Over the past several years, we’ve had the opportunity to
talk with quite a few small farmers and ranchers. One of the topics of
discussion revolves around the ever increasing problem of keeping a small farm
or ranch profitable. As we all know, That Isn’t Easy. I’m sure many reads who
operate small farms or ranches know that frustrating feeling that comes when you
think you finally got a handle on everything just to find out that you actually
don’t. There always seems to be that monkey wrench that turns up to mess up the
gear works.
There are some Givens when one lives on a farm or ranch. One
of the Given is that if something can break or breakdown, it is going to do it
just at the worst time. Another Given is that the concept of a schedule is
almost a laugh. If you are the type of person that has to maintain a ridged
schedule, you are in the wrong profession. Being flexible is simply a mandatory
requirement living on a farm or ranch. Nether the weather or livestock really
give a hoot about our schedules. One of my favorite Givens is that you better
be prepared for the unexpected because each day is going to bring its share
unexpected circumstances. Luckily most of them are usually turn out to be
minor. Most of the time it’s just our time that is impacted and that’s bad
enough since it seems there is never enough of it to get every thing done we
need to do.
Our quest to stay organized and productive is one that I
truly believe never comes to an end. We are always seeking better ways in which
we can be more organized and productive. Tracking and keeping on top of
everything that needs to be done or needs our attention on a small farm or
ranch is, if anything, a full time job. The paperwork and documentation of our
operations is often one of the areas that many are weak in. Not because we
don’t know how to do it, but because so many other things are competing for our
time and energy.
With the advent of computerized agricultural software
programs, it’s become much easier and some of these programs have been a great
benefit in improving our operations. One of the biggest problems however with
some of these software programs however is the cost. If you are a small farmer
or rancher, shelling out thousands of dollars for some of these programs simply
isn’t feasible.
You can find Farm & Ranch Management programs across the
internet. Some are stand alone programs and some are web based. Although a few
are free, these often don’t accomplish what the small farm or ranch operation
needs to keep on top of their operations. Those that aren’t free, come with
either a monthly subscription fee or, like I said, a pretty heavy dollar cost.
Many of them are really geared for large operation. It seems like those
creating these programs don’t understand the meaning of the word “Small”. I
don’t know of any small farmer or rancher who really needs a program that is
capable of handling 10,000 acres or 10,000 head of livestock. What is needed is
a simple and easy to use program that accomplishes the basic things we need.
Crop and Field management, Livestock management, Employee management, Equipment
& Asset Management and of course a Bookkeeping element and when it comes to
the Bookkeeping, we really don’t need a full blown accounting program either.
That’s what we have accountants for. We simply need to know where our money is
coming from and were it is going without having to have a degree in accounting.
Squash Patch Farms Ministry is a ministry and as such our
focus is on helping other and not the acquisition of money. We do have the
responsibility however to do what we do efficiently, effectively and in an
organized manner. This means being good stewards of what God has placed in our
hands. We may be a ministry but we are still a small farm operation. Like other
small farmers and ranchers, when it came to finding a computerized program to
do what we needed to do we simply couldn’t find what really worked for us.
Because of this, we designed our own program. When we made a list of what this
program needed to be, the number one requirement on the list was that the
program needed to be SIMPLE.
After several years of using the Small Farm & Gardener
program that we designed several years ago and have improved greatly over that
time, we found after talking to other farmers, ranchers and large gardeners
that our program would be useful for their operations also. Because of this we
decided to make our program available to the public.
If you are a small farmer, rancher or run a large gardening
operation, I encourage you to check out our SMALL FARM, RANCH & GARDENER
MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Page.
