Parsons Bend Farm, Maury County, TN

See the week it breaks before it breaks.

Week 27: 117 hours of work, 40 hours of you.

Each enterprise looks fine in its own budget. Farm Draft adds them up, week by week.

Every figure on this page is Parsons Bend Farm's own 2026 plan. Nothing here is an average or an example.

Calendar · 2026-W27

Week of June 29

116.7 h of 40 h
  • Honeybees59.4
  • Broilers40.1
  • Blueberries6.5
  • Laying hens6.3
  • Blackberries2.1
  • Raspberries1.7
  • Orchard0.7
Cannot move 2026-W27
  • Honey extraction and bottling55 h
  • Processing broilers32 h
  • Other set-date jobs13.2 h

The fix, priced

Hire 61 h at $18 an hour: $1,098

or 8 days of help: $1,152

Templates built from enterprise budgets published by

  • University of Tennessee Extension
  • University of Kentucky
  • University of Missouri Extension
  • Cornell University
  • Michigan State University Extension
  • NCAT / ATTRA
  • Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station

The collision

Each enterprise looks fine in its own budget. The trouble is where they overlap. At Parsons Bend, broiler processing and honey extraction land in the same July week.

Bar chart of planned hours by week at Parsons Bend, weeks 24 to 31 of 2026. Week 27 stands at 117 hours against a 40 hour line; the weeks around it are far lower.
Parsons Bend's July, from its 2026 plan: planned hours by week, by enterprise.
Planned
117 h
Cannot move
100 h
You have
40 h

Week 27, the week of June 29, holds 117 h of work against your 40 h. Honey extraction and bottling (honeybees) is 55 h and processing (broilers) is 32 h, on the same days. Neither can move, and 13 h more of fixed work sits beside them.

Farm Draft names the week, the hours and the tasks that cannot move, and prices the hired help that would clear it. Start dates and order-by dates are worked backward from the deadlines that matter, so the chick order and the processing day are in the plan before the season is.

That was Parsons Bend. Run your own.

Ask for an invitation

One plan, every number

The budget, the cash and the lender's form come from the same run.

Change the broiler batches and all three move together.

Budget · Broilers · 600 birds
Income$12,150
Total expenses$14,037
Net return to land and management−$1,887
Returns to labor and management$3,093
Cash flow · the whole farm · 2026
Cash on January 1$5,000
Lowest month end (March)$1,305
December 31$4,628
Floor Parsons Bend set−$3,000
FSA-2038 · farm business plan
Farm income$18,093
Farm expenses$15,476
Net farm income$2,617
How these are figured

The budget is the UT layout, and its expenses include the farm's overhead share and the owner's time at $20 an hour. The cash flow flags any month that ends below the floor, in dollars. On the FSA-2038 the owner's time is a memo below the line, not an expense.

Numbers you can defend

Seven numbers, and where each one comes from.

  1. 7enterprises

    On one calendar: broilers, laying hens, orchard, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, honeybees.

    Parsons Bend Farm, Maury County, TN

  2. W27the week

    The week of June 29, where they meet.

    The plan's calendar, 2026

  3. 116.7hours planned

    Every task the plan puts in that week.

    The plan's tasks, 2026-W27

  4. 100.2hours fixed

    On set dates: honey extraction and bottling 55 h, broilers processing 32 h, and 13.2 h of other jobs.

    Tasks that cannot move, 2026-W27

  5. 60.2hours short

    Past the 40 h the farm has, with everything that can move moved.

    100.2 h fixed less 40 h you have

  6. $1,098to hire it

    61 h of a farm hand at $18 an hour, or 8 days for $1,152.

    The calendar's priced fix for the collision

  7. 16templates cited

    Every built-in template names the extension budget it comes from.

    Read them line by line

The budgets behind Parsons Bend's seven
TemplatePrimary budgetYear
Pastured broilersUniversity of Missouri Extension: Mobile Poultry for Meat Planning Budget (G742)2025
Laying hensUniversity of Missouri Extension: Mobile Laying Hen Planning Budget (G741)2025
Orchard (apple and pear, semi-dwarf)Michigan State University Extension: Michigan Apple Cost of Production 2025 (E-3533)2025
BlueberriesUniversity of Tennessee Extension: Sample Budget for Blueberry Production Under Various IPM and Marketing Strategies (D102)2020
BlackberriesUniversity of Tennessee Extension: Sample Budget for Blackberry Production (D154)2022
RaspberriesCornell University: Floricane raspberry budget, New York2014
HoneybeesUniversity of Missouri Extension: Beekeeping Planning Budget (G692)2025

Pricing

Free at three enterprises. Farm at the fourth.

New farms get a 14-day Farm trial, no card.

Free

$0 a month

No card, no end date.

One farm, three enterprises, the calendar and the ledger.

Farm

Most popular

$29 a month

or $290 a year, which is ten months

Every enterprise you run, and the paperwork from the same plan.

Pro

$59 a month

or $590 a year, which is ten months

For the farm facing a lender or NRCS.

The lender package also sells once on its own, for $199, to a farm facing a single FSA meeting. Cancel any time; the plan runs to the end of the period you paid for.

Also in Farm Draft

Log from the field

Hours, harvests and photos saved with no signal post once the phone finds one.

The land tools

Boundary, slope, water and stake-out, with a layout priced in hours.

The lender package

The budget, cash flow and FSA-2038 in one PDF for the loan officer.

What it does not do

There are no bank feeds yet (you import a CSV from your bank instead) and no animal health records. Farm Draft does not file your taxes: it keeps the ledger by Schedule F category and hands your CPA the numbers, and the CPA files. Better you read that here than find it out after you have paid.

Find your week 27 in February, not in July.