Agriculture where is a good place to start?

[drydem]

Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).

for example...

1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market

Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?

what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?

At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?


Walter

[george conklin]

Post by drydem
Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).
for example...
1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market
Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?
what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?
At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?
Walter

Every one of the above requires a high initial cost and a great chance of
losing money. Tobacco no longer gets a quota or a subsidy so you need
hundreds of acres to get started, and just in the past year virtually every
farmer near us has abandoned the crop. Grapes have gone into tremendous
surplus this year, and dairy farms are dealing with surplus milk. Farmers
markets demand you grow your own crops, so that would be the end of the line
after running a multi-purpose farm (and yes, my father-in-law was a market
manager....and my wife's family had a stall there too). I don't know about
sod farming. A tree nursery is hard to make money at. Around here Xmas
trees are a big crop, but you don't really want to talk to my neighbors
about their problems....

[drydem]

Post by george conklin

Post by drydem
Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).
for example...
1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market
Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?
what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?
At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?
Walter

Every one of the above requires a high initial cost and a great chance of
losing money. Tobacco no longer gets a quota or a subsidy so you need
hundreds of acres to get started, and just in the past year virtually every
farmer near us has abandoned the crop. Grapes have gone into tremendous
surplus this year, and dairy farms are dealing with surplus milk. Farmers
markets demand you grow your own crops, so that would be the end of the line
after running a multi-purpose farm (and yes, my father-in-law was a market
manager....and my wife's family had a stall there too). I don't know about
sod farming. A tree nursery is hard to make money at. Around here Xmas
trees are a big crop, but you don't really want to talk to my neighbors
about their problems....-

Would an ethanol or bio diesel refinery count as an agribusiness?

what about niche markets?
What about speciality herbs, e.g. ginseng, shitake mushrooms?
What about speciality nursey, e.g. orchids?

With Globalization how can agriculture survive global competition?
Is agriculture dependent on keynesian economics ?

[Amy Blankenship]

Post by drydem

Post by george conklin

Post by drydem
Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).
for example...
1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market
Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?
what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?
At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?
Walter

Every one of the above requires a high initial cost and a great chance of
losing money. Tobacco no longer gets a quota or a subsidy so you need
hundreds of acres to get started, and just in the past year virtually every
farmer near us has abandoned the crop. Grapes have gone into tremendous
surplus this year, and dairy farms are dealing with surplus milk.
Farmers
markets demand you grow your own crops, so that would be the end of the line
after running a multi-purpose farm (and yes, my father-in-law was a market
manager....and my wife's family had a stall there too). I don't know about
sod farming. A tree nursery is hard to make money at. Around here Xmas
trees are a big crop, but you don't really want to talk to my neighbors
about their problems....-

Would an ethanol or bio diesel refinery count as an agribusiness?
what about niche markets?
What about speciality herbs, e.g. ginseng, shitake mushrooms?
What about speciality nursey, e.g. orchids?

For questions such as these, you could check out

http://www.newrules.org/de/index.html
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm.html
http://www.ncat.org/agri.html

Also search for Joel Salatin

[george conklin]

Post by drydem

Post by george conklin

Post by drydem
Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).
for example...
1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market
Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?
what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?
At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?
Walter

Every one of the above requires a high initial cost and a great chance of
losing money. Tobacco no longer gets a quota or a subsidy so you need
hundreds of acres to get started, and just in the past year virtually every
farmer near us has abandoned the crop. Grapes have gone into tremendous
surplus this year, and dairy farms are dealing with surplus milk.
Farmers
markets demand you grow your own crops, so that would be the end of the line
after running a multi-purpose farm (and yes, my father-in-law was a market
manager....and my wife's family had a stall there too). I don't know about
sod farming. A tree nursery is hard to make money at. Around here Xmas
trees are a big crop, but you don't really want to talk to my neighbors
about their problems....-

Would an ethanol or bio diesel refinery count as an agribusiness?
what about niche markets?
What about speciality herbs, e.g. ginseng, shitake mushrooms?
What about speciality nursey, e.g. orchids?
With Globalization how can agriculture survive global competition?
Is agriculture dependent on keynesian economics ?

The local growers of shitake mushrooms are now going in for truffles,
which they think can make it with some help from the tobacco buyout money.
I'm not sure about nursery, but my brother-in-law went broke trying one.
I'm not sure what gloabalization will mean.

[Pat]

Post by drydem
Per acre what are constitutes hi value/ROI agri businesses?
Is there a way to find this out? ( respecting that only certain
things can be produced or grown within a particular region).
for example...
1) hi value crop - tobacco
2) subsidized crop - soybeans
3) vineyard/winery
4) subsidize livestocks - dairy farm
5) orchards
6) Tree Nursery
7) lo cost hi yield crop - sod farming
8) farmers market
Where would I start looking to find the accounting/business
view of the capital cost, operating cost, profit, and ROI
to run an agricultural business/operation?
what constitutes a sustainable agribusiness operation
with respect to a given market condition and tax structure?
At what point, does agriculture become financiallly
unsustainable or overly economically difficulty/risky
as a business venture?
Walter

To start with, google for "cooperative extension" or "land grant
college" along with the info you want. In most states, there are
cooperative extension agents that help farmers. These are tied to
land grant colleges that do a lot of the research and gather a lot of
the information. For example, in New York it is "Cornell Cooperative
Extension" with a branch in almost every county.

After that, check out the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

You could get an idea of what going on by looking at the Census
Bureau's business reports and compare some time-series info.

Finally, you could get an idea about capitalization by checking
something like RMA Statement Studies.