Scale & Strategy: Building a Viable, Healthy Farm

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Managing a farm at the right scale is essential to finding your place within the broader network of Massachusetts growers. If you’re considering expanding your operation— or questioning whether scaling up is the right move— join us for a day-long workshop grounded in practical experience, reflection, and peer learning.

Hosted at Upswing Farm, this workshop will explore the real-world decisions that shape a farm’s growth over time. We’ll learn from Upswing’s journey on the land: how they’ve approached soil stewardship in a certified-organic system, their approach to infrastructure and equipment, and strategic choices they’ve made to support long-term viability. Through a mix of tours, discussions and on-farm demonstrations, participants will engage with both the opportunities and trade-offs that come with operating at different scales.

We’ll dig into both the day-to-day realities and the bigger-picture considerations of scaling a certified organic farm, from crew management and workflow logistics, to financial planning and risk, all within the framework of organic certification requirements.

Throughout the day, we’ll:

• Explore how to determine the “right” farm scale for individualized goals within a certified organic system
• Discuss labor structures, crew management, and daily operational flow
• Review equipment decisions, including tools for cover cropping and compost production
• Learn about Upswing Farm’s approach to producing certified-organic compost, including a close-up look through a microscope
• Examine financial decision-making, including borrowing, risk tolerance, and long-term planning
• Discuss funding opportunities, such as grants and programs through NRCS and AMA
• Reflect on how business decisions and ecological stewardship intersect in certified-organic production
• By the end of the day, you’ll come away with a clearer understanding of what scaling means for your own operation, along with practical insights from a certified organic farm navigating those decisions in real time. We’ll also share a locally sourced lunch and create space for informal conversation and connection.