An enterprise budget is used to estimate the profitability of growing a particular crop or raising livestock. It comprises a list of income and expenses, based on certain assumptions. Enterprise budgets are also useful in conducting breakeven analyses and selecting a mix of enterprises on a farm. Researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University Richmond campus have been working with local farmers to develop such enterprise budgets for 30 crops and livestock. These include 21 vegetables, three fruits, four livestock and two specialty crops.
Now the first drafts of budgets for all the selected enterprises are complete and ready for reviewing. In order for these budgets to be useful and as representative as possible for small-scale farms in southwest BC, they have to be reviewed by experienced farmers in the region of southwest BC. However, it should be noted that these enterprise budgets are not intended to represent any particular farm. Any farmer can use these budgets as a guide in evaluating their own farm operation. The research team at ISFS is committed to working with local farmers in developing the tools they need to plan and evaluate farming operations. Therefore, interested farmers are invited to help review the budgets or participate in the project in anyway possible. If you would like to learn more about the enterprise budgets project, you can go to our website (below) and/or read our article recently published in the Organic Grower magazine (volume 17, issue 4, Fall 2014) pages 16-19. Once, all the 30 enterprise budgets are reviewed and validated, they will be made publicly available online free for everyone to download and use.
In addition, we will be hosting five interactive workshops across southwest BC to explain what you could do with an enterprise budget and to guide you how to use it in your own farm operation. Four of the workshops are the same and will discuss an example of a vegetable enterprise. One workshop will focus on lamb or goat meat enterprise. You can choose to participate in any of these workshops. The workshops are free, but you will have to sign up using the link below or contact us expressing your interest to participate. By attending in one of the workshops, you will get a copy of the enterprise budget template we have developed, and be the first one to use it.
Learn more about the enterprise budget project here:
http://bcfoodsystem.com/5-2/project-explorer/enterprise-budgets/
Register to any one of the workshops here:
http://bcfoodsystem.com/5-2/project-explorer/enterprise-budgets/enterprise-budget-workshops/
Contact us:
Enterprise budgets specific inquires: ermias.afeworki@kpu.ca/604-599-2680
Southwest BC food system project inquiries: neal.ranzoni@kpu.ca/604-599-2574
