AMI developed the tool with the OFA
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
A new online tool is available to help farmers determine if planting a specific crop will be a viable option for their farm.
The Agri-food Management Institute’s (AMI) online tool, titled Making a Case for Growing New Crops, allows farmers to input a variety of information including the crop they wish to grow, how many days until harvest and who their prospective customers are.
AMI, along with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), surveyed more than 400 farmers during the tool development process. AMI’s findings found that more than 20 per cent of respondents had tried growing a new crop within the last five years.
The tool is split up into five modules, ranging from choosing a new crop to putting a business plan into action and it can help farmers make more informed decisions, says Ashley Honsberger, executive director of AMI.
“The tool walks farmers through the assessing a crop through the agronomic and business side of things,” she told Farms.com. “They can link to all of the specialty crop resources through OMAFRA and the Vineland Research Station. And on the flip side they can sit down and think about the actual numbers involved with producing their crop of choice.”
And an online calculator takes into consideration input costs, the yield measurements (bushels, cwt, kg, etc.), budget plans and expected yields to provide producers with a baseline plan of what producing the crop will cost.
“Farmers can print out a nice, clean report that indicates their projected income and some elements to look out for,” Honsberger said.
During AMI and OFA’s surveys, they also found that 7 per cent of farmers are planning to introduce a new crop within the next two years.
This tool is also a response to a growing trend within Ontario’s ag industry, according to Honsberger.
“We’ve definitely had calls from farmers saying they’re interested in new crops but are unsure if the idea will work out,” she said. “There’s definitely also been a trend towards new crops so I think there’s a lot of excitement from producers to try something new. But it’s a big leap so it lets farmers have a little of a feeling out process.”