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Financial Analysis Of Three Value-Added Dairy Enterprises In Vermont, Wisconsin, And New York, Kassidy Kampen

Dairy Science

Value-added agriculture has grown in recent years and is often promoted as a rural development or business survival strategy. For dairy operations, value-added often has meant adding a processing enterprise to an existing dairy farm. This case study examined whether it was profitable to transition to a value-added operation, comparing and contrasting the business characteristics and financial performance of three businesses of similar size in Vermont, Wisconsin, and New York.

The methods included the development of income statements, balance sheets, and economic costs and returns in order to evaluate the profitability of the farming and processing enterprises for each business. …