December 3-5, 2002
Franklin (Nashville), Tennessee

Value-Added Entrepreneurship Publications

Overview

With an eye toward an everchanging business environment, entrepreneurs will be on the lookout for opportunities to expand their operations — many times through value-added products.

Course Objective

To prepare Extension faculty to develop and implement an economic development program based on entrepreneurship for businesses focusing on value-added agricultural products. These products are broadly defined and may include (but certainly not be limited to) food processing firms, primary, secondary, and tertiary producers of forest products, agri-tourism firms and more.

Course Outline

This course is designed to be an in-depth examination of the factors critical in developing value-added projects. Specific topics that will be discussed include developing a business plan; developing a marketing feasibility study for a new product and/or new organization including instruction on conducting marketing research; developing a marketing plan including advertising alternatives; developing technical feasibility analysis and operational plan; developing a management plan and/or management analysis; and financial feasibility analysis for a new product.

Agenda

Instructors

Alan Barefield
Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Tennessee. Responsibilities include community and economic development, business development, and value-added agribusinesses. Program emphasis has been toward developing financial management tools for small and medium size businesses and agribusinesses.

Clark Garland
Professor and Coordinator of MANAGE, Agricultural Economics, University of Tennessee. Responsibilities include providing subject matter leadership to the MANAGE program and ten area farm management specialists. Special emphasis is being placed on the economics of value-added agriculture, ways to improve income opportunities on all types of farms and systems analysis. Also, serve as co- coordinator of Sustainable Agriculture for Tennessee.

Rodney Holcomb
Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University. Also serves as the agribusiness economist with the Oklahoma Food & Agricultural Products Center with an emphasis on business activities ranging from small "mom and pop" start-up operations to large "new generation" processing cooperatives. Dr. Holcomb serves on several boards and committees for value-added activities and has received the USDA Plow Honor Award for his work in helping producers start value-added processing businesses.

Kent Wolfe
Public Service Assistant for the Center of Agribusiness and Economic Development in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia. Program emphasis has been toward developing market analysis and feasibility studies for value-added agricultural businesses.

Lee Curtis
Director, Heritage and Comunity Tourism Development Division, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Responsible for overseeing the statewide effort in Heritage and Community Tourism Development including developing and administering programs in customer service and hospitality as well as overall tourism development for Tennessee.

Steve Murray
Agricultural Economist with the Food and Fiber Center at Mississippi State University. Responsibilities include working with Mississippi food processors and farmers. International experience includes short-term projects in Bulgaria, Albania and Cuba.

Tim Woods
Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. Responsibilities include providing leadership in the areas of Agribusiness Management and Marketing and the marketing of horticultural products. Program emphasis has been toward helping horticultural based firms, new aquaculture ventures and small farm entrepreneurs involved in new commodities and value-added ventures.

Field Trip

C&F Meats is a minority owned custom slaughterhouse located just outside of Franklin, Tenn. Fred Johnson services an extremely wealthy clientele for custom slaughtering as well as selling specialty meat products such as beefalo and sausages. He supplies a fairly large number of BBQ stands with custom hog products that he buys from a local swine producer on a contract basis. He also supplies a large Hispanic market with custom pork cuts and a large Muslim market with cattle, sheep and goat meat products.

Gentry Farm is a large entertainment farm located in Franklin. They started out as a pick-your-own strawberry and vegetable operation and then moved to growing pumpkins and other ornamental type crops. They then started hosting tour groups and class tours and have various camps for children (both day camps and overnight camps). They have moved away from the strawberries and pick-your-own enterprises and are now focusing almost solely on the agritainment enterprise. They are located across the highway from the first self contained community (the community contains its own stores, schools, infrastructure, etc.) in Tennessee.

Sponsor

Southern Rural Development Center
Box 9656
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Phone: (662) 325-3207
Fax: (662) 325-8915
bonniet@srdc.msstate.edu
http://srdc.msstate.edu