How Profitable will My New Orchard Investment Be? Evaluating Capital Investment Decisions in a Farm Business
The purpose of this on-line course is to help you learn to make informed investment decisions for your farm. The focus is on investment decisions that have long-term implications for your business. The course uses an apple farm, Smith Orchard, as an example, but the skills taught in this class are appropriate for any farm business. In this course you will learn to:
- Identify possible investment opportunities for your farm.
- Use your financial statements, farm financial information, and other data to evaluate your farm's performance and to help prioritize investment options.
- Develop an enterprise budget and use your enterprise budgets and partial budget analysis to evaluate the risk and profitability of potential investments.
- Use cost-benefit analysis tools that consider the time value of money to help you choose among investment options.
The course is held over 2 weeks and the primary mode of instruction will be online using Moodle. You will have access to instructional videos, written instructions, sample financial information and practice scenarios and on-line forums for discussion. This work can be done at a time and location that is convenient to you. Each week will end with a 1.5 hour Zoom session on Thursday from 3:00-4:30, where we will go over key concepts and answer any questions you may have. The Zoom sessions will be recorded if you are unable to attend.
Event Details
Date
February 29, 2024
Time
3:00-4:30
Location
Zoom
Cost
Registration : $25.00
Host
Eastern New York Commercial HorticultureWeek 1 of the course (February 23-Feb 29)
In week 1 you will learn:
- How and why to use a structured process to make investment decisions.
- Identifying the problem to be addressed, generating possible solutions and identifying what information you need to acquire.
- Gathering data and using farm financial statements and farm financial ratios to help make decisions.
You will have access to videos and resources to learn and practice using the concepts covered. In the zoom session we will consider scenarios and go over questions you may have.
Event Details
Date
March 7, 2024
Time
3:00-4:30
Location
Zoom
Host
Eastern New York Commercial HorticultureWeek 2 (March 1 - March 7)
In Week 2 you will learn
- How to develop an enterprise budget and use your enterprise budgets and partial budget analysis to evaluate the risk and profitability of potential investments.
- How to use cost-benefit analysis tools that consider the time value of money to help you choose among investment options.
Like week 1 you will have access to videos and resources to learn and practice using the concepts covered. In the zoom session on Thursday we will consider scenarios and go over questions you may have.


Upcoming Events
Blind Industry White Wine Tasting Workshop
April 1, 2025 : Blind Industry White Wine Tasting Workshop
Germantown, NY
This event is a blind wine tasting for ENY grape industry members to get feedback from fellow growers and Cornell Enologists on unfinished white wines (hybrid, vinifera, etc.)
We respectfully request that only professional winemakers or commercial vineyard owners attend, as space is limited. Limit two wines per winery/vineyard.
Pre-registration is required. For questions, please contact Jeremy Schuster at jds544@cornell.edu