This is the fourth workshop of CISA’s Winter workshop series. Farmer Missy Bahret from Old Friends Farm will advise on the importance of having goals for your farm operation. A clearly articulated vision allows farmers to make business decisions that help them reach their goals. Business decisions made without thought to the short and long-term goals of the farm run the risk of providing misled results or being harmful to the long-term vision of the farmers. It isn’t easy to clearly identify goals. Learn techniques to help you create your goals for: retirement or farm transfer, inclusion of grown children, financial sustainability, quality of life, and much more. A portion of this meeting will also be devoted to the initial meeting of cohort groups, focused on getting to know each other and identifying goals for the cohort group meetings.

This is the fifth class in the winter workshop series. Structured Decision Making (SDM) is a decision making process that integrates empirical and on-the-ground data with values-based objectives. SDM provides outcomes that are grounded in reality and represent the ethics, values, and desires of those individuals involved in decision making. SDM is the standard decision making process used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and this workshop transfers the steps of SDM from the field of wildlife conservation to the field of sustainable agriculture. During the workshop you will learn about, practice, and apply the steps of SDM to specific on-farm decisions thanks to Assistant Professor, Curt Gervich from SUNY Plattsburgh. At the end of the session you will have the skills you need to implement and adapt this process to your specific farm. Farmer, Marco Turco from Manzini Farm will share his experiences using this tool for decision making.