Rosalie Wilson

Winter 2012

rwilson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:27:17 +0000

USDA Value Added Producer Grants Announced!

I am happy to report that all four farms I’m working with who submitted federal Value Added Producer Grants in 2011 received funding! The awards were made this week. Both Kimball Brook Farm- Cheryl and JD DeVos, and Kingdom Creamery of Vermont- the Michaud family, were awarded the maximum amount of $300,000; and Tamarack Tunis- Ben Machin and Grace Bowmer, and Sweet Rowen Farmstead received their requested amounts of approximately $50,000 each.

Rose has been working with Kimball Brook Farm and Tamarack Tunis since 2008 on business planning and market development. For the grant she helped them with feasibility studies and undertook their grant preparation.

Rose has been working with Kingdom Creamery of Vermont since 2009. She helped them develop a business plan, and provides market development and business planning support. Rose coordinated a feasibility study for the grant and financial lenders, and provided guidance for the grant application process.

Rose was hired in July 2011 to help Sweet Rowen Farmstead develop a business plan, with the farm’s goal that they would have a business plan ready in August to submit with their grant application- talk about a short turn-around, that was a whirlwind!

Awesome news, congratulations everybody!

To see a complete list of 2011 award recipients click here.

Fall 2011

rwilson — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:01:37 +0000

Summer and Fall have been busy here in Vermont. In addition to Tropical Storm Irene wreaking havoc across the state, our big news is that we wrapped up the New England Beef-to-Institution Market Study, and are very happy with the outcome! We surprised ourselves even with our results, and are pleased to report that we found a path through which local beef can enter the local institutional marketplace in a way that will enable it to remain cost competitive, offer opportunity to our processors and meat producers, and provide a better return for our dairy farmers. The unexpected key we uncovered is in looking to the processors as the center of the equation. What I didn’t realize was how much of our processors’ existing business models are already set up around their own label and sales and marketing, they are already equipped to buy in raw product and resell it, and the product that they buy and resell themselves has much more flexibility in when and how they process it, enabling them to be efficient with this product and therefore cost-competitive in the $2-3/lb range. And because they have a relationship with many farmers, they can secure the volume of raw materials- namely dairy culls and non-freezer trade grade beef- necessary to meet institutional-scale demand. The benefit that it provides the dairy farmer is that animals that remain local and are bought by the local processor will not be deducted commission or trucking fees from their sale price. While marginal, this benefit in pay price still creates added income they wouldn’t otherwise receive, and by having the processor take the central role, it relieves the dairy farmers of having to get any more involved than necessary or desired. For beef producers, who want to be involved and sell direct, there are opportunities for them in the $4-5/lb price point if that is of interest. The institutions willing and able to pay this are fewer and farther between, but they exist. As part of our report we compiled an initial list of institutions who want to buy based on price point, ease of logistics and volume- these would fit the processor driven model, and institutions looking for a direct relationship with a producer, so that relationship development with processors and producers interested in pursuing this market can begin.

To read the report you can:

download the full report: http://www.vermontagriculture.com/education/documents/New_England_Beef_to_Institution_Market_Study_2011.pdf

download the executive summary: http://www.vermontagriculture.com/education/documents/New_England_Beef_to_Institution_Market_Study_2011_Executive_Summary.pdf

or download the webinar: http://www.vermontagriculture.com/education/documents/New_England_Beef_to_Institution_Market_Study_2011_webinar.pdf

Spring 2011

rwilson — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:41:09 +0000

Wow! What a busy winter we have had, and what weather! I was still skiing in April, with no rocks or bare patches! While skiing I was also co-teaching the NOFA Marketing That Sells Course as part of the Integrated Learning Grant they received from SARE, conducting enterprise analysis with course participants, working on business plans, feasibility studies, grant prep, and marketing plans, and launching a new research project with three colleagues to conduct a New England Regional Beef to Institution Market Study, funded by all six New England states. I’ve also begun a project with UVM Extension to research the feasibility of an alternative GAP certification program for smaller Vermont growers to service the local institutional market.

And now that spring has arrived, the garden has gone in, and we’ve planted a few more trees. Good and productive!

Good News!

rwilson — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:18:05 +0000

The two USDA Renewable Energy for America Program grants I wrote in June 2010 received full funding! Trackside Depot of Middlebury, VT will receive $29,913 in USDA grant funds, along with $44,869 as a guaranteed loan, as well as ~$120,000 in Federal and State Historic Preservation tax Credits to renovate and rehabilitate the historic Middlebury railway station. Meanwhile, Stonewood Farm in Orwell, VT will receive $13,023 to replace diesel fueled motors with electric power for its refrigeration needs, enabling it to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here for the press release from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Go Steve! Go Paul!

Fall 2010

rwilson — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:06:54 +0000

Ok, well, as life goes, here I sat all excited to update you on what I’ve been working on, and very pleased that I am getting the hang of updating my website, when I blew it up. Yup. I literally blew the whole website up. I couldn’t believe it. I blew it up such that Dreamhost couldn’t even restore from back up the look and feel of my original website. At least we were able to restore the content. And so here I sit. Thanks go out very much to Rick Scully, who designed my website and helped me restore the data. I am tinkering with the website now, playing with colors and such. It’s giving me a bit of the hands on experience in the design aspects, so that at least is a little bit of fun, but I wouldn’t recommend blowing one’s website up just to practice website design.

On to more exciting news, I did complete the feasibility research for growing hops commercially in New England. The results look promising. The primary limiting factor has been the lack of equipment of a size and scale useful to our smaller sized New England farms, and a lack of processing facilities. All of these hurdles are being overcome as we speak as Mike Roffman is founding Atlantic Hops, a hops processing venture that will be modeled after Gorst Valley Hops specifically designed to help small hop growers grow profitable hops crops. Mike will have hop yard designs, infrastructure, and equipment such as oasts, sorters, and eventually pickers, along with technical specialists, so check in with him if you would like to learn more about diversifying into hops.

If you would like to read the report I completed, it can be obtained from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets at the following link: http://vermontagriculture.com/buylocal/marketing/specialtycrops.html

Now that the hops research is over, I’m working on a second project for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, this time in collaboration with Louise Calderwood. We’re investigating potential operating models for the Vermont Seal of Quality Program to develop recommendations that could translate into a best practices model for the program to adopt.

In addition to the Vermont Seal of Quality Research, I’m continuing to work with farms on their business and marketing plans, yeah!, and lately several feasibility studies. Work with FSA has wrapped up for the year, and now it’s time to look ahead and plan for 2011.

I hope Thanksgiving has been good to you, and that you are beginning to plan for 2011, too!

If you get bored, check out the website from time to time. Now that I’m practicing, it may look different from day to day!