U-Pick Farm Business Plan: Strawberries, With a Projection

A u-pick farm business plan sets out the crop, the acres and the season, what each way of selling costs, the field and the equipment, and the year month by month. Pick-your-own turns the most expensive part of growing berries, the picking, into the customer's outing: a pound picked by a family costs the farm a few cents of containers and check-in, while a quart picked by a crew costs $1.60 in picking alone. The catch is the season, a few months of picking, and the weather that can close the field on a Saturday. In the example below, a 3-acre strawberry farm in Louisiana sells u-pick by the pound, pre-picked quarts, flats to restaurants and jam from the seconds, and ends the year about $44,700 ahead on $85,300 of sales. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the season, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the farm in a paragraph: the crop, the acres, the season, the customers, the goals.
• Cost each way of selling: u-pick by the pound, crew-picked quarts, flats, jam.
• U-pick leaves the most a pound, because the customers do the picking.
• Pre-picked quarts and flats sell to people who won't pick and to restaurants and stands.
• Seconds become jam, made under your state's cottage food rules or in a licensed kitchen.
• Plan the year around a short season; growing costs run all year.
• TaroStack keeps the harvest counted by day and the restaurant orders straight. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Tangipahoa Berry Farm, a made-up strawberry farm near Ponchatoula, Louisiana, I use in these examples, writes:

Tangipahoa Berry Farm grows strawberries on 3 acres in matted rows with drip irrigation, open for u-pick on weekends and some weekdays from February to May, with pre-picked quarts at the stand, flats for restaurants and fruit stands, and jam made from the seconds.

Part 2: what each way of selling costs

A crew picks about 15 pounds an hour, so a 1.5-pound quart is six minutes of picking. The cost of growing the berries, plants, water, fertilizer, straw and weeding, is in the fixed costs, because it's spent whether a berry is picked by a customer or a crew. How to keep the farm's stock and supplies counted is in farm inventory template.

Part 3: customers and prices

A pound picked by a customer leaves $3.53; a quart's 1.5 pounds picked by the crew leaves $4.94, about $3.29 a pound, and a flat leaves $1.90 a pound. So the farm opens the field to pickers as often as the berries and the weather allow, and crew-picks for the stand and the restaurants. Jam turns berries too soft to sell fresh into an $8 jar; how to price it is like any preserve, as in jam business plan.

Part 4: the season, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,815 a month, averaged over the year: land rent and taxes ($300), replanting a quarter of the field each year ($350), irrigation water and fertilizer ($250), straw mulch and row cover ($100), insurance ($100), seasonal field help for weeding and runners ($600), signs and marketing ($80), and software and card fees ($35). Month 1 is January; the farm picks from February to May, with April the peak:

The year's sales are $85,280 and the profit $44,692, on top of the picking crew's and staff's pay; the grower's own hours come from that profit. A wet April is the risk: set April to 60% of full speed in the template and see what the year becomes. Insurance matters more on a farm full of visitors; ask your insurer what it requires for u-pick. How to plan a short season's stock and cash is in seasonal inventory.

Part 5: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the u-pick farm business plan workbook. Four sheets: your ways of selling with price, variable cost and volume in the peak month; the year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash, and month 1 set to January; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. Change each month's share to match your crop and climate. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

A harvest every day, u-pick weighed at the shed, quarts and flats packed for the stand and four restaurants, jam made from the seconds, and containers bought by the thousand. A notebook can't say how many flats are promised for Thursday, how many pounds went out the gate this week, or which restaurant pays best.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the harvest counted by day and the restaurant orders straight.

The harvest as stock. Each day's crew-picked berries are received with their date, counted on a phone in the field or the shed, and units convert: picked by the flat, sold by the quart. The oldest go out first.

Orders and jam. Restaurant and stand orders are sales orders for their delivery day that show whether the flats are packed while you're still typing, and jam is a recipe of its berries, sugar, pectin and jar, so a batch takes them off stock and gives the cost of a jar.

And what each outlet earns. The farm and the stand are sites, with transfers for what goes out each morning, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Counting, recipes and sales orders are on every plan, from $49 a month; up to three sites, the farm and the stand, are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

Are u-pick farms profitable?

They can be, because customers do the picking. In the example, a 3-acre strawberry farm ends the year about $44,700 ahead on $85,300 of sales, though the grower's own hours come from that profit.

How much should I charge for u-pick strawberries?

Cover the year's growing costs and price against nearby farms. In the example, u-pick is $4 a pound and leaves $3.53 after the check-in staff, containers and card fees.

How much does it cost to start a u-pick farm?

In the example, $40,050 for 3 acres of strawberries: plants, drip irrigation, straw and row cover, a used tractor, scales, containers, a checkout shed, field care before the first harvest, and $5,000 of working cash.

Is u-pick or pre-picked more profitable?

A pound picked by customers leaves more than a pound picked by a crew. In the example, $3.53 a pound u-pick against about $3.29 in a pre-picked quart and $1.90 in a restaurant flat.