Making a regenerative operation pay: pricing, costs, grants, loans and diversified income.
NAP, LIP, ELAP, ECP, TAP and the FSA Emergency Loan explained for a small farm: what each one pays, the deadlines that cannot be missed, the records to gather before the storm, and what none of them covers.
Most US farmland is worked by someone who does not own it, and USDA's one land access program was canceled last week. How written leases, soil clauses, lease-to-own, easements and land trusts let a farmer build soil on rented ground without losing the investment.
Most farms still have no written succession plan. A practical guide to the first family meeting, fair versus equal, the entity and lease tools that make a gradual handover work, and what to do when the successor is not family.
An enterprise budget for a market garden or a pasture herd: the variable costs, the overhead and unpaid hours most small farms skip, break-even per unit, and a price list that follows from your own numbers instead of the neighbor's stall.
A spring of frozen contracts and late reimbursements is the backdrop for grant season. Which USDA grants fit a small farm, what each costs in match and reports, the Value-Added Producer Grant due April 17, SARE, FMPP, RFSI, and the programs to leave alone.
Carbon contracts promise a new income line for cover crops and no-till. Here is what the offers really pay per acre and per ton, what the additionality, permanence and data clauses mean, who owns the credit, and where USDA's program stood in November 2024.
Whole-Farm Revenue Protection and its smaller cousin Micro Farm insure a diversified farm's revenue under one policy. What they cover, the tax records they need, how the subsidy works, the sales closing dates, and when FSA's NAP is the better fit.
What the IRS counts as a farm, Schedule F line by line, the depreciation and Section 179 choices for 2023 equipment, how the hobby loss rule works, the March 1 farmer deadline, and the records that make next year's return easy.
A plain guide to FSA farm loans for a first-generation farm: microloans, direct operating and ownership loans, the down payment loan, this month's rates, what counts as farm experience, the paperwork, and the honest limits of borrowed money.
EQIP pays a share of specific practices, CSP pays a yearly amount for a whole operation. How the money, the ranking dates and the contract obligations work for a small farm in 2023, and what to bring to your first visit at the service center.
It seems that one key element to our economic recovery may lie in the food production of small and local farms.
Aid to America’s farmers is welcome, but the flaws in its distribution are impossible to ignore.
