By Tony Kitsos, UVM Extension Farm Viability Program
As summer approaches and the cropping season enters full swing, it’s a great time to think about the direction in which your farm is headed as you bring in the hay. Many of Vermont’s dairies still have water quality projects to attend to, and sorting out just how to pay for them is at the forefront of the conversation. Is there enough money in the checking account to cover it all? Can EQIP and BMP funds get it all off the ground? Are there additional grants available to supplement your project funding? Can your budget withstand that next added expense? Is there room on my balance sheet to take out another loan to complete the project? There are a good many questions to get answers to as you work to address these daunting project costs. UVM Extension’s Agricultural Business unit can help make the decision process go a bit more smoothly.
With grant support from the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets’ Water Initiative Program (CWIP), UVM Ag Biz is uniquely positioned to help gather the necessary financial information for producers to use in their decision – making tree with a confidential and impartial review of your current financial situation. We help producers by assisting them with a wide array of outreach education materials in both financial and production management specific to your farm, designed to provide farm owners with the tools necessary to make the best decisions possible.
Cash flow analysis can help producers understand their current budget needs, provide them with a look at the overall impact of future infrastructure improvements and help inform them on how to achieve compliance with the current RAP’s. Assistance with balance sheet updates and a quick evaluation of how they work in unison with budget projections bring clarity to the possibility of borrowing funds for project completion. Some of the more complex situations call for a “targeted management team” approach, where the producer brings the major stakeholders in the project - state and federal engineers and advisors, Extension specialists, and even lenders - to the table for real – time conversations focused on practical and efficient solutions to water quality concerns that best suit the farm’s situation. Extension’s Ag Biz team can also assist producers with the development of more long range, comprehensive business planning through the Farm and Forest Viability Program. As a cash flow takes shape that is focused on water quality projects, it becomes apparent that it must fit in with the long range goals of the farm. Many participants will move to full business planning assistance to explore an array of topics. Farm business growth and expansion, land acquisition, business – to – business transition, family succession planning and farm retirement are all topics that need to be considered when deciding what to do.
If you’re looking at a water quality infrastructure project related to making important farmstead improvements and would like to have comprehensive, impartial and confidential financial review, call Tony Kitsos UVM Outreach Professional, at 802-524-6501, or drop me an email at tony.kitsos@uvm.edu.