So farm credit bureaus (a major source of private farm financing) recommend that you have a business plan, finance plan and risk management plan. There are short, maybe one or two pages each. I write resource management plans also known by the NRCS as conservation activity plans. These plans tell the landowner how to manage their natural resources and implement conservation practices. So here's the gist. Landowners tell me their goals such as 'I want to lease my rangeland to cattle'. I develop SMART (specific, measurable, etc) objectives to fulfill the goals, then inventory the land (soils, forest stands, pastures, etc). I write prescriptions for how the objectives will be attained (ie this is how many cattle to run, this is what grazing system to use, the pastures need to be improved with these grasses). Then I write in constraints and how to mitigate those (ie some noxious weeds are present and they can be controlled using these management actions). So, with this plan I can then work with NRCS to get the landowner funding to do the work and then oversee contractors who do the actual work, in this case setting up fencing, weed control.
In short, as a resource consultant, my plans address resource needs and concerns and not how to finance the ag operations, credit financing, running the books, etc. Generally, you'll find that planning related to running the business' books can be done by the credit bureaus but this not my forte. Some consultants could do both and eventually I should expand my roles but I find that, what I do, forestry planning, is actually done at-cost to the landowner so business planning is almost moot.
