A Guide to Farming in Pennsylvania
Posted: January 25, 2011
The Guide to Farming in Pennsylvania is modeled after Cornell’s “A Guide to Farming in New York State.”
The Guide includes sections on:
- Pre-Venture
- Production, which includes:
- Marketing
- Value-Added Agriculture
- Farm Transition
- Appendix A - Agricultural Alternatives
- Appendix B - Ag Agency Listing
The Pre-Venture section includes many topics about getting started in agricultural production and information about managing employees and links to the documents needed when hiring employees. The section contains information about business planning, purchasing land, budgeting, and financing for beginning farmers. Laws and regulations governing agriculture (including organic certification) in Pennsylvania are also covered.
The Production section is divided into broad production area and contains information about production methods, business topics, and marketing information. Breaking the information into these broad production areas allows users to find the information they seek much quicker than searching the Internet themselves.
The Marketing section contains links to information about market planning, direct marketing, and market exchanges. These sections cover the basic marketing principles while the marketing topics contained in the production sections contain the details for the specific production areas.
The Value-Added section contains information about planning and marketing, food processing, and other opportunities. The other opportunities section includes agritainment, organic production, and renewable energy information. Many of these topics are in-depth and contain links to agencies that can guide the user through the start-up process.
The Farm Transition section contains information for those seeking to exit farming or interested in passing the operation to the next generation. Because many of the regulations concerning this topic are state and farm specific, this chapter focuses on the steps involved in creating a farm succession plan. It may also be used by those in the business planning process to provide information for their business plan.
Appendix A is a link to the Agricultural Alternatives site which contains publications covering enterprises of interest to farmers in Pennsylvania. Appendix B is a listing of governmental agencies involved with agriculture and organizations supporting farming and rural lifestyles in PA. These agencies and organizations are sources of valuable information for new or existing producers.
This site will be used by extension educators to field the questions like “What do I need to do to start a business?” or “I have a few acres and would like some additional income, what should I do?” Anyone considering a new business or enterprise will find a one-stop place for much of the information they require. Current farmers may use the site to easily access production guides and find other crop-specific production and marketing information including market prices for crops and livestock throughout PA.
