Cornell University Cooperative Extension to Assist Organic Dairy Producers

New York Farm Viability Institute Funds Project to Reduce Financial Management Barriers Faced by Organic Dairy Producers

New York’s organic dairy farmers can better understand where their business is financially thanks to a new initiative that promotes improved record keeping and the use of benchmarking to compare financial measures. Benchmarking may help farmers identify possible areas for improvement.

Encouraging use of the Dairy Farm Business Summary among organic dairy farms is a collaborative effort of the NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Program, PRO-DAIRY (a Cornell University Cooperative Extension Program), and the Finger Lakes Resources Conservation and Development Council, Inc. The project recently received grant funds from the New York Farm Viability Institute.

“The goal is to reduce financial management barriers faced by organic dairy producers,” said John Hanchar. “Organic dairy producers want the ability to use financial information about their business to answer the following questions.

• Where is the business now?
• Where do I want the business to be?
• How will I get the business to where I want it to be?”

Cornell economists developed the Dairy Farm Business Summary program in the 1950s, but the program has not been as helpful for organic farms. “Opportunities for peer to peer comparisons that bring together adequate numbers of organic dairy farm businesses for meaningful comparisons are lacking,” Hanchar said. “The lack of opportunities limits producers’ abilities to use financial information to answer the above questions.”

The NWNY Program will recruit and work with organic dairy producers using Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s Dairy Farm Business Summary (DFBS) Program, combined with peer to peer comparisons, and problem solving opportunities to overcome financial management barriers.

Participants will complete DFBS’s for the 2008, 2009, and 2010 years, identify areas for possible improvement, and make decisions about changes on the farm. Cornell University Cooperative Extension support will include working with participants at their farms to complete the farm business summary and analysis process. There are no fees to participate.

If you are an organic dairy producer and you feel that measuring and comparing your financial results to other organic dairy farm businesses will help you be more successful, contact John Hanchar for more information, (585) 658-3250 extension 112, or by email, jjh6@cornell.edu.

Or, if you provide goods and, or services to organic producers and you think that your clients might benefit from and, or be interested in farm business summary and analysis, then please share this information with producers.

Remember, “If you can’t or don’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.”

This project is possible in part due to grant funds from the NY Farm Viability Institute.

On the web:
Cornell Dairy Farm Business Summary, http://dfbs.aem.cornell.edu
Cornell Pro-Dairy, www.ansci.cornell.edu/prodairy
Finger Lakes Resource Conservation & Development Council, www.fingerlakesrcd.org
NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Program, www.nwnyteam.org
NY Farm Viability Institute, www.nyfvi.org
Return to AgFocus Page