Tree Fruit & Grape News, May 2001

Updated and Expanded Planning Budgets Available for Tree Fruit Crops

Are you planning for profit in your farm business? A successful farm business is the product of good planning - a systematic approach to setting and attaining goals and objectives. The Planning for Profit series developed by the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries is intended to help agricultural producers make profitable investment and production decisions as part of this planning process. This series provides producers with the opportunity to look at their operation as a group of distinct enterprises and evaluate these alternate enterprises on the basis of contribution margin, taking into consideration resource constraints, market opportunity, risk and uncertainty.

The BCMAFF Planning for Profit series consists of a four page factsheet for specific commodities which provides information regarding market and risk issues; key factors affecting profitability; marketing alternatives; cash flow timing; buildings, machinery and production system costs; plus an enterprise budget and sensitivity analysis.

There are six new and updated Planning for Profit enterprise budgets for the tree fruit sector:

• Slender Spindle Apples (1742 trees/acre) - Okanagan Valley 
• Red Delicious Apples (202 trees/acre) - Okanagan Valley 
• Peaches - Okanagan Valley: Modified Central Leader - 311 trees/acre 
• Pears Central Axe (389 trees/acre) - Okanagan Valley 
• Late Season Cherries - Okanagan Valley: Central Axe - 581 trees/acre 
• Organic Apples - Okanagan Valley: Slender Spindle - 1210 trees/acre

These are available in the Business Management Section of the BCMAFF website at: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/busmgmt/budgets/tree_fruits.htm

Excel spreadsheets for the Planning for Profit series are available for select commodities in the Business Management Section of the BCMAFF website at: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/busmgmt/bus_tools/excel_pfp.htm

The enterprise budget is set up in a format to allow producers to input their own numbers into the spreadsheet and then easily copy this into the total crop plan spreadsheet to provide a Projected Income Statement, Projected Cash Flow Statement, Enterprise Budget Summary, Balance Sheet and Net Worth Statement for the farm plan for up to eight enterprises.

Updated Feb 2005

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