Women in Agriculture (WAgN)

The Women's Agricultural Network would like to extend a sincere Happy New Year to all of you. We wish you a prosperous, healthy and productive year. Thank you for all you do to keep our landscape working.

We'd also like to encourage you to complete the USDA 2007 Census of Agriculture. The forms were mailed last week and should be arriving in your mailbox soon.

The Census of Agriculture is the responsibility of every farmer and rancher, regardless of the size or type of operation. For Census purposes, a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year.

This year for the first time you can complete the census online. Look for instructions along with the passcode inside your form. If you do not receive a form you can request one at https://www.agcounts.usda.gov/cgi-bin/counts

The deadline for completing the census is February 4, 2008.

One of the most common requests we get from new farmers is about the availability of grants to start businesses. The fact is that there are a few grant programs available to farmers and small business owners but, for the most part, success in the application process requires experience and the funds are not for startup.

What is a grant? A grant is money that is given for a specific purpose. Grant funds do not have to repaid unless the provisions of the grant are violated but grants are not free money. There are strings attached to grant funds. Normally there is a fairly rigorous application process which requires careful preparation and planning. The competition for grant funds can be stiff and only a small fraction of applications get funded. Once funds are awarded there is usually a reporting and accountability process that can be fairly time-consuming.

If you are interested in raising money to start a new agricultural business you might be better off spending your time and energy writing a compelling business plan that clearly spells out what you will be producing, who your customers will be, how much you will sell and at what price. When you have all that information pulled together you will be able to determine whether or not the business idea is feasible. If the business is a feasible venture you might be better off either raising investment capital from family and friends or borrowing the money from a lender.

In general, grants are not a good source of startup financing.

The photo has nothing to do with the topic...I just like it!

If you're starting to think about your taxes you might want to take a look at the IRS website. They have done alot to improve their site and many of their publications are now available for downloading.

The Farmers' Tax Guide is available at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p225/index.html

For small businesses and self-employment, check out http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/

For a list of all the publications available check out http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html

It seems like from January through mid-March there is one great conference, workshop and/or association meeting after another. I guess you could spend every weekend learning something and if you add in all the new online courses you could probably make learning a full-time activity during the winter months. And somehow everything seems both affordable and worthwhile. I always learn something at every program I attend.

Probably the best part of all these activities is getting to touch base with friends that I don't see often otherwise. There are about 6-8 folks that I see every year at the NOFA-VT conference -- I don't see them at any other time but that once a year opportunity is enough to fuel our friendship for the entire year in between. Strange...huh.

Anyway, I hope you find time to take advantage of the many opportunities that are still available in this learning season. It's a great time to reflect on changes that you might make in your business...And of course checking in with old friends.