KLorentz, the agronomy side of the equation is the fun stuff about growing that we all love.
But please make sure you have a business plan to go along with your crop plans.
At the very least you should make a crop enterprise budget for each crop you are gonna grow.
I can send you a really easy to use template for crop budgeting that could be a really big eye opener for you to know what it will cost for you to go from seed to harvest. Here is a copy and paste example of a greenhouse tomato operation:
Prepare Soil: NOTES: Labor at 12.55/hr.
On each line: 1st number is Labor, second is Machine cost, 3rd is Product Cost
Spread ferts/compost 25.10 0 120.00
(4 yards compost, 50 lbs fertilizer)
Rototill (1hr) 12.55 3.00 0
Rake, handwork (2hrs) 25.10 0 0
Set drip lines, patch (2hrs) 25.10 0 25.00
($40 drip lines/2 uses plus fittings)
Install mulch and anchor 12.55 0 28.00
($200 weed mat/10 yds, anchors)
Tighten greenhouse, other 25.10 0 0
Heat, vent, alarm ready 25.10 0 0
Seed/Transplant:
Cost of transplants 0 0 243.00
(450 plants needed/greenhouse, $0.54/3.5" pot)
Transplanting labor (4hrs) 50.20 0 0
Cultivation:
Drop strings 25.10 0 5.00
Clip strings 25.10 0 0
Prune and trellis 7x 329.44 0 0
(Average: .75 hr/row, 3.75 hrs each time = 26.25 hrs total)
Weed holes, edges 3x 75.30 (6 hrs total) 0 0
Prune leaves, sweep up 3x 112.95 (9 hrs total) 0 0
Top plants 9/1 37.65 (3 hrs total) 0 0
Roll up and down sides 58.99 0 0
(4 mins/time x 70 days = 4.7 hrs)
Labor Machinery Product
Pre-harvest subtotal: 865.33 3.00 421.00= 1289.33
Harvest:
Total yield for greenhouse = 300 15-lb boxes at 10 lbs marketable fruit/plant (450 plants)
Total hours to harvest greenhouse 60 hrs. Average: five 15-lb boxes/hr.
Labor Machine Product
Field to pack house 753.00 (60 hrs) 0 0
Pack house to dock 376.50 0 0
(at 10 boxes/hr sorting and folding up boxes)
Bags, boxes, labels 0 0 321.00 ($1.00/box, $0.07/label: 300 at $1.07)
Delivery 30.12 9.60 0
Post Harvest:
Detrellis and remove 75.30 (6 hrs total) 0 0
Sweep and fold mulch 12.55 0 0
Move drip lines 12.55 0 0
Labor Machine Product
Post-harvest subtotal: 2125.35 12.60 742.00 = 2,879.95 Harvested cost for greenhouse
Marketing Costs: Labor Machine Product
Labor: sales calls. Average 10 mins/week for 12 weeks = 2 hrs/season (for this crop only) 25.10
Farmers’ mkt expense 60.24 4.70 9.00
Total Crop Costs: 2210.69 17.30 751.00 = 2,978.99
Greenhouse & Overhead Costs: 3227.00
(Greenhouse annual expenses: $830; greenhouse overhead allocation: $2397.)
Total Costs:
Crop & Overhead Total: 6205.99
Sales: # of units Price per unit Total $
Retail: 100.00 48.75 4875.00
Wholesale: 200.00 36.00 7200.00
Total units 300.00
Total Sales: 12075.00
Net Profit:
Total sales – total costs = 5869.01
Net Profit/Acre: Not applicable
Cost/Unit: 20.69 Total cost/total units
Net Profit/Unit: 19.56 Net profit/total units
Last edited by PureHarvest; April 19, 2016 at 10:53 AM.
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