farming full time......one day...maybe

clinchbilly · #1 03/05/14, 05:45 PM

Im wanting one day to make a living off my small farm, i know it wont be easy. Right now im working full time and farming on the side. We have 30 acres and about a third tillable. I really like gardening but will not rule anything out. Im in my mid 30s and hope to be farming full time by the time im 50. I wanting to start getting ready now, maybe by planting fruit trees and berry vines. Any other suggestions?

biggkidd · #2 03/05/14, 06:06 PM

Watch and learn your land. Where water washes where it stands. What grows naturally and what doesn't.

IMPORTANT Build your soil. BUILD large piles of compost. Fence where you need it and put some animals to work. If you manage them properly they will help build your soil. Read the http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...omposting.html thread and http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/liv...l-grazing.html thread They are invaluable.

These are things I wish I had done when I moved here six years ago. So it's hindsight for me and you know hindsight is 20/20.

Good luck

Larry

RonM · #3 03/05/14, 06:27 PM

Plant a few blueberry bushes....Sell some produce from the house, get your reputation established, try different things stick with what is popular.Keep things neat and tidy for others to see....Good luck......

**highlands** · #4 03/05/14, 06:46 PM

You need to explore your local markets, your land and what you enjoy doing. Finding the right match up of these three is the key. That will take some time. Try different things. Observe what sells in your area. Figure out how far you're willing to deliver, do you have farm stand potential, etc. Some land is good for crops, other for orchards, other for pasturing. Some locations are good for pick-your-own, for a farm stand and others are best delivered from.

Our land is steep, stoney, stumpy, sandy soil in the mountains. It's good for forestry, maple sugaring and rotational grazing on pasture for livestock. It is not good for row crops. So we raise animals on pasture.

Our location is kind of far out so not good for pick-your-own or a farm stand but we're located within an hour's drive to multiple good markets around us - not by chance, I picked our location in part on that. We do weekly deliveries of our fresh pastured pork to local stores and restaurants as well as individuals year round.

We enjoy working with the animals so for us that is a good fit. We only sell pork but we also raise chickens, ducks and geese because they are support staff that helps get the bacon to market. We have orchards that produce fruit, grow tons of pumpkins, beets, turnips, kale, broccoli, sugar beets, etc in our winter paddocks during the summer all to feed the animals the next fall and winter. The animals in turn weed, fertilize, eat pests and harvest for us. Our chickens are organic pest control that produces eggs for our pigs to eat (boil to double the available protein). The chickens eat pigs in the winter. Its a sustainable pasture based system.

The biggest suggestion I can make beyond the above is to plant some perennials including fruit trees and bushes now even though you may not yet know where you want to have your orchards. Just get some going.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

Shayanna · #5 03/05/14, 10:24 PM

Read "the dirty life". I don't know who wrote it but it was very inspirational to me as a farmer and gave me a lot of neat ideas.

potatoguru · #6 03/06/14, 04:09 PM

Try reading ten acres is enough by Edmund Morris. The prices are outdated but his strategies could be useful to you. The book is about a guy that buys 10 acres in the country to make a living on. He grows a bunch of stuff and is able to support a very large family. But keep in mind he is in New Jersey where he has access to the city markets.

FarmboyBill · #7 03/06/14, 04:20 PM

And the book is OLD. Most things farming has changed since he wrote it. Same as 5 acres enough.
You can do it IF you live driving distance from a large city, have people skills, enjoy intensive gardening, hoops and all that goes with it.

clinchbilly · #8 03/06/14, 05:53 PM

Theres 5 farmers markets an hour or less from the house, these are not big city markets but theyre growing. Im going to try growing for these this year sort of a dry run.

Thanks for all the help, keep it coming.

biggkidd · #9 03/06/14, 06:11 PM

I second reading ten acres is enough..
https://archive.org/details/tenacresenoughpr00morriala

You can download it free or buy off amazon.

Larry

bobp · #10 03/06/14, 11:58 PM

Hey a man after my own heart! Build you soil asap as much as you can. Think building humus. Try getting city compost from yard waste, or do your own from tree trimming companys etc composting will go along ways towards helping with this.

clinchbilly · #11 05/01/14, 06:27 PM

Spring is finally here, and the year is not off to a good start. All my tomato either didnt come up or died after they did, rain is short, giving frost in the morning. But this is part of farming, my hat is off to all you all that does
this full time....maybe my time will come.

Hardship hills

FarmboyBill · #12 05/01/14, 07:46 PM

Not if you don't water your few plants, and keep them from being frosted. Its all a learning experience, and your learning. LEARN from it, NOT to do it again.
IF you intend to be farming by the time your 50, Depending on your health by then, youll likely only be doing it full time another 10/15yrs,

idigbeets · #13 05/02/14, 05:29 AM

Why wait so long to farm full time?

clinchbilly · #14 05/02/14, 07:16 AM

Im trying my tomato plants in a float bed, so not enough water wasnt the issue, maybe too much water, i covered everything up with frost blanket. Were just getting started farming and we still owe on it so im afraid to go all in right now.

rambler · #15 05/02/14, 09:52 AM

It is hard to really get all in farming or gardening only for a living.

