Farmer Resource Library

New Entry's farmer library has hundreds of resources on sustainable farming, marketing, and operating a successful small business. Our physical library at our office in Beverly, MA contains books, CD's, DVD's periodicals, pamphlets, and videos in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Khmer. You can also search the directory below for downloadable digital resources, helpful web sites, and online farming videos.

Please visit or email us at nesfp@tufts.edu if you can't find what you're looking for here. Sometimes we are out in the field, so it's best to let us know if you're planning on stopping by.

New Entry Farm Business Planning Course: Financials & Enterprise Budgets

Media:

  • Digital Download
  • Web Page

New Entry's Farm Business Planning Course is an 8 week course held in Lowell, MA designed to help beginning farmers develop a comprehensive farm business plan. The links and resources that are included in this series pertain to specific topics covered in each week's class.

Financials:

Basic Accounting: Guidance for Beginning Farmers (click on green button below)

Cornell University Sheep Program Budgeting Software

Enterprise Budgets:

Ethan Roland's collection of enterprise budgets (scroll to the bottom of the page and select the orange “Download 'em here” link).

Cornell budgets on vegetable, fruit and cut flowers grown in high tunnels/hoophouses or greenhouses

The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff – and Making a Profit

Roxbury Farm Harvest Manual

 

New Entry Farm Business Planning Course: Food Safety

Media:

  • Web Page

New Entry's Farm Business Planning Course is an 8 week course held in Lowell, MA designed to help beginning farmers develop a comprehensive farm business plan. The links and resources that are included in this series pertain to specific topics covered in each week's class.

Food Safety:

UMass Extension's Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) manual

Rich Bonanno's GAP training videos

Commonwealth Quality (an alternative to GAP certification)

New Entry Farm Business Planning Course: General Resources

Media:

  • Web Page

New Entry's Farm Business Planning Course is an 8 week course held in Lowell, MA designed to help beginning farmers develop a comprehensive farm business plan. The links and resources that are included in this series pertain to specific topics covered in each week's class.

 

Before the Course commences, we draw our beginning farmers' attention to a few broad-topic resources that we highly recommend:

• The EMass CRAFT listserve is a very active community of farmers in Eastern MA who bounce ideas off of each other, ask questions, and hold educational on-farm workshops for each other. It is very valuable way to build your farmer-to-farmer network and expand your knowledge.

• The Beginning Farmer Network of Massachusetts (BFN/Mass) hosts a website with a resource finder, referral network, educational blog posts, and a comprehensive list of upcoming events throughout the area.

• The NOFA/Mass Beginning Farmer Mentorship Program pairs beginning farmers (defined as those who have been farming for 10 years or less) with experienced farmers. By pairing mentees with experienced growers who are not their employers, the program enables aspiring farmers to gain farming experiences, skills, and perspectives that they otherwise wouldn't get in their day-to-day work.  The application deadline is December 15th each year.

New Entry Farm Business Planning Course: Marketing & Sales

Media:

  • Web Page

New Entry's Farm Business Planning Course is an 8 week course held in Lowell, MA designed to help beginning farmers develop a comprehensive farm business plan. The links and resources that are included in this series pertain to specific topics covered in each week's class.

 

Market sizing:

Local Harvest and Mass Farmers Markets can help you find farms and farmers' markets in your area

New Venture Advisors' Local Food MarketSizer

USDA Economic Research Service

American FactFinder

ESRI Business Analyst Online

Pricing data:

Rodale Institute Organic Price Report

USDA Pricing Reports

Marketing & Branding:

Direct Marketing: Communicating Your Brand:” [scroll down to publication by Pam Knight]

Understanding the Local Foods Shopper“ 

CISA's Marketing 101 Manual

UC Small Farm Program's Specialty Crops website

New Entry Farmsite Budget

Media:

  • Digital Download

Spreadsheet that includes revenues, site prep, equipment repair/ purchase, pest management, infrastructure, lease expenses, and electricity.

New Entry Incubator Program Evaluation Infographic (2021)

Media:

  • Digital Download

Between 2005-2020, 60 farmers participated in the New Entry incubator program.  This infographic shares results of a survey of graduates and farmer focus groups to share information about program outcomes, and successes and challenges for beginning farmers as they transitioned off the incubator program.

New Entry Marketing Curriculum

Media:

  • Digital Download

The lesson plan for New Entry's Farm Business Planning Class dedicated specifically to marketing, including; market research, competitive advantage, promotions, and how to apply marketing plan to financial plans.

New Entry Mission and Goals

Media:

  • Digital Download

Detailed overview of New Entry Sustainable Farming Project's mission and goals (10 year and 3 year).

New Entry Production Resources

Media:

  • Digital Download

A compilation of the resources given out by our farmer training coordinator to business planning class participants and incubator farmers. Includes helpful links to sources of information on growing fruits and vegetables, greenhouses and high tunnels, tractors and implements and additional sustainable agriculture resources.

New Entry Strategic Plan

Media:

  • Digital Download

Excerpts from New Entry's 2002- 2007 Strategic Plan. Includes values, assumptions, and visions for New Entry.

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