AGRIBUSINESS INCUBATOR PROJECT
"The Agribusiness Incubator Project provides opportunities, processes and resources that facilitate the entry of new farmers and farm businesses into the agricultural community of North Central Wisconsin".
That is the mission statement of a venture that started in Marathon and Lincoln Counties in October of 2003 called the Agribusiness Incubator Project. Just prior to that date there were several things that came together leading to this joint project between area farmers and agribusinesses, Marathon and Lincoln Counties, the Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce and the Marathon County Economic Development Corporation.
 The initial discussions about setting up an incubator farm in order to provide a training ground to get new dairy farmers into the business came out of a January 2002 planning session for the Central Wisconsin River Graziers, a farmer network based here in the Marathon and Lincoln Counties. The network members have been working with management intensive grazing as a low cost production model that lends itself well to dairy start-up operations. Based on their experiences the group wanted to pursue different ways that an incubator could be set up.
The desire of the Graziers to use a grazing-based model fit right in with their counties. In September of 2001 the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors adopted a comprehensive plan that stated "preserving agricultural resources" and "supporting various efforts to preserve the family farm" as key elements in the implementation of their plan. In 2003 the Marathon County Task Force on the Rural Economy conducted a study looking at possible initiatives that could spur on rural economic revitalization. One of the Task Force recommendations was to have Marathon County create an agricultural transition program, with an incubator farm being a component of that program.
To help meet the goals of all involved UW-Extension began engaging the farmers and their communities in the development of the Agribusiness Incubator Project. An important element in making sure that agriculture remains a viable career path and an integral part of the rural economy.
Papers Related to Agricultural Development:
- Change is a constant in the world. In this white paper the community issues, local agricultural trends from the 1987 to 1997 Censuses of Agriculture and the changing agricultural marketplace come together to shape some opportunities and challenges for Extension programming in agricultural development. (20 pages, 284 KB).
- The Farmer's Career Path: A Planning Framework for Agricultural Development
- This white paper builds on the previous white paper on the challenges and opportunities for Extension programming in Agricultural Development. The paper reviews agricultural trends shaping public perceptions about the status of agriculture, summarizes the results of three community visioning processes, reviews some of the data on farm entry/exit patterns, highlights some research on agricultural transition in New Zealand and proposes how the farmer's career path can be used as a strategic planning framework for agricultural development. (16 pages, 179 KB).
- AG 4.0: Growing Agricultural Entrepreneurs for a New Age of Agriculture
- Even before the US economy began going through its current economic turmoil, rural communities around the country, including the two that I serve, Lincoln and Marathon Counties in Wisconsin, have been looking at all sorts of options to keep their agricultural economy viable. The two other white papers in this series have clearly shown that the number of fulltime farmers has been declining for years and those that remain have and will continue to struggle to adapt and find their niche in a dynamic marketplace where the dividing line between the food and energy sectors has blurred. The good news is it is in such tumultuous times that the status quo can no longer be viewed as an option and innovative approaches on how we learn and conduct business can get some traction and move us into the future. In the hope of slowing down the loss of farmers community leaders have been grasping for solutions and are considering making substantial investments in local educational facilities and different farm and farmland preservation strategies. Unfortunately, there is comfort in the familiar and often proposed “innovative” solutions are not new ideas but old ones with a new coat of paint not well suited to today's world. The return on those investments will never be realized unless communities create learning environments that grow not agricultural workers but entrepreneurs. People who are in tune with the future and respect the past but have little desire to live in it. Ag 4.0 explores the social and educational trends that will continue on into the future, attempts to better define the characteristics of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial endeavors and presents an engaging community based educational model for those interested in creating such learning environments within their community. (33 pages, 260 KB)
Mission and Goals of the Project:
Initial Project Workgroups:
- One-Stop-Shop Resource Development Work Group - January 22, 2004 (3 pages, 21 KB)
- One-Stop-Shop Resource Development Work Group - February 23, 2004 (1 page, 12 KB)
- Financial Support and Funding Work Group - January 22, 2004 (3 pages, 21 KB)
- Financial Support and Funding Work Group - February 23, 2004 (2 pages, 18 KB)
- Model Development Work Group - January 21, 2004 (4 pages, 26 KB)
- Model Development Work Group - February 25, 2004 (3 pages, 31 KB)
Ongoing Project Summaries:
Mentoring System Resource Development:
In October of 2005 a Mentoring System Work Group began exploring the development of a mentoring support system for new farmers and mentors themselves. The following notes follow the prograss of that effort.
- Farmer Experiences with Mentoring - October 18, 2005 (2 pages, 29KB)
- Mentoring Programs for Farmers and Other Professionals - November 28, 2005 (2 pages, 33KB)
- Discussions with the New England Small Farm Institute - December 19, 2005 (2 pages, 24KB)
- New England Small Farm Institute Tour Learning Objectives - January 3, 2006 (2 pages, 27KB)
- How Conflict Styles May Affect Mentoring - February 6, 2006 (1 page, 19KB)
- New England Small Farm Institute Tour Debriefing - March 17, 2006 (4 pages, 34KB)
The report of the Work Group's activities and their recommendations for future work is in this document.
Products Developed from the Agribusiness Incubator Project
Incubator Farm Arrangements and Decision Tools
When the project first began in 2003 one of the goals was to develop some different examples of business arrangements that farms could use in helping to get a new farm up and running. The first Incubator Farm we worked with was an arrangement in which a farm owner wanted to help an employee get started on his own farm. The lease document below is an example of the lease with option to buy arrangement that was developed as a part of this project. The other document is an example of a limited liability company that provided a legal framework for a second incubator farm that was interested in a sharemilking arranagment. Both of these documents were drafted by an area attorney and would need to be modified to fit other situations.. The names and some of the specifics have been removed but much of the wording remains the same. The Building and Farmland Rental spreadsheet was developed in order to help the leasee and leasor arrive at an equitable lease amount. The spreadsheet is not protected so feel free to download it and use it as you wish. It has been a work in progress as new situations have been discovered.
Farmstead Assessment Tool for Either Buying or Selling a Dairy Farm
This tool was developed to provide buyers and sellers with a guide to use in evaluating a farm. It considers everything from barn and buildings to the environment to family and quality of life concerns.
|
