Crop + Livestock Integration Financials

This project will collect financial data from farms that integrate crop and livestock production to assess the economic benefits and risks of these diversified systems. We will prioritize farms that do seasonal grazing of cover crops and crop residues, and grazing of perennial forages. 

Educators from Extension and farmer organizations in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin will meet with integrated crop and livestock farmers to discuss their farm operations and collect their farm financial data.

Your participation will help create an improved benchmark financial data set for crop and livestock integration, and will help the project team and others develop good financial models for integrating livestock into cropping systems. 

The financial analysis tool used in the project is FINPACK, developed by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management. Data collected from your farm and others will be entered into the FINBIN database of farm financial data. Data entered into FINBIN does not include any identification of individual farms. When people search the database, they receive averaged data for the types of farms they request.

The financial analysis tool used in the project is FINPACK, developed by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management. Data collected from your farm and others will be entered into the FINBIN database of farm financial data. Data entered into FINBIN does not include any identification of individual farms. When people search the database, they receive averaged data for the types of farms they request. 

• One-on-one work with a trained farm advisor to conduct a detailed financial analysis of your farm, using the FINPACK program (on-farm analysis is valued at $4,300; you get it for free!) 
• $600 stipend for your participation in the financial analysis

• Your time with the farm advisor to work through the components of the financial analysis. We estimate this will require an in-person visit to your farm, in addition to 2 to 3 hours of Zoom, phone, and email contact. 
• Sharing of your farm’s financial data. 
• Detailed financial data will be pooled with other farms in the study, and farms contained in the FINBIN database, so your data will not be directly traceable to your farm.