GROWING ENTERPRISE
Class teaches the business side of successful agriculture
GREENWICH, N.Y. » Joe Nuciforo will never see things the same when going to work each morning at Hick’s Orchard, in Granville.
For 14 years, his focus has been on producing good apple crops. But now he approaches it less as a farm and more as a business, which is critical to any agricultural venture’s success and sustainability.
Nuciforo was among nearly a dozen participants in a recent three-part GenerationNext course, hosted by Farm Credit East in Greenwich. The program is designed to improve the transition from senior to young farm owners and managers, and help those just getting into the business.
“One of the big things is, how do we approach staffing?” said Nuciforo, Hick’s orchard manager. “I learned a lot about the need to incentivize employees. It’s important to have periodic reviews and touch on positive things they do. We also need to recognize staff more, formally and informally. Agriculture is very demanding. A lot of times we get caught up in the rush. We need to take time out to make recognitions, especially for good quality people.”
“So I think we’ll be making a lot of changes in the way find, hire and grow the quality of staff we have, he said. “More focused on training and retention.”
The same principles apply to any small business, not just farms.
Sessions dealt with three different topics — leadership and human resources, financials, and sales and risk management.
“We’re trying to give them the skills for what it takes to
“Agriculture is very demanding. A lot of times we get caught up in the rush. We need to take time out to make recognitions, especially for good quality people.” — Joe Nuciforo, orchard manager at Hick’s Orchard in Granville
run a business,” said Amie Thomas, who led classes with co-instructor Bill Zweigbaum.
Jim Putnam, Farm Credit East executive vice president, said, “Almost everybody is attracted to agriculture because they like to grow and produce things. To be successful at it, you have to master the business angle of it. We see people all the time who are very proficient at growing things, but they aren’t successful as business people. So these programs are all about developing those skills.”
The Enfield, Conn.-based company offered similar classes throughout its seven-state territory from Maine to New Jersey.
The leadership class covered topics such as how to interview, hire and train people, and let them go, if necessary.
“A lot of leadership is knowing yourself, knowing how you react in different situations and how you interact with others,” Thomas said. “I really try to instill that in people. Take time to learn about yourself. Then some of the tactical stuff comes a lot easier.”
This is especially important with small farms because quite often the owner is also the human resources manager, in addition to 10 other hats they’re wearing at the same time, Putnam said.
The second class dealt with financial records such as balance and income statements, understanding what numbers mean, and how to use that information to improve the business going forward. “For example, we talked about enterprise budgeting, how do you evaluate what’s making money and what’s not?” Thomas said. “If you’re going to start a business, how do you budget for it and evaluate it from a financial aspect?”
The third session, sales and risk management, varies greatly depending on the type of business.
With dairies, unless the farm owns a bottling plant, all milk is sold wholesale so farmers don’t deal with marketing decisions.
“That’s a different ballgame than if you’re from an area that’s primarily retail farm markets,” Putnam said. “They have to make pricing and sales decisions every day.”
Hick’s Orchard, in addition to fresh fruit, also specializes in sweet cider and fresh cider donuts that attract long lines of people on autumn weekends during apple picking season. The farm also has a related business, Slyboro Ciderhouse, which offers six different types of hard cider.
Nuciforo said the course produced ideas for matching customers with products more effectively “and customers we’d like to have, hopefully keeping us more sustainable going forward.”
“This is a real unique program,” he said.
Succession planning is a major topic in agriculture today because of the rapidly aging farm population, and because of how many young people are leaving family farms to work elsewhere.
“What doesn’t get talked about as much is, unless that business is successful there will be no transition,” Putnam said. “Most young people don’t want to get into a business venture that doesn’t make any money and is not going to provide them a livelihood. So business success is a critical piece of the farm transition challenge.”
The recent course offered the skills to make that possible.
Starting early is the key to succession planning, Thomas said.
“Start thinking about it earlier than you think you need to because it will take longer than you think it should,” she said.