant in the learning process.
Please Contact us for more information: growingfarmers@everdale.org
Links:
New Farmer Links and Resources - a comprehensive list of programs and resources for new farmer training
Course Files:
Ann Slater's Presentation (in word format) on small farm regulations
Simon Jacques ppt on certification
John Molenhuis - OMAFRA - Financing and OMAFRA programs for small farmers Power point
David Cohlmyer's accessing land handout - Coming soon
Don Mills - LFP and partnerships powerpoint
Course Resources and Background reading - organized by session:
Session 1 Introduction and background reading
So you want to be a farmer: (Produced by Agriculture Canada)
http://agmarketing.extension.psu.edu/Business/PDFs/SoWantFarmr.pdf
Session 2 & 3 Holistic Management
Holistic Management: A whole-farm decision making framwork:
http://www.attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/holistic.pdf
Session 4 Analyzing your Current Situation
"Farming Alternatives: A Guide to Evaluating the Feasibility of New Farm-Based Enterprises" by NRAES
"Exploring the Small Farm Dream" by The New England Small Farm Institute
1000 Stories of Regenerative Agriculture
http://www.newfarm.org/archive/1000_stories/1000stories_archive.shtml
Stats Canada - 2006 Census - Organic Statistics - click to download
Session 5 Developing a Marketing Strategy
http://www.csafarms.org/csafarms0656231.asp - Awesome CSA startup manual from the Michigan CSA conference mini school.
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/directmkt.pdf - Direct Marketing - ATTRA - a comprehensive resource
Selling Strategies for Local Producers:
http://extension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/hort/g06222.pdf
Marketing Ethnic Foods - This is an amazing collection of presentation summaries and some great videos from a recent local conference:
http://www.farmstart.ca/conference-follow-up/conference-follow-up-home/
http://www.climateandfarming.org/eghg-f.php - CSA's can counter climate change? Let your customers know the added values of sustainable agriculture
Session 6 Developing an Operations and Human Resource Strategy
Information on and about writing contracts: http://www.hiringacontractor.com/
Session 7 Developing a Financial Strategy
Good overview of financial documents for small farms - http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/factsheets/pricing/index4.shtml
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/factsheets/pricing/index4.shtml is Part 4 of an amazing series on finances, this ones touches on creating budgets.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/factsheets/pricing/index4.shtml is Part 3 of that series on cost concepts.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/factsheets/pricing/index2.shtml is Part 2 on record keeping.
http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/projects/factsheets.cfm contains a bunch of fact sheets for livestock enterprises developed by Cornell University which include budget examples.
http://www.nr.gov.nl.ca/agric/fact_pubs/pdf/fbm/management.pdf - Management Depreciation versus Capital Cost Allowance - government resource
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101172761033.aspx?av=ZXL000 - This is link to Excel spreadsheet templates for a wide range of financial statements. Most relevant to this course are the "Income Statement 1 Year" and the "12 month cash flow statement"
http://www.cias.wisc.edu/pdf/grwr2grwr.pdf - Study: Financial analysis of 24 farms
Session 8 Land, Financing and Answering Legal Questions
http://www.ssfpa.net/documents/pdf/south_carolina_credit_barriers.pdf - Funding the New Harvest: Overcoming Credit Barriers for North Carolina’s Sustainable Farming Enterprises
http://agmarketing.extension.psu.edu/Business/PDFs/SoWantFarmr.pdf - So you want to be a farmer: (Produced by Agriculture Canada - good overview of the topic)
www.everdale.org/growingfarmers/Organic Products Regulations.pdf - Canadian Organic Product Legislation
www.everdale.org/growingfarmers/Canadian Organic Production Systems Standards.pdf - Canadian Organic Production System Standards
Session 9 Evaluating, Implementing and Monitoring your Plan
Local Food Plus is presenting this session: www.localfoodplus.com
Writing you business plan - http://www.farmcentre.com/File.aspx?id=b44db8ff-c6e2-43ab-8173-33c28e51619c
Session 10 Reflecting on the Business Planning Process
http://www.sare.org/publications/naf2/naf2.pdf - The New American Farmer: Profiles of Agricultural Innovation: (200+ case studies of small diversified farms)
Post Course:
Canadian online farm management skills course : http://www.farmcentre.com/File.aspx?id=7657331a-f604-48fa-8b80-3903446936f0
Agriculture schools and courses in Canada: http://www.farmcentre.com/resources/Courses/
Farm school scholarships: http://www.farmcentre.com/resources/Scholarships/
General Resources
Download the: New Farmer Training Resources in Ontario Pamphlet
http://www.newfarm.org/ - Tremendous resource on all topics. Great search engine.
