You ve got to have profit, says Charlie Waddell, owner of Waddell Apples near Kingston, Ont. Whether you re a smaller farm or a larger one, you need profitability for growth and stability.
Like a growing number of Canadians, the Waddells are second-career farmers. Which means they aren t hobby farmers. The Waddells want and need to make their farm pay, but they ve also had to build up off-farm income to get their start. In fact, they ll also need some off-farm income to keep it going, at least in short to mid-term.
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Nor do they ever plan to farm the whole township. Instead, by working from a mid-size base, their challenge is to maximize their farm s income potential so they can both work full-time on the farm.
It s a challenge crying out for a plan. Planning for profit has been an integral part of farming for Charlie and his business partner and wife Marita. In 2003, the Waddells bought a 13.5-acre orchard north of Kingston and started their second career, doing what they both grew up doing in southern Quebec, growing and selling apples.
I ve been working with my dad all along and never really left it, says Charlie, although as a commercial enterprise, the original family orchard was badly damaged by ice storms and then further hurt by changing markets.
The Waddells chose their Kingston site because it included a good location close to the city and it already had a small clientele base. They saw potential. With the lessons they had learned on their parents farms and in the workforce, they believed they had a good shot at developing a profitable farm, based on two key strategies: rigorous financial planning, and selling directly to the customer.
Six years later, they ve more than doubled gross revenues from the farm
