Browse by Topic: Planning

Dozens of tools for cereal crop producers to dial in production and planning, from profitability of post-plant nitrogen applications, to historical climate data, to irrigation investment calculators, and much more.

A newsletter that is weekly during the growing season with crop conditions, pest alerts, news, events, and detailed articles on everything from pest management to labor issues to post-harvest best practices.

The toolkit lays out the common operational elements that most urban farmers must consider as they start up or grow their operations. It also contains a special section on resources for developing indoor growing operations, such as aquaponic facilities. For each element, the toolkit identifies technical and financial resources that have been developed by federal, state, and local partners. Includes info on start-up costs, key resources, land access, soil and water quality considerations, accessing capital, infrastructure, production strategies, applying for grants, market development, mentoring, and more.

IPM pest and disease modeling and forecasting. Includes pest-specific data and other factors such as growing-degree days.

Current and historical US topographic maps available as digital files or printed to order. You can also create maps.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which perennial plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, displayed as 10-degree F zones and 5-degree F half zones.

Veggie Compass is a decision support tool to help diversified vegetable farmers understand their costs of production and evaluate profitability by crop and by market channel. Veggie Compass enables farmers to make strategic decisions to adjust prices, reduce costs, shift market channel focus, reduce or drop unprofitable products, and expand production of their most profitable ventures based on their own farm data. Gathering and entering the data needed to accurately calculate the costs of production on a diversified vegetable farm that might be growing over 40 crops and selling in multiple markets is challenging. This is why so many growers rely on gut instincts and/or simplified crop budgets rather than a complete accounting. Veggie Compass is designed to help growers sort through the chaos and enable them to make data-driven decisions to enhance profitability. Growers using Veggie Compass report learning which crops on their farm are true “winners” and “losers” in terms of profitability; identifying which market channels are more profitable than others; identifying where cost savings might be made or whether yields could be enhance through better management; using the information from Veggie Compass to negotiate higher prices with wholesale buyers or to target specific crops for wholesale markets.

An in-depth view from 2021 at the effects climate change will have on Vermont, the state of Vermont's food system, and key actions Vermont farmers can take to adapt.

The Viability Program provides a range of services, from in-depth long-term business planning to short-term specialized assistance, including Business Planning, Enterprise Analysis, Financial Record-keeping and Management, Marketing and Sales, Human

The CSF Water Deficit Calculator estimates soil water content within a crop’s effective root zone to inform decision makers about current and forecasted water deficits. Information is used to determine the optimum frequency and duration of irrigation

Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information. Soil surveys can be used for general farm, local, and wider area planning.

This talk will present a literature review and research on how characteristics of precipitation and drought have been changing in the Northeast United States. The webinar presenters will discuss previous and new research on changes in the last several decades in precipitation and drought in the Northeast, including snowfall and the number of days with snow on the ground. The purpose of this is to observe what changes may already be happening related to anthropogenic global warming, as changes in snow, rain, and drought in this region may have far reaching effects moving forward.

Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) provides a risk management safety net for all commodities on the farm under one insurance policy and is available in all counties nationwide. This insurance plan is tailored for any farm with up to $17 million in insured revenue, including farms with specialty or organic commodities (both crops and livestock), or those marketing to local, regional, farm-identity preserved, specialty, or direct markets.

Historical weather data, including wind direction and intensity.