Strategic planning will be a hot topic during the meeting season this winter as farmers cope with another year of tight margins. But according to results of a Farm Futures survey, some growers have done this type of planning for decades. While our survey shows few farmers have strategic plans in place, of those who do, over half update plans annually.

Despite the hype, it’s not a surefire path to success, helping some farms but not others. Here’s what we learned from our sample of 1,043 farms nationwide.

Go to the beginning with Part 1 of this series

Check out Part 2 of this series

Up next: Ideas to make your strategic planning a success