Has Practical Farmers helped you improve your profitability?
It’s time to start reporting to you on Practical Farmers’ effectiveness. But first a little background:
I challenge you to find an organization that accomplishes as much as we do for the resources we have. For example, we held 140 events in 2013! We want to make sure that all that work is helping you–our members—improve your systems, so you, in turn, can help other farmers improve theirs.
We have good news to report. According to our member survey, 51 percent of those who have been a member at least one year strongly agree or agree that Practical Farmers has helped them improve their profitability.
How has Practical Farmers helped? For example, members report PFI helped them:
“Decrease purchased inputs“
“Develop a better feeding plan for our hogs”
“Start new enterprises”
“Expand my customer base”
“Learn about CSA profitability” [community supported agriculture]
“Get started on making a transition plan”
What’s next? We have our challenge! To work over the next three years (when we measure this again) to dramatically increase the percentage in the “agree” and “strongly agree” categories.
More feedback from members next time on this “Members Speak”: Has Practical Farmers helped members improve their stewardship?