Higher Profits. Less Work. Sound like your farm business goals for 2018?
Join Young Agrarians and author Ben Hartman for a series of webinars focused on how lean principles of efficiency can be applied to your farm enterprise to decrease waste and increase profitability.
DATES:
March 6, 2018 – An Introduction to Lean Concepts for the Small Farm
March 13, 2018 – Five Lean Business Management Tools to Increase Profits w/ Less Work
TIME: 10:00AM – 12:00PM (PST)
COST: $45
If you’re not able to join for both sessions, please contact kristen(at)youngagrarians.org for single session payment options – cost: $25/session
REGISTER NOW: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3653149762140663811
Once you register on the GoToWebinar page you will be redirected to pay through Brown Paper Tickets / PayPal. Once your payment has been confirmed you will receive an email with the information on how to join the webinar.
NOTE: A recording of these webinar sessions will be made available for a limited time to those who registered.
LEAN FARM MANAGEMENT WEBINARS
Session #1: An Introduction to Lean Concepts for the Small Farm
Wondering how to operate your farm more efficiently?
In this 2 hour webinar, Ben Hartman will explain the Lean Management system for identifying and eliminating waste in every aspect of your farm operation. He will cover effectively organizing spaces with the ‘5S’ principles, how to minimize the ‘10 wastes’ to add value to your operation, and discuss how farms can implement the concept of ‘kaizen’ to foster continuous improvement. Q&A period will follow!
Session #2: Five Lean Business Management Tools to Increase Profits with Less Work
How can lean tools and practices be implemented on small farms?
This workshop will build on the Lean Management principles outlined in the first session and will cover incorporating specific tools related to business management. Learn how to set prices with lean thinking and implement lean record-keeping to work more efficiently and increase your operation’s profitability. Q&A period will follow!
ABOUT
A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation
To many people today, using the words “factory” and “farm” in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor.
Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family’s one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman’s prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.
PRESENTER
Ben Hartman – Clay Bottom Farm; Goshen, Indiana
Ben Hartman grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Indiana and graduated college with degrees in English and philosophy. Ben and his wife, Rachel Hershberger, own and operate Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, where they make their living growing and selling specialty crops on less than one acre. Their food is sold locally to restaurants and cafeterias, at a farmers market, and through a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) program. The farm has twice won Edible Michiana’s Reader’s Choice award. The Lean Farm, Ben’s first book, won the Shingo Institute’s prestigious Research and Professional Publication Award. In 2017, Ben was named one of fifty emerging green leaders in the United States by Grist.
Photo
Photo by Alyssa Belter of Plenty Wild Farms in Pemberton, BC
Funders
Funding for the Young Agrarians Business Mentorship Network in 2018 has been provided by Vancity, the Investment Agriculture Foundation of British Columbia, and the Governments of Canada and British Columbia through Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. Young Agrarians generously thanks our funders!
