How Profitable will My Orchard Investment Be started with 8 lunchtime webinars on financial methods in December 2022. The webinars are available as a series "How Profitable Will My Orchard Investment Be? on YouTube. The total unique attendance for the 8 webinars was 53 people. The webinars on YouTube have been viewed 158 more times but were only sent directly to people who registered for the program.
The second part of the project was 5 in-person one-day classes in February and March where growers used financial data from an example farm, a set of excel spreadsheets and instructions to practice using the techniques to evaluate financial data. We used different investment scenarios to practice using these tools. The assumption was that participants would then be able to go back and apply these tools to their own financial data. Two classes were held in western New York, one in the Champlain Valley, one in the Capital District and one in the Hudson Valley. 40 growers attended the in-person classes. Feedback from the attendees was very positive. Many said that they were aware of these tools, but never really understood how to interpret the results or apply them to their business.