Our Farm Viability program provides farm owners with business education resources, skills development, and business planning.

• Business Coaching Sessions are free, 90-minute sessions with a UVM Extension Agricultural Business Educator, to discuss business planning and finances. These meetings are often for a specific purpose, or provide new farmers with financial planning guidance. Schedule a coaching session with us.
• Short-Term Financial Analysis and Planning, including enterprise analyses and cash flow planning are available to mature agricultural businesses who enroll in the Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program.
• In-Depth Agricultural Business Advising, UVM Extension is one of five partners providing one-on-one, in-depth, business advising services through the Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program, administered by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. Our advisors assist with long-term, comprehensive business plans through the Vermont Farm and Forest Viability Program. Our clients have access to roughly 2-years of tailored advising with farm, food and forest business advisors. Planning and advising topics include financial record-keeping, cash flow management, marketing, sales, new product development, capital improvements, accessing financing, accessing land, employee management.

Your advisor conducts on-farm meetings for approximately one year. Together, we explore possible management and enterprise changes that could increase profitability. This process produces a written business plan for the farm, and in the second year of participation, farmers are provided with additional technical assistance and help updating their plans.

Vermont-based farms eligible for this program will have 2 years of operating experience and gross annual sales of $15,000 or more, and source most ingredients in Vermont.

Contact Corinne Cooper, Administrative Assistant, at: 802-656-4824 for more information, or request an agricultural business coaching session online.

Our Farm Viability Program provides retirement and ownership succession planning to clients enrolled in the Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program, through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. Your advisor will work with you to create a farm transfer plan. We will assess the current situation, examine your goals and help you to consider the issues involved with succession. The transfer plan will provide you with resources and plans for implementing your vision.

To learn more about UVM’s Farm Transfer planning service, contact Corinne Cooper, Administrative Assistant, at: 802-656-4824, or request an agricultural business coaching session online.