Economic/Marketing

This full-color book profiles 50 inspiring young people—one from every state—who are revitalizing rural America with new enterprises.

In one complete volume, this must-have resource for direct market producers covers the latest tips and trends from leading-edge sellers, managers and market planners all over the country.

Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, the producers in The New American Farmer, 2nd edition have embraced new sustainable approaches to agriculture.

Order an entire set of SARE Outreach books and bulletins for one low price.

For decades, John Allen has helped farmers develop business skills and strategies, improving their profitability and helping to revitalize rural communities.

Beach plum (Prunus maritima Marsh) is one of several shrubby plums native to North America. The jams produced from this fruit command premium prices at farm stands and specialty markets, even in comparison with jam made from other locally grown fruit. However, the wild-collected supply of fruit does not meet this niche market’s demand.

Down a winding country road in Garnett, Kansas stands the Bauman farm, where agriculture is a family affair. Upon purchasing the farm in 2001, the family’s first farm venture was to raise pastured chickens and livestock. Today, the Baumans sell about 7,000 broiler chickens each year and an average 350 dozen eggs a week.

With the help of a grant from the NCRSARE Farmer Rancher grant program, the Baumans experimented with pasturing different species of animals in the same area. With the “pasture stacking” project, the family increased their broiler chickens’ average weight by 50 percent.

This 20-page bulletin offers snapshots of the many alternatives to marketing commodities through conventional channels.

Local Harvest: A Multifarm CSA Handbook offers straightforward guidance on cooperative marketing, an innovative practice that is helping CSAs stay strong and viable over the long term.

A growing group of people are interested in getting more local foods into the hands of consumers -- and providing additional marketing channels for farmers to produce sustainable, local foods. “Scaling Up” local food refers to the process of building the system necessary to make local food available to a wider segment of the population than currently possible. NCR-SARE has supported research and education in some of the key challenge areas to scaling up local foods including agricultural production, storage and transportation, and marketing and sales.

Graduate student's research on agriculture at the rural-urban interface has profound implications for government farm policy.

Working in an extension office, co-owner of Dakota Family Mill, Adrian Biewer, became aware of the health needs that wholegrain products could address. Developing a better tasting wholegrain product made practical sense.

In 2006, the farm families of Dakota Family Mill, Duane and Jean Smith, Bob and Debra Evenson, and Adrian and Anne Biewer, submitted a proposal to the NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher Grant program, and were selected for funding.

Just off of Highway 77, running north from El Dorado, Kansas, runs seventy three acres of agritourism property which is a part of Carroll and Becky Walters’ family farm and pumpkin patch, Walters’ Pumpkin Patch. 

After working nights in a factory job, Kevin Cooley is realizing his dream and creating new field to market methods for small produce farms at Cooley Family Farms in Lafayette, IN. 

How to Direct Market Your Beef portrays how one couple used its family’s ranch to launch a profitable, grass-based beef operation focused on direct market sales.

This video features NCR-SARE grant recipient Will Allen, founder of Growing Power. 

To support the producer decision-making process for on-farm and value-added elderberry enterprise opportunities, the University of Missouri has developed a production and marketing guide, a financial decision support tool, videos on elderberry wine production, and more.

This book will help you understand basic financial management on your farm- how to collect and use numbers in ways that will give you real information that is helpful in making farm decisions.

These in-depth training manuals, produced by the University of California Santa Cruz, help instructors conduct hands-on teaching in organic farming and gardening, direct marketing, and small-farm business planning.

The Direct Marketing of Specialty Food Products Online Curriculum is designed to provide business owners with strategies and tools to help sell directly to consumers online. 

"Direct Marketing of Specialty Food Products" is designed to provide business owners with strategies and tools to help sell directly to consumers. The program includes video interviews of food entrepreneurs who are using social media tools to market and sell their product online.

In Canistota, SD, a group of family farmers have been experimenting with methods for adding value to their products and income to their operations.

Tom and Ruth Neuberger were traditional livestock farmers in ‘70’s. During the credit crunch of early 80’s they found themselves in debt “up to their ears.” They sold off their livestock to pay off debt, and then had to devise a new business plan. 

They turned to poultry. 

This course covers planning and business development, marketing opportunities and strategies for farm/ranch businesses, and managing the farm/ranch business for long-term success.

Using sustainable agriculture practices on your rented land can help protect soil and water quality, increase income over the long term, and satisfy personal values for the landowner and/or the tenant.

In this video clip, NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant recipient, Xe Susane Moua, talks about City Backyard Farming, LLC, an urban farming project in St Paul, MN.

A public television program partly supported by SARE features the talents of the nation’s most acclaimed chefs­ and the farmers they rely upon.

Business planning can help alternative and sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises. NCR-SARE funded research is helping farmers learn how to set goals, research processing alternatives, determine potential markets and evaluate financing options. NCR-SARE has invested in more than 150 research and education business planning projects to help achieve the sustainability of operations and to optimize production, discover or develop markets, and enhance environmental benefits

Communities often have access to a variety of production agriculture expertise, including University Extension Educators, Resource Conservation and Development coordinators and assistants and vocational agriculture instructors who are commonly consulted for advice and guidance, especially in the area of sustainable agriculture practices. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Extension Specialist, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, says that these resource experts can feel unprepared to help when it is time for a product or service to move to the marketplace. Burkhart-Kriesel is working to create targeted professional development for creating feasibility and marketing plans, and conceptualizing and organizing online direct marketing websites.

Bringing the business planning process alive, Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses helps today's alternative and sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises.

NCR-SARE supports value-added marketing of agricultural products, which provides more profit for producers while enhancing local communities and multiplying consumer choices. Since 1995, NCR-SARE has invested in alternative marketing strategies through com- petitive grants to help regional farmers and ranchers develop skills and supportive relationships with others that assist them in creating and sustaining profitable, sustainable ag marketing ventures and to help make more direct connections between food buyers and food producers in the region.

When the farming system deviates from a conventional corn-soybean rotation, the usual division of costs and returns in a 50-50 crop share lease may no longer fairly reflect the inputs of each party. This sheet demonstrates how crop share agreements can be adapted for sustainable and organic agriculture.

The third edition of the "Accepting Bridge Cards at Michigan Farmers Markets" resource manual will help farmers markets decide if they should accept food assistance benefits. If they decide to become an authorized SNAP retailer, it will help implement this food assistance program.

The scope of this NCR-SARE Research and Education project was designed to assist the Roots of Appalachia Growers Association (RAGA) develop a learning network among growers, to close the gap between growers and current research activities, and support RAGA entering the marketplace.