Assessing the Impacts of Transition

ACORN has developed a series of spreadsheets to help you track your costs on your farm and understand the impacts of transition. The spreadsheets will be of use to both new farmers and established conventional farmers. The spreadsheets have been designed to utilize the issues and concepts discussed throughout The Organic Path. It is important that you consider the impact of certification on your farm’s costs, operations and markets. The spreadsheets will be able to help you organize and interpret the financial impacts of the transition to certified organic production. They will allow you to adjust certain variables (such as a % drop in yields) to develop different scenarios.

The spreadsheets have several unique features designed, based on the experience of organic producers in the Maritimes:

Five Year Projections

Instead of just single year, the spreadsheets will help you look at the costs/benefits of transition over a five year period. For example, a vegetable farm may have to purchase significant amounts of compost in the first year of transition to build up the organic matter in their fields. Those costs may not have to be incurred to the same extent in year two to five. For dairy farmers considering transition to organic production it is important to know the amount and the timing of cost changes for items like certified organic feed. By taking a long term approach to the budget, farmers can make an informed decision about whether the decision to go organic makes sense for them. If you are looking at a projected negative number after 5 years, then that should prompt serious review of costs, prices and the opportunity itself.

Accounting for Labour

Many farmers do not count their time when calculating their costs of production. The Organic Path spreadsheets pay specific attention to labour as it can be one of the most critical factors in managing the transition, and the farmer’s income (or lack of) is one the main reasons people exit agriculture. The spread sheet files will allow you to enter family member, staff and your time spent before and after transition. Many organic farms take on interns, WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). A unique feature of this tool is that the total amount of unpaid labour is accounted. That information might be helpful for a farmer to create a contingency plan for situations where unpaid/paid labour might not be available.

Integrated Budget Models and Resources

The spreadsheets include sample budget number and hyperlinks to relevant enterprise budgets, cost of production analysis and discussion papers.

Adjustable Variability

How will your market price, yields, operating costs and labour costs be impacted by the decision to transition to certified organic production? You may or may not have an exact answer at this time. The Organic Path spreadsheets will enable you to easily adjust those numbers up or down by 10%, 25% or 50%. You will be able to easily play with the numbers and run “What if” scenarios - What if I have to pay my staff 25% more, what if feed goes up 50%, what if I only get a 10% premium? You may not know for sure, but at least you can plan for different outcomes.

The spreadsheets can be downloaded in Microsoft Excel Format:

• Market Garden (407 KB PDF)
• Dairy (407 KB PDF)
• Livestock (424 KB PDF)
• Grain (402 KB PDF)