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Farm Business Plan

A “Business Milk” that briefly explains the scope of the business plan.  (written as a last step)

Company Description

Business Milk own 71 acres in the town of South Bend of Sheffield County.  There are 50 acres of tillable land currently all in grass for hay and pasture.  The family currently raise approximately 202 goats for meat production and the sale of breeding stock.   

Long Range Strategy and Implementation:

Short Term Goals:  (Within 2008 calendar year)

Determine best alternative to establish a goat diary
Establish financing for selected alternative

Intermediate Term Goals:

Sign contract and build barn/milking facility or locate suitable farm for purchase and establishment of dairy in existing facility.

Long Term Goals:

1.         Goat dairy is a final phase for complete utilization of time and energy in the enterprise.              

Options:

The owners are considering two options:

One possibility is to build a milking facility on their current property.

Debt load may be larger

Allows for alternative use of existing barn

Avoids cost of moving entire enterprise

Second possibility is the purchase of an existing facility near Watertown and move the enterprise to that location.

Facility could  be modified, not built from scratch

More land may be available

Debt load is minimal with sale of current facility and house.

Cost and stress of moving entire enterprise is high.

Product Marketing

Farm Business Plan,Milk from the  dairy will be marketed in two ways.  The primary market will be to freeze the milk in shipping  bags and transported periodically to the Old Chatham Cheese company in Albany, NY.  The second market is developing a branded product in conjunction with Kutter’s Cheese.  The current market price for milk is $.94 per pound.

Risks:

The primary issue at the current location is the land base and available land to provide necessary forage given the tight land market and hay market in the past few years.  Ensuring access to adequate forage is a necessity prior to working toward the 400 animal goal.

An additional unknown is the availability of a part time labor force to cover the time invested in running 400 animals through the parlor as well as keeping feed costs in line.

Moving to Watertown would require additional time to finish interior of house and bring the existing property up to speed in preparation for sale.

Existing cashflow is a concern.  Debt capacity is strong, but income from meat sales will decrease some as herd size is increased by retaining more young  for breeding / milking potential.

Moving to northern NY increases land base and should require very little debt if current farm is sold.  However, the time involved may set back dairy plans by up to 12 months.