Published Feb 27, 2019

Emily Fagan & Scott Thellman – Enterprise Budgets for Vegetable Production

By Practical Farmers of Iowa

After starting, transplanting, watering, weeding, harvesting, washing, packing and working five hours at the farmers market, you’ve sold some tomatoes for $3 per pound. Did you make any money? Emily and Scott have both done extensive enterprise budgets for the crops on their farms. In this session, they share their enterprise budgets and the processes they used – in the field and on the computer – to find their bottom lines (and improve them!).

  • Emily Fagan farms at Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah with her cousin, Hannah Breckbill. The 2-acre organic vegetable farm sells to local restaurants, farmers markets and through a CSA. Emily is also a participant in PFI’s Savings Incentive Program.
  • Scott Thellman is president of Juniper Hill Farms, a first-generation farm in Douglas County, Kansas. The farm business consists of 65 acres of certified organic land and 1,100 acres of sustainably grown land, and produces 50 acres of organic and conventional vegetables. Other crops include hay, alfalfa, small grains and non-GMO row crops.