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html - AMAZING Links to tones of ag resources
www.soilandhealth.org - amazing online library of many agriculture classics and more recent texts.
CSA Resources
http://www.csafarms.org/csafarms0656231.asp - Kansas is got it! - CSA coop and cooperation starting point.
http://www.csafarms.org/csafarms0656231.asp - Awesome CSA startup manual from the Michigan CSA conference mini school.
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/csa.pdf - ATTRA - General CSA info
Production Links
http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/ -Sustainable Farming Connection: (A source of excellent links to many topics)
http://www.pasturemanagement.com/index.htm - Livestock and pasture management
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/ - Vegetable MD - online! Yep diseases and their hopeful remedies
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/postharvest.pdf - Post harvest handling for vegetables
http://www.uvm.edu/sustainableagriculture/HighTunnels.pdf - Low cost season extension in greenhouses
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/ppp/pppToC.html - Book on Poultry Production
Food Listserves
http://www.farmcentre.com/Services/Emails.aspx - Weekly newsletters from the CFMBC - Canadian Farm Business Management Council
http://www.foodsecurity.org/list.html - Community Food Security Coalition - Great ear to the ground source - mostly American
hmilistserve-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - Holistic Management topics - great information and discussion - send blank subject and body email to join.
discover-subscribe@gtalocalfood.ca - Discover Local Food Listserve - Run by the Greater Toronto Area Agriculture Action Committee - relevant local info and events
localfoodlist-subscribe@gtalocalfood.ca - Also run by the GTAAAC - local food ideas list
tfpc@toronto.ca - Toronto food policy council listserve
http://www.foodshare.net/links01.htm#2 - Foodshare - Great links to agriculture organizations near and far
Organizations:
http://www.organiccouncil.ca/ - The Organic Council of Ontario
http://www.localfoodplus.ca/ - Local Food Plus Certification
http://www.foodsecurity.org/pubs.html - Community Food Security Organization
http://www.farmstart.ca/ - Great organization with amazing links and resources on line.
http://www.farmstart.ca/ready-to-farm-home/ - Directory of relevant resources for a variety of related topics
http://www.efao.org - Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario
http://www.agriwebinar.com/UpcomingAgriwebinars.php - organized by the CFBMC - online real time talks about current agricultural issues
http://www.farmcentre.com/home.aspx - Canadian Farm Business Management Center - Great website with many resources
Local Food and New Farmer Media Links:
http://www.beyondorganic.com/ - Podcasts
http://kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/ - Weekly web radio show - Deconstructing Dinner - Canadian made
http://www.thegreenhorns.net/trailer.html - Great upcoming new farmer movie
http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/ - Blog about the above film - scroll down to find a long list of online food related movies
http://womensgardencycles.wordpress.com/ - Upcoming film about a cycling community garden tour across the continent
http://www.kingcorn.net/ - Gripping full length documentary about corn and the food system
http://www.angelicorganics.com/ - The Real Dirt on Farmer John - Great movie about Farmer John and Angelic Organics
Great Local Farms:
www.vermiorganics.com - Worm composting business and 350 acre farm - Starting a CSA - Also field cropping
http://www.coopersfarm.ca/index.php - Goats and Veggie CSA + agro-tourism -mazes - great website
www.fertilegroundcsa.com - Kitchener CSA of Ang Koch