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Two-site structure disqualifiers — East Tennessee smart farm package

Purpose

List enterprise and operating patterns that are structurally poor fits for SITE_HOME (~5 ac) + SITE_FARM (~120 ac) with COMMUTE_ONE_WAY ≈ 35 min—without softening that split. Use this as a hard filter before debate, CAPEX, or “we’ll figure it out in the truck.”

Consumes: Two-site operating model — 5 ac / 120 ac, Trip batching and site visit policy, Enterprise unit economics.

Feeds: Enterprise options analysis, Recommended enterprise strategy, Execution gates — financial thresholds.

Definitions

Term Meaning
Baseline labor Family + agreed hired pattern in the business plan—not “hero mode”
Resident A person living at or adjacent to SITE_FARM as part of the plan—not assumed unless documented
Junk trip Visit without prior work order and without open Tier-1 condition (trip policy)

Category A — Enterprise patterns (structural misfits)

Unless remediated by resident labor, full-time crew, or a fundamentally different commute geometry, treat as disqualified for primary reliance.

ID Pattern Why it breaks
DQ-E1 Daily harvest / daily pack-and-ship vegetables or perishables at SITE_FARM T3 touch class—35 min makes daily presence default; R_SPLIT explodes
DQ-E2 Dairy-style or frequent milking / collection rhythm without parlor at SITE_HOME Same—time-locked visits
DQ-E3 Intensive small ruminants as primary with high handling + predation pressure and no resident coverage More trips than beef baseline; see enterprise options Path B drag
DQ-E4 Mechanical hay as primary income on this acreage without sleep-near-field or crew in weather windows Peak weeks collide with commute—structural
DQ-E5 Agritourism / events primary with guest expectations across both sites without staff Presence + logistics tax; see Agritourism dual-site only as alternate explicit scenario
DQ-E6 Orchard / perennial primary when near-term salary replacement is required Years to revenue—bridge must be explicit, not hope
DQ-E7 “We’ll do a bit of everything” with no 80% primary enterprise Complexity + trips—Vision scope creep

Remediation (only if honest)

ID Remediation Still subject to
R-E1 Resident manager or full-time employee at SITE_FARM Labor economics + MVCM
R-E2 Lease/custom or tenant operation on acres that cannot be served by batching Contract quality + field checks still bounded
R-E3 Change geometry (move home, buy adjacent, shorten commute)—rare Full capital + life decision

Category B — Operating patterns (self-disqualifying behaviors)

ID Pattern Why it breaks
DQ-O1 Ad-hoc trips “to check” when telemetry could answer Junk trips → margin + morale
DQ-O2 No work-order discipline (nothing written before wheels roll) Cannot measure H_VISIT, R_SPLIT, or improvement
DQ-O3 Alert-driven lifestyle (constant pings) without triage SOP and H_TRIAGE cap Enterprise unit economics—telemetry becomes second job
DQ-O4 Splitting “brain” across two competing systems of record Duplication trips + errors
DQ-O5 Equipment that forces solo field work during off-farm job hours every week Unsustainable—either batch, hire, or defer

Category C — Telemetry / “smart” traps

ID Pattern Why it breaks
DQ-T1 Cameras / maps without named assets + runbooks Triage hell—Instrumentation ROI
DQ-T2 Sensors on non-critical loads before water / power / gate truth OPEX + attention for no trip reduction
DQ-T3 Homelab complexity that increases H_TRIAGE above policy cap Fails financial + labor gates

How to use this page (decision drill)

  1. Name candidate enterprise → assign touch tier (T0–T3) per two-site operating model.
  2. Check Category A — if hit, stop or remediate with written structural change.
  3. Compute Δ_OPEX_SPLIT + R_SPLIT when numbers exist—SPLIT-1 fail → no scale debt (CAPEX/OPEX sequencing).
  4. Review Category B quarterly—behaviors are early warning before P&L shows damage.