Ellen Polishuk: Managing Your Farm for Profitability

Whether managing a large farm or range, a greenhouse operation or a market garden, farmers are notorious for focusing on production without necessarily having a clear handle on profitability by crop, or by enterprise. Ellen Polishuk is a partner in a large Virginia CSA farm and teaches farmers around the country how to determine profitability. In this session she will discuss what tools and which information you need to discover where you are making or losing money on your farm. Learn how all farm expenses are distributed to the cost of each product, and how labor can make or break profitability.

Ellen Polishuk is one of three owners of Potomac Vegetable Farms, where she has worked for 24 years. She co-manages the Loudoun County portion of the Virginia farm where they grow 10 acres of vegetables and herbs and 10 acres of soil-building crops using organic practices. The farm sells at six farmers’ markets, runs two roadside stands and services a 550-member CSA in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Ellen is now a lecturer and advisor at the University of Maryland-College Park, working with the Institute for Applied Agriculture. She heads up new efforts to teach sustainable agriculture. She also has a consulting business, working with local growers and landowners to develop fertility and production systems.

(1 hour, 14 minutes, 9 seconds) Recorded at the 2014 Acres U.S.A. Conference, Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, December 6, 2014.