Category Archives: Small Farm Business

Chickens & Record Keeping

I told you in my last chicken post that chicken are tyrants to work for.  Not only do I have to keep their schedules, there are also records to keep.  Tyrants, I tell you! I need new bosses. Or better … Continue reading

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Small Farm Business: Taxes

Tax time is nothing to sing the blues about! Last night was our tax appointment, and believe it or not it’s a fairly pain-free process for us. We were in and out in an hour! Prior to starting the farm … Continue reading

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Small Farm Business: Permission Marketing

I wanted to share a post I read recently about marketing called Reaching the People Who Get It. The gist of the article is that it’s a waste of your marketing efforts to market to people who just don’t “get … Continue reading

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Sampling

Potato and onion harvest I’m usually reticent to give away very much of our product. Oh sure, I’ll donate the occasional package for promotions that our farmers markets do. But by and large I find that other forms of marketing … Continue reading

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Fall

Sunrise at choretime I’ve been rather absentee around here, haven’t I? And when I am here I mainly write fluff. It’s not that there’s nothing to write about. It’s more that we’ve fallen into a rhythm here that’s become semi-conscious, … Continue reading

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Lessons in entrepreneurship

Yesterday the last of Madeline’s 4-H pigs went to the locker. A bit of a sad day for her, but all a part of being a hog farmer. And a hog farmer she is. Even though her own hogs are … Continue reading

Posted in Maddog's Hogs, Small Farm Business | 6 Comments

Lessons in Marketing : Funky Chickens

The hen’s chicks are growing! When we have chickens butchered, there are always some that come back as “double staples”. The processor double staples the bags on chickens that are missing parts – some combination of drumsticks and/or wings. Usually … Continue reading

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Small Farm Business: Enterprise Budgeting

The budget is where we start our “number crunching” for the year. There are multiple parts to our budget – a budget for each enterprise (beef, pork and chicken in our case) and an overall budget for the farm as … Continue reading

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Ask the Readers: Collecting Payment

Reader “ang” left a good question in the comments of yesterday’s Small Farm Business post, regarding collecting payments from customers. This is a really important piece of direct marketing, so I thought I would throw it out to the SCF … Continue reading

Posted in Ask the Readers, Small Farm Business | 14 Comments

Small Farm Business: The Checking Account

When we first started our farm we took care of the farm expenses out of our personal checking account. We didn’t have any farm income yet, so any farm expenses were funded out of our personal finances anyway. I used … Continue reading

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