John Hendrickson
Outreach program coordinator, Farm Viability Specialist
1535 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706
Projects and Expertise
- Compass Tools (enterprise profitability decision support tools)
- Farm financial benchmarking
- Specialty crops & managed grazing
- Organic agriculture
John Hendrickson coordinates research and outreach 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 specialty crop enterprises as well as grass-based livestock operations. He is particularly passionate about farm viability as it relates to farm scale, livelihood, labor, and equipment. He manages the Compass Tool program, a suite of decision support tools that help producers calculate their cost of production and measure profitability by crop and market channel. John is also active in benchmarking efforts to gather and share information on key metrics to help producers plan and monitor progress toward their farm business financial goals. In the past, he coordinated the Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Growers, Midwest School for Beginning Apple Growers, and Wisconsin School for Cut Flower Growers. John also formerly owned and operated his own certified organic vegetable farm for more than 15 years.
Selected peer-reviewed articles
R. Weil, E. Silva, J. Hendrickson, P. Mitchell, 2017. Time and Technique Assessment of Labor Productivity on Diversified Organic Vegetable Farms Using a Comparative Case Study Approach. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development.
E. Silva, R. Claypool, J. Munsch, J. Hendrickson, P. Mitchell, J. Mills, 2014. “Veggie Compass: A Spreadsheet-based Tool to Calculate Cost of Production for Diversified Organic Vegetable Farmers” in HortTechnology, June 2014.
J. Kloppenburg, J. Hendrickson, and G. Stevenson, 1996. “Coming in to the Foodshed” in Home Territories: Essays on Community and the Land, W. Vitek & W. Jackson (eds.), Yale U. Press.
Selected other publications
John Hendrickson and Claire Strader. Cover Crops on the Intensive Market Farm. CIAS, UW-Madison. 2019 (original published in 2003 and updated in 2009).
Scott Sanford and John Hendrickson, On-farm Cold Storage of Fall Harvested Fruit and Vegetable Crops: Planning, Design, and Operation. University of Wisconsin Extension, 2016
John Hendrickson and Jim Stute, Cover Crops for the Home Garden, UW Extension, 2012
John Hendrickson, Grower to Grower: Making a Livelihood on a Fresh Market Vegetable Farm, CIAS, UW-Madison. 2006
Dan Lass, Steve Stevenson, John Hendrickson and Kathy Ruhf. “CSA Across the Nation: Findings of the 1999 CSA Survey” CIAS, UW-Madison. 2003.
Johnson, Douglas, G. Stevenson and J. Hendrickson. Something to Cheer About: National Trends and Prospects for Sustainable Agriculture Products in the Food Service Operations of Colleges and Universities. CIAS, UW-Madison. 2000.
John Hendrickson, 1997. “Energy Use in the U.S. Food System: A Summary of Existing Research and Analysis” in Sustainable Farming, Vol. 7, No 4 (Fall 1997)