Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-226) and index.

Every tool in its place -- Farm for your customers -- Learn to see value -- Ten types of farm waste -- Flow I: tools to root out farm production waste -- Flow II: tools to root out farm management waste -- Lean farm sales: pull, not push -- Continuous improvement (Kaizen) -- Respect for people: lean and farm staff -- Lean applied at Clay Bottom Farm: ten specific cases -- The lean farm start-up -- The limits of lean in agriculture -- Lean for more than profit.

Lean principles were originally developed by the Japanese automotive industry, but Hartman has applied them to farming. As a result, he's been able to drastically cut waste, increase profit, and make his family farm more environmentally and economically sustainable. With ample examples from his one-acre farm in Indiana, Hartman illustrates how to incorporate lean practices, on farms of any size or scale, at each step of the production chain, from starting a farming operation and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. Hartman's approach of working smarter, not harder, aims to prevent the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter and enable a new generation of young people to choose farming as a viable career path--COVER.