Most farmers did not start growing food because they love record keeping. However, the only way for farm businesses to be viable in the long run is to have a solid understanding of their farm’s income and expenses. Labour tends to be the largest and most variable expense on specialty crop farms, and learning how to track it is essential for determining which crops are profitable and where change may make the biggest difference.

Come hear farm viability specialist and labour tracking expert John Hendrickson lay out the why and how of tracking labour on the farm. He will offer a range of strategies and tools that can help make the task achievable and purposeful. Farmers will also share their experiences tracking labour using both high and low tech methods, offering a range of possibilities to choose what suits your farm. Participants will leave equipped with the tools to accurately track labour to help make accurate and useful cost of production calculations, as well as the motivation and mindset to start doing this in an intentional way.

This webinar is supported by funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario.

If you are a farmer or aspiring farmer in the north, please use code PAPR26 to register for free!

About John Hendrickson

John Hendrickson coordinates research and training programs in organic and sustainable specialty crop production, marketing, and profitability at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work focuses on the economics and profitability of fresh market vegetable farming. He is particularly passionate about farm viability as it relates to farm scale, livelihood, labor, and equipment.

About Glen Young

Glen Young is the owner of Cold Springs Organics, a certified organic vegetable farm in Port Hope, Ontario, serving customers from Cobourg to Toronto through a thriving CSA program, farmers’ markets, and prepared foods. Drawing on a professional background in information technology and business process design, Glen has developed practical, data-driven systems to track farm costs, measure profitability, and streamline operations—bridging ecological farming values with sustainable business management. At Cold Springs Organics, Glen applies detailed cost of production analysis to guide crop planning, pricing, and decision-making, and implements high-tech labour tracking and farm automation tools such as Zapier to save time, improve accuracy, and increase profitability. Passionate about knowledge sharing and committed to a future with many successful small farms, he combines hands-on farming experience with technical expertise to help other farmers adopt efficient, scalable, and resilient systems.