We have outside forces - health care, retirement, property taxes, and other such that come at you from the outside.

Almost need one income on the place that is a 'town job' to fit into the world we have.

And especially need that town income to pay off the place, set up the Buldings and fencing and get some learning on how to garden.

The bigger issue is how to sell. Anyone can throw seeds in the ground in spring and harvest the crop in fall, faring is easy right only takes 2 weeks all year right?

The hard part is marketing. Finding places to sell finding what crop you need to plants you need to plant now to sell from mid summer until next spring to give you a steady income. Lettuce for early sales, firewood for winter sales, and everything in between, but what do the people around you want you got to be planting that and planning a year ahead to make it work.

Go to the market this year and everyone will want crop X, only a few will have it so they make big bucks.

You say ah ha and plant a lot of that crop next spring - and so does everyone else. Meanwhile the public got tired of that fad crop and has moved on to something else, Dr Oz and Oprah create so e new fad the next year.... And so there you sit with bushels of the old crop X, fire selling it for less than you have in it.

I hear stories of folks wanting to get into Christmas trees, so they plant 3000 trees. Well 5 years later, they start selling and sell 100 trees, new business no one is used to them. Three years later their business is doing much better, but they have old trees too big, and didnt plant enough younger ones and they are all out of balance, their customers were coming but left without because they had the wrong age trees.....

You need to work on your customer base, what you can sell, what people in your area want, and stuff that makes you money all year long as much as you can.

Growing stuff can be a battle, have failures, gets labor intensive. But that is still the easy part.

Marketing is the key. Find ways to sell more, sell better, sell for higher dollars.

Paul

**highlands** · #16 05/02/14, 05:37 PM

Good points. We worked hard to have a weekly schedule of deliveries so we have a steady income year round. This is part of why we don't do veggies. In our climate they're not reliable or steady.

For us we figure it is more expensive to work at an outside job than to just tighten our belts and do more on the farm.

On the Christmas Trees, there's a trick: cut off a tree "Christmas Tree" about two feet up or so and it will start sending up a leader, or several. Pick the best. I do this all the time. Works great. Of course, the big trick is to plant trees every year. You are right though - I've seen a lot of abandoned Christmas Tree plantations. They're pretty easy to spot. I've got one next door at our neighbors. They're huge now.

-Walter
in Vermont

JLMissouri · #17 05/02/14, 11:35 PM

Do you have hilly property, rocky property, or flat property? Good Dirt? TN is a good state, very free compared to most. Something to be considered is what type of property you have and its location to markets. It is a lot easier to have a large garden on good soil that is relatively than gardening on a side of a rock sideways. Plenty of ways to make money, you just have to decide what the best use of your land and skills is, or at least what you need to work towards acquiring.

Muleman · #18 05/03/14, 05:20 AM

I think it is also important to consider a few other things, besides the land itself. Farming for a profit is much different than farming for a hobby. I do not assume to know your background, so do not take this personal. But I do think many people assume since they enjoy growing a garden and they Like animals they would absolutely love being a Farmer. The truth is these are really two different things. Hoeing in a garden on the weekends is much different than having numerous rows that HAVE to be done for a market garden,Today!! The same as petting cute little animals is much different than shoveling out dirty pens for hours, because it has to be done!! The simple fact that I can work on it when I want and stop when I want, compared to I Have to do this now, because customers are wanting to know where their product is, changes the entire experience.
I am not saying you will not enjoy it, I do not know? I just know if you enjoy gardening now and you start gardening for your income, it will not be the same exact experience. I have heard it said "Many good hobbies have been ruined, by people trying to figure out how to make money from it" I think this is a vary true statement.

clinchbilly · #19 05/03/14, 07:23 AM

Ive been helping people farm all my life, anything from cutting hay to cutting tobacco. Helping other people farm, and farming for myself is two totally different animals.
I know better than putting all my eggs in one basket. We plan on buying a few cows. We have about 20 acres of pasture with access to another 15 acres. I also am planning to put in fruit trees, blueberries and black berries. Market garden of about four or 5 acres. Right now were slowly building up to this point.
Im new at trying to make a farm work and pay. Im not wanting to get rich just pay the bills. So keep the advice coming. Thank you

Hardship hills

jwal10 · #20 05/03/14, 05:15 PM

Some places, you can get rich off 1 acre, some places you will starve on 1000. Learn your area, the potential, but start small, 1 thing at a time and learn it well. Then move to the next venture, gives you time to adjust or rethink. You have a lot of time, you need to keep the mistakes to a minimum. It isn't how much you might make but how much you keep to invest in the future. Live small, dream big (outside the box) be smart....James